Tax decided before it is owed
Entity and salary structure set at the start is the one tax decision that cannot be fixed retroactively.
Business
Set the entity up once, correctly
The structure you choose in week one decides what you pay in tax for years. We pick it with the numbers in front of us, then file everything that has to be filed.
Most of the expensive entity problems we fix started as a $49 online filing. The box was formed, but nobody ran the numbers on whether it should have been an LLC or an S-corporation, nobody filed the S-election in time, and nobody told the owner that California charges an $800 minimum franchise tax whether the business made money or not.
We do it the other way round. We start with your expected profit, how you want to be paid, whether there are partners, and what you plan to do in three years. The entity follows from that — and then we handle the filings, the EIN, the elections and the compliance calendar so nothing is missed in the first year.
Scope
What’s included
Entity comparison, in numbers
Sole proprietor, LLC, S-corporation and partnership modelled against your actual expected profit — not a generic article.
California Secretary of State filing
Articles of Organization or Incorporation prepared, filed and tracked to confirmation.
EIN and state accounts
Federal EIN, plus EDD and CDTFA registration where employees or sales tax are involved.
S-corporation election
Form 2553 filed inside the deadline, with the reasonable-salary conversation had before it is filed, not after.
Statement of Information
The filing that catches most new owners out, done on time and diarised for the renewal.
First-year compliance calendar
Every federal, California, city and payroll date the new entity now owns, in one document.
Outcome
Why it matters
No missed elections
S-elections have hard deadlines. Missing one costs a full year of the benefit.
One firm afterwards
The people who formed it are the people who file its returns and run its books.
Process
How it works
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Planning call
Revenue, profit, partners, employees, how you want to draw money out.
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Recommendation in writing
A short memo with the comparison and the reason for the choice, so you can see the working.
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File and register
State filing, EIN, elections and any employer or seller registrations.
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Hand over
Documents, account numbers and the compliance calendar, in your portal and explained on a call.
Suited to
Who this is for
- New businesses being set up properly the first time
- Sole proprietors whose profit has outgrown Schedule C
- Contractors asked to invoice through an entity
- Partners who need the split documented before it becomes a dispute
- Owners who formed online and are not sure what they actually have
FAQ
Questions
It depends almost entirely on profit. Below roughly $50,000 of net profit, the self-employment tax saving from an S-corporation is usually smaller than the cost of running payroll and filing a separate return. Above it, the maths tips, sometimes sharply. And an LLC can elect to be taxed as an S-corporation, so the two are not really opposites. We model both against your numbers rather than guessing.
Yes. The annual minimum franchise tax applies to most LLCs and corporations registered in California regardless of profit, with a first-year exemption available in some cases. It is a real cost of having an entity and it belongs in the decision, which is why we put it in the comparison rather than mentioning it afterwards.
Yes, and it is worth doing. We check the filing itself, whether the EIN matches the entity type, whether an S-election was made and is still available, whether the Statement of Information was filed, and whether anything needs correcting before the first return. Most reviews turn up at least one thing.
Often needed alongside this
Other services
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S-Corporation Election & Reasonable Salary
We run the numbers first, file Form 2553 inside its deadline, set a salary we can defend on paper, and then actually operate the payroll the election requires.
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Registered Agent & State Filings
The routine filings nobody puts in a calendar — Statement of Information, agent for service of process, city licence, DBA — held and filed by us so the entity stays current.
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California Franchise Tax Compliance
The $800 minimum, the LLC fee, the vouchers that are easy to forget and the returns they attach to — tracked, paid on schedule, and put right when they were not.
Let’s find out what you should actually be paying.
Thirty minutes with an Enrolled Agent, at no charge. Bring last year’s return and we will tell you plainly what we would do differently — and what it would cost.