1. What is a Limited Liability Company?
A Limited Liability Company (LLC) is a business structure that provides limited liability to its owners for the company's debts and obligations.
A limited liability company (LLC) is a legal entity that provides the benefits of both a corporation and a partnership. It offers the limited liability of a corporation and the tax efficiencies and operational flexibility of a partnership. LLCs are created under state law, so they vary from state to state in terms of how they are formed, what type of business can be conducted by an LLC, who can be an owner, what taxes apply to LLCs, etc. The IRS treats LLCs as partnerships for federal income tax purposes. This means that profits from an LLC are taxed at individual rates on personal income tax returns (Form 1040), not at corporate rates. An LLC itself does not pay taxes on profits or have any other tax obligations outside those imposed directly on its owners or members. An LLC's owners (called "members") enjoy protection against personal liability for debts incurred by the business; this is called "limited liability."
2. Why would I want to form an LLC?
2. You may want to form an LLC if you want to limit your personal liability for the company's debts and obligations, or if you are planning on starting a business with other people who want this same protection.
3. What are the benefits of forming an LLC?
The benefits of forming an LLC include:
4. How do I form an LLC?
To form an LLC, all you need is a name for your company, which should include your name or some variation thereof as well as words like "limited liability company," "company," or "corporation." You will also need one person (or more) who will serve as your registered agent with whom official documents can be served when necessary; this person must have a physical address where these documents may be served within Washington state boundaries. You will also need articles of organization filed with the Secretary of State's office; these articles must contain certain information about your organization such as its name, address where it conducts business operations, duration period (if any), whether members have limited liability protection among other things). Finally, you'll need one person designated as managing member who has authority over day to day operations and management decisions for your new company while others act only in advisory roles without any decision making power over operational matters unless otherwise noted in writing by all members/managing member(s).
5. What is the difference between a limited liability company and a sole proprietorship?
A sole proprietorship is an unincorporated business owned by one person who has unlimited personal responsibility for all debts and obligations incurred by that business. A sole proprietor may also have employees, but does not have to register with any government agency in order to operate their business. In contrast, an LLC must register with state authorities before it can do any type of work in that state; this registration process typically requires paying fees and filling out paperwork such as articles of organization or articles of association. An LLC also has more formal rules about how members can participate in management decisions than would be expected from someone running their own unincorporated small business as a sole proprietor; these rules vary depending on what state you live in but generally require some type of written agreement between members about how they will participate in management decisions like voting rights or board representation rights before they start doing work together as an LLC. Finally, while both entities offer protection against creditors seizing your assets if you get sued for something related to your small business activities, only an LLC offers protection against lawsuits filed by people who are not involved with your small businesses activities - this means that if you form an LLC then even if someone sues you because they were injured by something related to your car accident then their lawsuit will be dismissed because it doesn't relate to anything involving your small businesses activities - whereas if you run your own unincorporated small business without forming it into an LLC then anyone can sue you over anything related to what happens during those operations regardless whether it relates directly back to what happened during those operations or not; this means that even though there might be no connection between what happened during those operations and what was being sued over then they could still win their case against you just because there was some connection between them - so forming into an llc helps protect against lawsuits filed by people who aren't involved with our operations too!