starting home based business question for board experts

[Dr Rick Daris]

so...i have a job already with a salary and 401k type thing and stuff. i've recently talked to some people about doing some work for them on the side. like a day or two here and there where i would work for them and they would just pay me hourly with no benefits or whatever. it would be an hour drive for me to do this but the hourly pay would be pretty decent so i think i'm going to do it.

should i set up some kind of business or something and how would that benefit me? deduct mileage? car wear and tear? part of my house as a home office? continuing education expenses so that i can continue w/ this side job into the future? worth the benefit of starting this thing up or no? help. do i just need to get a tax person?

[steve dave]

yes, absolutely. mileage alone will be a huge write off. you can write off tons of stuff.

[steve dave]

also would be a good idea to protect your personal assets when you get your crap sued

[Dugout DickStone]

also would be a good idea to protect your personal assets when you get your crap sued

LLC with some insurance

[8manpick]

Please call it rick daris, llc.

[Dr Rick Daris]

also would be a good idea to protect your personal assets when you get your crap sued

LLC with some insurance

what kind of insurance? why? like professional insurance stuff in case people would try to sue me because i messed up on the job or something? current work and new work will/would both take care of that for me. they'd be required to. also, people that do what i do never, ever get sued. but again, i'd already be covered.

also, how much would it cost to make this? do i have to then pay money yearly to keep it? i don't know you guys, it sounds like a lot of work.

[steve dave]

also would be a good idea to protect your personal assets when you get your crap sued

LLC with some insurance

what kind of insurance? why? like professional insurance stuff in case people would try to sue me because i messed up on the job or something? current work and new work will/would both take care of that for me. they'd be required to. also, people that do what i do never, ever get sued. but again, i'd already be covered.

also, how much would it cost to make this? do i have to then pay money yearly to keep it? i don't know you guys, it sounds like a lot of work.

you'd only have to pay, like, $50 a year for the LLC.

[The Tonya Harding of Twitter Users Creep]

put your meth house as your business address.

thats about all i can help with here. good luck, rick!

[Pete]

so...i have a job already with a salary and 401k type thing and stuff. i've recently talked to some people about doing some work for them on the side. like a day or two here and there where i would work for them and they would just pay me hourly with no benefits or whatever. it would be an hour drive for me to do this but the hourly pay would be pretty decent so i think i'm going to do it.

should i set up some kind of business or something and how would that benefit me? deduct mileage? car wear and tear? part of my house as a home office? continuing education expenses so that i can continue w/ this side job into the future? worth the benefit of starting this thing up or no? help. do i just need to get a tax person?

One possible option is being what they call "at home agent" for a call center of some kind...you might even be able to find one that is related to your primary field.

You setup a phone at your house (typically over IP, "interwebs") and they give you a computer and you sit at your house and do work you'd normally do as a call center associate.

Could be anything, really....anything from booking reservations to technical troubleshooting on products, hell anything.  Doesn't have to be sales at all.

[Dr Rick Daris]

so...i have a job already with a salary and 401k type thing and stuff. i've recently talked to some people about doing some work for them on the side. like a day or two here and there where i would work for them and they would just pay me hourly with no benefits or whatever. it would be an hour drive for me to do this but the hourly pay would be pretty decent so i think i'm going to do it.

should i set up some kind of business or something and how would that benefit me? deduct mileage? car wear and tear? part of my house as a home office? continuing education expenses so that i can continue w/ this side job into the future? worth the benefit of starting this thing up or no? help. do i just need to get a tax person?

One possible option is being what they call "at home agent" for a call center of some kind...you might even be able to find one that is related to your primary field.

You setup a phone at your house (typically over IP, "interwebs") and they give you a computer and you sit at your house and do work you'd normally do as a call center associate.

Could be anything, really....anything from booking reservations to technical troubleshooting on products, hell anything.  Doesn't have to be sales at all.

yeah. i already have a second job lined up. i don't know what you would consider it. consulting or something i guess. anyway i'd drive an hour to work a few hours every week or every other week and then drive home. this job would then bill for the work that i do and pay me hourly for doing it. i can't do it out of my house. i'd have to drive an hour but i'm wondering if it's still worth setting up an llc or whatever and just saying it's a business or whatever.


like pretend i am a painter and have a regular painting job that pays me hourly and gives me benefits and another painting company wants to just hire me to do some painting work because they have tons of jobs lined up and need more painters. so i'll go paint and they'll pay me hourly and then bill the people for the job. worth starting my own llc?

[ben ji]

Anyone have rental homes in a LLC? Wouldnt be doing it soon but in 15 years my house will be paid off and I will be looking to into buying a bigger home and renting my current home.

Couple questions. Can I just write off basically any expense and say it was for the house/llc.

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

[kostakio]

also would be a good idea to protect your personal assets when you get your crap sued

LLC with some insurance

what kind of insurance? why? like professional insurance stuff in case people would try to sue me because i messed up on the job or something? current work and new work will/would both take care of that for me. they'd be required to. also, people that do what i do never, ever get sued. but again, i'd already be covered.

also, how much would it cost to make this? do i have to then pay money yearly to keep it? i don't know you guys, it sounds like a lot of work.

you'd only have to pay, like, $50 a year for the LLC.

yeah it's a $50 annual fee in Kansas I just paid mine on Monday.  It cost around $1,000 bucks in legal fees to get mine set up but I'm guessing you can get it done for cheaper then that. 

[Emo EMAW]

Anyone have rental homes in a LLC? Wouldnt be doing it soon but in 15 years my house will be paid off and I will be looking to into buying a bigger home and renting my current home.

Couple questions. Can I just write off basically any expense and say it was for the house/llc.

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

Oooo man, ballsy.  Pretty much yes though.  You never want to make money in that LLC.  Like use it to buy new furniture and crap for your live-in home.

[EllRobersonisInnocent]

Will be sending this thread to proper authorities. Tax dodgers! 

[kostakio]

so...i have a job already with a salary and 401k type thing and stuff. i've recently talked to some people about doing some work for them on the side. like a day or two here and there where i would work for them and they would just pay me hourly with no benefits or whatever. it would be an hour drive for me to do this but the hourly pay would be pretty decent so i think i'm going to do it.

should i set up some kind of business or something and how would that benefit me? deduct mileage? car wear and tear? part of my house as a home office? continuing education expenses so that i can continue w/ this side job into the future? worth the benefit of starting this thing up or no? help. do i just need to get a tax person?

One possible option is being what they call "at home agent" for a call center of some kind...you might even be able to find one that is related to your primary field.

You setup a phone at your house (typically over IP, "interwebs") and they give you a computer and you sit at your house and do work you'd normally do as a call center associate.

Could be anything, really....anything from booking reservations to technical troubleshooting on products, hell anything.  Doesn't have to be sales at all.

yeah. i already have a second job lined up. i don't know what you would consider it. consulting or something i guess. anyway i'd drive an hour to work a few hours every week or every other week and then drive home. this job would then bill for the work that i do and pay me hourly for doing it. i can't do it out of my house. i'd have to drive an hour but i'm wondering if it's still worth setting up an llc or whatever and just saying it's a business or whatever.


like pretend i am a painter and have a regular painting job that pays me hourly and gives me benefits and another painting company wants to just hire me to do some painting work because they have tons of jobs lined up and need more painters. so i'll go paint and they'll pay me hourly and then bill the people for the job. worth starting my own llc?

reading this I don't think you need an LLC.  If you're an independent contractor at this second job you can still deduct the mileage without it.   Your arrangment woudln't qualify as a home office either based on your description.  Even if you keep records and stuff at an office at home your primary work has to be done there for it to qualify.   

[kostakio]

Anyone have rental homes in a LLC? Wouldnt be doing it soon but in 15 years my house will be paid off and I will be looking to into buying a bigger home and renting my current home.

Couple questions. Can I just write off basically any expense and say it was for the house/llc.

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

I have a rental LLC.  It all depends on how aggressive you want to be with your taxes.  You can pretty much do anything you want until you get audited.  If you do this you probably want to get all your new stuff shipped to the rental location.   Or at the very least don't have it shipped/delivered to your house  and then try and deduct it off the rental.   The Vegas thing seems a little over aggressive to me.

[steve dave]

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

yes

[Skipper44]

Anyone have rental homes in a LLC? Wouldnt be doing it soon but in 15 years my house will be paid off and I will be looking to into buying a bigger home and renting my current home.

Couple questions. Can I just write off basically any expense and say it was for the house/llc.

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

I have a rental LLC.  It all depends on how aggressive you want to be with your taxes.  You can pretty much do anything you want until you get audited.  If you do this you probably want to get all your new stuff shipped to the rental location.   Or at the very least don't have it shipped/delivered to your house  and then try and deduct it off the rental.   The Vegas thing seems a little over aggressive to me.

isn't there some rule (or at least rule of thumb) about how many years in a row a business can lose money before the IRS gets involved?

[steve dave]

Anyone have rental homes in a LLC? Wouldnt be doing it soon but in 15 years my house will be paid off and I will be looking to into buying a bigger home and renting my current home.

Couple questions. Can I just write off basically any expense and say it was for the house/llc.

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

I have a rental LLC.  It all depends on how aggressive you want to be with your taxes.  You can pretty much do anything you want until you get audited.  If you do this you probably want to get all your new stuff shipped to the rental location.   Or at the very least don't have it shipped/delivered to your house  and then try and deduct it off the rental.   The Vegas thing seems a little over aggressive to me.

isn't there some rule (or at least rule of thumb) about how many years in a row a business can lose money before the IRS gets involved?

every major airline says "no"

[kostakio]

Anyone have rental homes in a LLC? Wouldnt be doing it soon but in 15 years my house will be paid off and I will be looking to into buying a bigger home and renting my current home.

Couple questions. Can I just write off basically any expense and say it was for the house/llc.

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

I have a rental LLC.  It all depends on how aggressive you want to be with your taxes.  You can pretty much do anything you want until you get audited.  If you do this you probably want to get all your new stuff shipped to the rental location.   Or at the very least don't have it shipped/delivered to your house  and then try and deduct it off the rental.   The Vegas thing seems a little over aggressive to me.

isn't there some rule (or at least rule of thumb) about how many years in a row a business can lose money before the IRS gets involved?

There is some type of rule for losses on passive activities like rentals.  I'm not too familier with the rules but I think the jest is you generally can't deduct anything over your income off the properties.  So basically you can't use a loss on rentals to offset income from your real job.   

[Rams]

Anyone have rental homes in a LLC? Wouldnt be doing it soon but in 15 years my house will be paid off and I will be looking to into buying a bigger home and renting my current home.

Couple questions. Can I just write off basically any expense and say it was for the house/llc.

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

I have a rental LLC.  It all depends on how aggressive you want to be with your taxes.  You can pretty much do anything you want until you get audited.  If you do this you probably want to get all your new stuff shipped to the rental location.   Or at the very least don't have it shipped/delivered to your house  and then try and deduct it off the rental.   The Vegas thing seems a little over aggressive to me.

isn't there some rule (or at least rule of thumb) about how many years in a row a business can lose money before the IRS gets involved?

There is some type of rule for losses on passive activities like rentals.  I'm not too familier with the rules but I think the jest is you generally can't deduct anything over your income off the properties.  So basically you can't use a loss on rentals to offset income from your real job.   

clearly. you could've just said this and stopped there.

also, it's "gist" not "jest."  a great rule to live by is that if you're not absolutely sure what a word is, don't use it. you're welcome.

[slimz]

Anyone have rental homes in a LLC? Wouldnt be doing it soon but in 15 years my house will be paid off and I will be looking to into buying a bigger home and renting my current home.

Couple questions. Can I just write off basically any expense and say it was for the house/llc.

Like say I went to vegas for a "Home decorators expo", could i deduct the expenses incurred during the trip from the profit I made renting the house?

I have a rental LLC.  It all depends on how aggressive you want to be with your taxes.  You can pretty much do anything you want until you get audited.  If you do this you probably want to get all your new stuff shipped to the rental location.   Or at the very least don't have it shipped/delivered to your house  and then try and deduct it off the rental.   The Vegas thing seems a little over aggressive to me.

isn't there some rule (or at least rule of thumb) about how many years in a row a business can lose money before the IRS gets involved?

Let's see what I can remember about this stuff:

Believe that LLC has more to do with liability than with tax stuff. I think you can choose to have it taxed as an S- or C- corp, but most of the time, a single-member LLC is going to be taxed same as a sole proprietorship, multiple-member will be taxed as a partnership. Meaning a person setting up a single-member LLC is still going to be subject to the same income tax and self-employment tax as if the LLC did not exist.

The stuff about how many years in a row you can lose money has to do with if you're wanting to claim an activity is a hobby or sporadic activity to avoid self-employment tax, or claim an activity is a business to take advantage of deducting more expenses/losses from the business.  http://www.irs.gov/instructions/i1040sc/ar01.html

I think rental businesses are treated a little differently for tax purposes, too.

I would talk to a tax professional or an attorney who does business formation work.

[slucat]

I did some work as an independent contractor one year...didn't set up an LLC, didn't need to.  Didn't do too much work for the company tho. There was an extra tax form...but that was it.  Pretty straightforward stuff.

[pissclams]

small businesses are what is killing america.  we all need to support legislation to stop their proliferation.  study after study has proven my words to be correct, yet every tom, dick, and harry, seem content on continuing to erode the foundation of our country.

[Stevesie60]

Is this about our meth business? Because you probably shouldn't be posting about that on a public blog.