Question! Dissolving 50/50 LLC plus extra $25K

[Nicole A.]

Let me get out of the way up front, that my partner is not disputing that I put $25K of my personal cash into the LLC. This is literally a MATH question. (Numbers changed for simplicity.)

(To those of you that know my story, yes, I'm still doing this. I didn't complete this buyout process in the past because I ended up buying my own home. Now I'm in a good spot to get this done and two-thirds of the way through the refi process.)

Our LLC owns property, let's say one property. I am buying out my partner and then dissolving the LLC. So I'm doing cash-out refi's and putting everything into my personal name. All good there.

**Property appraisal worth = $120K

**Current remaining mortgage payoff = $35K

So on a normal day, I would simply say $120K - $35K = $85K / 2 = $42,500 cash to partner.

BUT!...how do I factor my $25K? 

If I factor it like another mortgage, his payout would instead look like this:

$120K - $35K - $25K = $60K / 2 = $30K cash to partner.

And if I do not factor my cash like a debt, but want my cash back to me in original form, would it look like this?:

$120K - $35K = $85K / 2 = $42,500 minus $25K = $17,500 cash to partner.

**I do not want to inadvertently have my $25K benefit his payout. I want it to truly be 50/50 plus my $25K back.

**Again, he's not disputing that I put in $25K. But I need to be able to properly explain how I come up with the payout numbers. Thank you for your thoughts!

[Sol Romand]

Well, if the 25k was a loan to the LLC then the first option is correct. You are getting your money back from the the LLC prior to dissolving. However if it was a personal loan to your partner, then the second option would be correct.