{"id":1004,"date":"2015-03-14T15:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-03-14T19:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lgoconnor.com\/site\/?p=1004"},"modified":"2015-03-14T15:09:43","modified_gmt":"2015-03-14T19:09:43","slug":"author-101-why-an-llc-might-be-right-for-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lgoconnor.com\/site\/author-101-why-an-llc-might-be-right-for-you\/","title":{"rendered":"Author 101: Why an LLC might be right for you"},"content":{"rendered":"

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I thought this would be the perfect topic to kick-off my new Author 101<\/strong>\u00a0blog series. Hope you agree!<\/p>\n

I spent some quality time with my accountant this morning doing my 2014 taxes. By the time I left, I was inspired to write this post. Why? Because there were some valuable things I learned that I want to share with you all. So, I\u2019m paying it forward, and following my mantra: \u201cAuthors helping Authors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the scoop\u2026<\/p>\n

Before I published my first book, I had my accountant apply for an EIN number (like a social security number for businesses) and open a Limited Liability Company (LLC) for me to use for conducting publishing business. In case this sounds daunting, it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

He charged me $150 for the set-up, and the initial part of the process took maybe twenty minutes. I had him do it all while I was in his office for our 2012 personal income taxes. Before you balk at the cost, hear me out until the end of the post. You\u2019ll make it back in spades. But if you really don\u2019t want\u2014or can\u2019t afford\u2014to pay, you can do it all yourself, and just pay the nominal registration fee (which may vary by state). For me? It was well worth handing it over to my accountant and avoiding the headache.<\/p>\n

The paperwork arrived in the mail from there, and all I had to do next was file for a Sales & Use Tax certificate online. The only reason I did this was because I planned on hand-selling books at events. Trust me, you don\u2019t want to conduct commerce publically without a tax number if the tax man decides to show up\u2026 and they sometimes do at places like fairs, etc. The other advantage is that you can file for tax exempt status with Ingram (I can only assume this applies to Createspace since I don\u2019 use them) to avoid paying sales tax when ordering your books for hand selling.<\/p>\n

Advantages of forming an LLC<\/strong><\/p>\n