Starting Mechanic business. Sole proprietorship or LLC?

I am moveing to a small community that is in need of a decent shop. I will not have any employees. From what I understand an LLC will protect my personal assets aganst a lawsuit and with all of the sue happy people in the world that could be good. I believe that a sole propietorship has better tax benefits but not sure. If you where starting this kind of business what would you do and why?

If I were starting this business, I would first of all talk to a business counselor before you do anything especially spend money. I'd call the local office of SCORE (go to http://www.score.org and input your zip code to find the chapter nearest you), the advice is FREE.

The counselor at SCORE will most likely advise you to write a business plan which is very good advice because it will force you to dig out all of the start up details and the costs of starting a Mechanic business and force you to also understand all of the aspects of this business including the customers you'll concentrate on (your market ) and how you'll go after them.

You'll need to register the business with your state controller's office and make sure that you have any city and county licenses if any are needed where you live. All of this will come out in a business plan.

Try this link :
http://www.ychange.com/small-business-co... and read some of the articles especially the ones about a business plan and starting a business.
Good Luck

why go through such mess when you can easily set up an internet business from the comfort of yr home at low set or no cost by being an affiliate?

http://chua_dada.blogspot.com
http://www.affiliates-profit.com

Honestly speaking, if you are thinking of setting such a business, why not do it at the convenience of yr comfort?

To your sucess and all the best.

I've had a couple shops, and I never felt that going the LLC route was worth the expense and hassle. Sole proprietorships should be all you need.

Sole prop and LLC are very similar. Yes, LLC will protect your persoanl assests from lawsuit &debt collectors - sole prop will not.

LLC owners can ellect to have their income taxed like a corperation. This allows for more money to stay in the company to pay less personal taxes. Some years we pull out more money form the company into our personal so that the business has less taxes to pay. Other years we take out less profit so that we have less personal taxes to pay. Our tax preparer calculates both in November so that we can make any accounting adjustments before the end of the year. In a sole prop. all income is like personal income and all is taxed on your personal taxes. Some people with businesses want to fall into a lower personal income bracket to pay less taxes and other advantages (school loans for kids' college, free health insurance, etc..) so they keep their money tied up in a business.

I would discuss this with a business tax preparer. Most will do consults for free in hopes of gettting your business latter.

Best wishes

I think if you are going to do it you should be 100% so I would recommend becoming an LLC that way you won't have any issues with someone coming after you for your personal assets. As a LLC they will only be able to sue your company for its assets.

Tax wise, as a single member LLC you can still file your business tax returns with your personal taxes on a Schedule C.

I am an Accountant/Tax Professional and I highly recommend LLC. You can incorporate on my website if you like and visit my site for more information on your tax questions.