• kyle@lemm.ee
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    2 days ago

    It’s pretty common to form an LLC for your own, self run business even at one person. The business makes all the money, you pay your “employee” (you) a small amount and you save on taxes. Wife does this, her employee paycheck is like $25k/year.

    If you ever have a friend who’s not doing this, tell them to get a good accountant lol

    • blarth@thelemmy.club
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      2 hours ago

      This is so dumb I can’t believe people aren’t getting audited left and right.

      A single member LLC is simply you. All the income becomes your income. It doesn’t matter if you pay yourself through a draw or not. If you’re finding ways to get your write offs over the standard deduction without spending a bunch on actual business related expenses, you’re probably doing it wrong and committing tax evasion, plain and simple.

      Look into piercing the veil.

    • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      Yeah, this is essentially contracting.

      Alongside settling yourself up as a limited company, you also make not only your taxes much simpler to do, but getting shit like indemnity insurance is easy as a company - but very challenging to do as a sole trader.

    • OwlPaste@lemmy.world
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      2 days ago

      How does this work if you want to take money out? Like give yourself a bonus that’s taxable? I mean legally.

      • kyle@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        She gets income from two sources: as an employee (“normal” income), and as a business owner. There’s something called an owner’s draw, which essentially lets you take money from the business for personal use, and it gets taxed as personal income (i.e., normal job income taxes).

        This is my loose understanding. We have a CPA for our stuff, and she sorted all this out before we even started dating.

        • OwlPaste@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          That actually sounds really good 👍 Would need to read how this works across the pond, but hoping fairly similar.

          • kyle@lemm.ee
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            2 days ago

            I would highly recommend asking an accountants advice, I assume there are similar services for when you file in the UK. Finding a CPA (Chartered Accountant in the UK) is huge, they’ll generally charge more but they can represent you in the event you get audited (had to look it up and confirm it’s the same for UK). Now if you get audited, they have a vested interest in protecting you. In the US they’re often legally obligated to protect you (and themselves).

            • OwlPaste@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              Thanks, will take a look at that. Actually got an accountant acquaintance so il pick his brain one day :)