Tax strategy question

[Gerard Mangenot]

I have an single member LLC newly formed in late 2017. I purchased a property in the LLC name to be flipped in 2017 that will sell in 2018. I have not elected to be treated as an S Corp at this time. Nearly all renovation expenses and my time spent on the project were in 2017. My intention is to not show any profit or expenses from this on my 2017 personal tax filing as there was no revenue in 2017. When I file for 2018, if I do not file for treatment as an S Corp, I will owe self employment tax on the total profit from the sale. If I file for treatment as an S Corp some time in 2018, how will I do the earned income/distribution split? Is it more advantageous to me to file the 2553 at any particular time? I expect it will be more complicated because I will not have filed quarterly self-employment tax returns. The LLC will not have any more activity in 2018 after the sale of the flipped property. Thoughts?

[Michael Plaks]

Originally posted by @Gerard Mangenot:

I have an single member LLC newly formed in late 2017. I purchased a property in the LLC name to be flipped in 2017 that will sell in 2018. I have not elected to be treated as an S Corp at this time. Nearly all renovation expenses and my time spent on the project were in 2017. My intention is to not show any profit or expenses from this on my 2017 personal tax filing as there was no revenue in 2017. When I file for 2018, if I do not file for treatment as an S Corp, I will owe self employment tax on the total profit from the sale. If I file for treatment as an S Corp some time in 2018, how will I do the earned income/distribution split? Is it more advantageous to me to file the 2553 at any particular time? I expect it will be more complicated because I will not have filed quarterly self-employment tax returns. The LLC will not have any more activity in 2018 after the sale of the flipped property. Thoughts?

Answering your question without getting a lot more information = malpractice. At a minimum, we need to know:
- how much you expect to make on this deal?
- what other costs did you have besides the rehab?
- what other deals you did/plan to do in 2017/2018?
- how much time did you spend working this deal, and what specifically did you do?
- what are your business plans for 2018?
- what other sources of income will you have in 2018?