Unused LLC

[Richard Adjou]

hey BiggerPockets community, I'm just getting started in real estate and following popular belief, I was under the assumption that for tax and liability benefits the first step was to get some corporate entity set up to conduct business. So my partnerand I have an LLC that is being taxed as an S corporation for the past two years. the first year I benefited because we didn't have much success in the business and I was able to use those initial expenses to not owe much in taxes. Now in the current year I haven't done much with the business at all. I decided to take a break and focus other priorities and on learning as much as I could so we can do better next year. Now, I'm wondering what to do for the tax season. I'm not really sure what to expect and what I should be taking advantage of considering that the business hasn't made any money nor incurred any serious expenses. I do still have some startup expenses from the previous year (credit card debt) and could maybe expense some of that? Does anybody have any advice on what to do or what I can expect to owe in taxes?

PS I'm not sure if location plays a role in any of this but I live in Maryland.

[Bill Walston]

@Richard Adjou, to the contrary, it DOES matter all that much. If your LLC DID elect to be taxed as an S-Corp then it should be filing Form 1120S and NOT Form 1065 which is the default tax structure for a multi-member LLC. And you should file a return to take advantage of any of the expenses you may have incurred even though you may not have much, if any, income to report. If you are using a tax pro, he/she should be able to tell you what forms need to be filed annually - be sure to ask.