The election is made on time
The S-corporation window is narrow. Filing inside it is the difference between saving this year and waiting a year.
Business Formation
Choose the structure for the tax you will pay, not the one you filed under
The entity you register and the way it is taxed are two separate decisions. Most people make only the first one, and pay for it every year afterwards.
Two decisions, not one
Registering an LLC with the California Secretary of State settles your legal form. It says nothing about how you will be taxed — an LLC can be taxed as a sole proprietorship, a partnership, an S-corporation or a C-corporation, and the difference between those can be many thousands of dollars a year on identical profit.
The election has deadlines. Missed, it usually waits until the following tax year. That is the most common and most expensive avoidable mistake we see in new businesses.
What formation includes here
Name availability, Articles of Organization or Incorporation, registered agent, EIN, initial Statement of Information, and the operating agreement or bylaws that make the entity real rather than decorative.
Then the part that matters longer: the tax election, the franchise tax and estimated payment calendar, the bookkeeping file, payroll registration if there will be employees, and the compliance dates loaded so nothing lapses.
Included
What you get
Entity comparison
A side-by-side projection of your actual numbers under each structure, including California's franchise tax and LLC fee.
Formation filings
Articles filed with the Secretary of State, registered agent arranged, and the initial Statement of Information submitted.
Federal EIN
Obtained directly, including for foreign owners without a Social Security number.
Tax elections
Form 2553 for S-corporation status or Form 8832 for entity classification, filed inside the deadline with late-relief language where needed.
Governing documents
Operating agreement or bylaws, membership or stock ledger, and organisational resolutions.
Accounting & compliance set-up
Business bank account guidance, QuickBooks file, payroll registration, and a calendar of every recurring California deadline.
Why it matters
What changes for you
You know the real cost of California
The $800 minimum franchise tax, the gross-receipts LLC fee and the estimated payment schedule are modelled up front, not discovered later.
Separation that holds
An entity without governing documents, a separate bank account and real books offers far weaker protection than owners assume.
One relationship afterwards
The same firm that formed the entity keeps the books, runs the payroll and files the returns. Nothing is lost in a hand-off.
The process
How the engagement runs
01
Structure consultation
We model your expected revenue and profit under each structure and show you the difference in dollars.
02
File & register
Articles, registered agent, EIN and Statement of Information — handled end to end.
03
Elect & document
Tax election filed, operating agreement executed, ledgers opened.
04
Operational set-up
Books, payroll, sales tax permit if needed, and a compliance calendar you actually receive reminders from.
Questions
Business Formation, answered
Still not sure? Ask us directly — the first conversation costs nothing and we will tell you honestly whether this is what you need.
They are not alternatives. An LLC is a legal entity; an S-corporation is a tax election that an LLC or corporation can make. The practical question is whether your profit is high enough that paying yourself a reasonable salary and taking the balance as distributions beats paying self-employment tax on everything. We run your actual numbers rather than quoting a rule of thumb.
At minimum the $800 annual franchise tax, which applies whether or not you make a profit, plus a gross-receipts based LLC fee once revenue passes a threshold, plus the biennial Statement of Information. We lay out the full picture before you form, because for very small operations it sometimes argues against forming at all yet.
You can, and some clients do. The risk is that the cheap filing services skip the operating agreement, miss the Statement of Information deadline and never mention the tax election. If you have already formed one that way, we can review it and fix what is missing.
California processing times vary through the year. Expedited filing is available and we will tell you the current realistic timeline in the first call rather than promising a date the state controls.
Related
Often needed alongside this
Proactive Tax Planning & Strategy
Planning is the part of the work that actually moves the number. We model your year while there is still time to change it — and show you, in dollars, what each decision is worth.
Learn more
Payroll & Worker Classification
Running payroll is the easy part. Staying on the right side of the EDD, wage orders, sick-leave accrual and worker classification is where employers actually get hurt.
Learn more
Outsourced CFO & Financial Advisory
Forecasting, margin analysis, pricing and capital decisions — the work a full-time CFO would do, scaled to a business that does not need one full time.
Learn more
Bookkeeping & Monthly Close
Reconciled every month, closed on a schedule, and delivered with a short note explaining what changed. Not a shoebox reconstructed in March.
Learn more
Let’s talk about your business formation.
A thirty-minute call, no charge, and a fixed quote before anything begins. If we are not the right firm for this, we will tell you that too.