Reticent to Reform Social Security, Dan Rather & his fellow left wing journalists prefer Taxes to Stock Market – Allowing people any control over their own money just goes against the grain for those media folks who are so much smarter than we little people are.

Bush focuses on fixing Social Security

As I’ve mentioned on countless occasions, vehicle leasing is a huge rip-off, often representing an implicit interest rate of between 20% and 30%.  However, they are very popular; so these recent articles (courtesy of AutoBlog) are interesting.

Study: US auto makers shut out of top spots for best retained value in different vehicle categories.

Web links car lease swappers. Drivers looking to unload autos find those who want short-term deals.

Q:

I have been reading your blog and your site for some time now.  I am an accountant, but not a tax cpa.
 
My question is:
 
If I rehab house for future sale, I will probably be classified as a dealer.  I have 3 other partners providing capital and services.  Should I record those sales in a C, S, or an LLC that is classified as a partnership.  I will have some rental income as well form some of the properties, but the majority of the positive cash flow will  come from the sale of the rehabed residences.  Each sale will net 50-75 K with about four per year.
 
Any quick insites would be very helpful, but if you can’t thanks for your site and ideas.

A:

I hope my previous writings have made it clear that there is no such thing as a “one size fits all” for situations such as yours and the services of a tax pro to set up a customized game plan would be well worth the cost.

Having said that, I will share what I have seen work in many cases.

For profitable businesses owned by just one person or a married couple, a C corp usually makes the most sense.

For businesses that have multiple owners who are not married to each other, LLCs have been very effective for keeping everything straight for that specific business.  Each owner then has to decide wither to own his/her shares in the LLC in their own personal name or through a C corp that they own themselves.   There are a lot of benefits to using  layers of ownership, both in regard to taxes as well as liability.

Good luck.  This should give you a starting point when consulting with your own tax pro.

Kerry Kerstetter

Phony government grant scam