I feel like a total idiot! S.Corp set up by Guru company :( 2600$

[Karen King]

I am new to bigger pockets, been listening to the podcast for last few months. I just went through forums on LLC and I feel like a total idiot. Here it goes. My husband and I attended a Guru investing tax lien seminar in Portland Oregon Aug 2014. We spent 1500$ for the 3 day course. Then on the last day they offered another course a "Ride A Long" in California.... big catch it was 40K. No way we could afford this but man did we explore every option to attend and we were really disappointed when it didn't work out for us. But we did leave with open eyes and a fire for real estate investing.....and it's still burning.

After a couple months the company called us and offered us membership to their website for free if we started a S.Corp C.Corp or LLC with them. So we started a S.Corp at the hefty price of 2600$ (they offered to break it down to monthly payments of 133$/month for like 18 months). We were very very green when it came to business (still are), my husband and I both come from poor Poor Dad families. We both work 50+ hours a week (our WHY is actually see each other during the week.). I am very fortunate for the education we received at the course but now I am worried about the S.Corp. We are approaching the end of the 3rd year (in the course they said you have three years to make money with S.Corp). We have never filed taxes on the S.Corp because we have made zero money.

In August 2015 we had a friend of a friend in distress she wanted nothing to do with her house and was going to give the house back to the bank.  The house was in shambles pretty much a total gut and 10k in debt to mortgage company.  We caught up the mortgage had paperwork drawn up on a 3 year contract with a lawyer and plan to finance the house in September of this year (would have sooner but I had credit issues and husband had tax issues we needed to clear up).  We have been doing all the work ourselves with the help of our awesome neighbor who is a contractor. The home is in a desirable area we got it under contact for 294,000 comps in area are 500,000.  Any advice on what to do with this S.Corp would be greatly appreciated.  

Thanks 

Karen King

[Ned Carey]

@Karen King you said

Did you mean you never made a profit, or do you mean you never did any transactions in the company and no money went into or out of the  company?

In the first situation, if you did business but made no money, you could face a penalty for not filing. If you actually lost money you missed an  opportunity to use that loss to save on your personal tax bill.

In the second situation The fact you did not file may not be an issue. Obviously you need to check with your accountant. 

I  never heard of such a thing. There is a general rule that  if you don't make money in the first three years of a business you risk it being deemed a "Hobby" and the deductions for your losses may disallowed. My understanding is, if it is clear that you are a legitimate business, this is not an issue.  Using a business to deduct expenses of your hobby is Illegal. Having a legitimate business that happens  to be poorly run and looses money is perfectly legal. 

In all of these cases and more you should check with a qualified accountant or CPA.