Martin Cantu, EA - Tax Consultant - Tax Relief Services Blog

So many investors and entrepreneurs like to use the Limited Liability Company (LLC) format for entity planning.  I refer to LLCs as a Swiss Army Knife because it is so flexible and adaptable to so many situations. Corporations are still a viable and proper choice for many, especially with the flexibility provided by Sub S elections. The Series LLC now deserves special consideration as way to reduce entity costs, both initially and over the long run. Here's why.  What is a Series LLC? Its an LLC that allows you to form multiple series entities via one entity; protect the equity of one series entity against the liabilities of another series entity; and have a different set of owners for each series entity. This is a Swiss Army knife on steroids! Let’s review the most common reasoning behind choosing such a structure. We’ll assume an individual real estate investor, married with 2 children, living in Texas. He owns 3 properties. Property 1 is a small 6-unit apartment...

Here are three tips from the IRS Audit front line: 1. Business Owners, reconcile your total bank deposits with reported income. This is request number one on the auditor's list. Help yourself out and have this list ready when you receive your audit notice by making it part of your tax return supporting documents. 2. Travel Logs - use a calendar, excel spreadsheet and a mapping tool such as Google Maps to document regular trips and the distance per Google maps. This is an easy sign off by the auditor. 3. Credit Cards - the best comment I heard from an auditor is to treat credit cards like another bank account. Account for each charge as a separate item. Not all charges may be deductible, just like a business bank account. Hope this give you a heads up on your tax return and audit planning. Have questions on your return or IRS audit? Contact tax attorney Martin Cantu .