I have reached a point of repose right now, and am worried that I'm forgetting something I have to do. AJS and I made a date: at 12:00 he will return from his basement piano dungeon and help me paint the baseboards in the living room. Right now he's practicing Beethoven. It sounds good.
In my panic of returning home I made a looong list of things to do. One of them is to open a business account. I learned this summer from a very successful and organized private studio owner that keeping your business and personal expenses separate is very important. And I can see why. No longer will I have to pore over all of my credit card statements at tax time to separate business expenses from personal ones. Also, people can operate with the "Evergreen Academy of Talent Education", a rather professional sounding organization in my opinion, instead of "Miss Zoe". There are several ways to do this however, and unlike what I believed before, you cannot simply walk into a bank and get a business account. You either need to set up a DBA (Doing Business As), or become an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) before you walk into the bank. I was previously thinking of incorporating but that is probably a more complicated endeavor that I need at the moment. Both the DBA and the LLC involve registering my name, business name, address, SSN etc. with the government, but the LLC protects my personal assets in case anyone wants to sue me when their small child gets his head stuck in a tambourine. (which actually happened to a friend of mine) Needless to say, the LLC takes longer to set up, costs more, requires a yearly fee to the state of Maryland. I've put a call into the accountant who did my taxes last year but I want a second opinion. Of course, I also want all of this settled in a week...probably not possible but a girl can try..
In my panic of returning home I made a looong list of things to do. One of them is to open a business account. I learned this summer from a very successful and organized private studio owner that keeping your business and personal expenses separate is very important. And I can see why. No longer will I have to pore over all of my credit card statements at tax time to separate business expenses from personal ones. Also, people can operate with the "Evergreen Academy of Talent Education", a rather professional sounding organization in my opinion, instead of "Miss Zoe". There are several ways to do this however, and unlike what I believed before, you cannot simply walk into a bank and get a business account. You either need to set up a DBA (Doing Business As), or become an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) before you walk into the bank. I was previously thinking of incorporating but that is probably a more complicated endeavor that I need at the moment. Both the DBA and the LLC involve registering my name, business name, address, SSN etc. with the government, but the LLC protects my personal assets in case anyone wants to sue me when their small child gets his head stuck in a tambourine. (which actually happened to a friend of mine) Needless to say, the LLC takes longer to set up, costs more, requires a yearly fee to the state of Maryland. I've put a call into the accountant who did my taxes last year but I want a second opinion. Of course, I also want all of this settled in a week...probably not possible but a girl can try..
posted by Zoe at 10:54 AM
1 Comments:
Since it looks like you haven't received any second opinions yet, I recommend going for the LLC. You may look into registering as a Limited Liability Company instead of a Limited Liability Corporation. At least in Colorado, this is very easy, and the annual fee is manageable. Good luck!
Post a Comment
<< Home