Is Your Entity Bulletproof? - Mark J Kohler CPA, Attorney

In this live YouTube/Facebook broadcast, CPA‑attorney Mark J. Kohler explains why simply forming an LLC or corporation does not automatically shield an entrepreneur from lawsuits. He walks the audience through six essential practices that make an entity “bullet‑proof”: (1) proper formation with operating agreements, bylaws, membership/stock certificates and minutes; (2) strict separation of banking and credit cards for each entity; (3) consistent use of the legal entity’s name on all marketing and public‑facing materials; (4) ongoing corporate maintenance – annual state filings, fees, and formal meetings; (5) placing the entity’s name on every contract, deed, lease and title; and (6) acting responsibly in day‑to‑day business to avoid negligence that can pierce the corporate veil. Throughout the session Kohler answers live questions about holding companies, S‑corp vs. LLC structures, series LLCs, the difference between attorney‑ and paralegal‑driven entity formation, and self‑directed 401(k) options. He also promotes his firm’s cleanup/maintenance services and offers a free copy of his Tax & Legal Playbook. The overall message is that diligent setup, documentation, and responsible operation are required for true liability protection.
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Hey, everybody. Welcome to another YouTube Live Facebook Live. My name is Mark Kohler, and yes, I am wearing a bulletproof vest. And the question is, is your company, your entity, your LLC or corporation bulletproof? Well, I want to explain what that means. And yes, I'm going to keep this cheesy bulletproof vest on. I say cheesy because I'm just a geeky accountant lawyer. So this feels really heavy duty. And I wanted to look like Mark Wahlberg. Mark Wahlberg from Blue Bloods. So I put on a blue shirt underneath. So I kind of look like a detective anyway. But I got a good friend named Keyshawn that's on the sheriff's force, and he allowed me to use a bulletproof vest today for this prop. So. But the point is this, and it's really, really important. You're setting up these LLCs or corporations with an attorney, an accountant on LegalZoom, and you're saying, is that everything? Can I just put it in the drawer and leave it? Did I get all the pieces and parts? What happens if you get into a lawsuit? Someone comes after you? Is your entity protected? So I want to go over a few important points. We're going to do Q and A. And if you haven't been on one of these Facebook lives or YouTube lives with me before, please type your comments below, give me a thumbs up, a smiley face, whatever. I totally appreciate it. And this is truly live. So any question you ask right now, I'm answering. And did I say I'm an attorney as well? Cpa, been to court, go through the bullets, if you will, in courtroom, trying to help pierce the veil and protect clients as well. That's what I do. We've got a law firm, accounting firm, helping clients around the country and author of the book Tax and Legal Playbook here with entrepreneur. And I love entrepreneur. Okay, so let's dive into this. One of my key points is it does. Is a bulletproof vest completely protect you in every situation? It doesn't, does it? It doesn't give you a license to be a complete nerd. You have to be careful, right? You can't drive your Domino's truck down the road drunk driving or something like that. Your corporation or LLC is not going to protect you. So you want to be really, really careful about just getting on a bulletproof vest or setting up an LLC or a corporation and thinking you are good to go. So be really cautious about that. And also, if you're on one of the mediums here and you can't hear me, please Make a quick comment. We're having some audio difficulties maybe, and we want to make sure you can hear me. May just have to go with the audio in the room. We'll see. So anyway, be careful. It doesn't give you a license to be a bad business owner by just setting up an LLC or a corporation. Number two, remember that camouflage is very different than a bulletproof vest. Next week I'll wear some camouflage and we'll talk about privacy. See, a lot of people think, oh, I don't want my name on my LLC or corporation. I'll just hide out and I'll be protected. That is not the case. You want to make sure you that privacy is a separate consideration from protection. So you want to make sure that you are always using the right mechanism to protect you. When you're doing your company setup and your company maintenance. For example, I'm out there. I'm Mark Kohler Inc. I want to get out there and spread the good word about tax and legal and business planning. So with my corporation, privacy is not a big deal. But my entity doesn't own a lot either. It's just a mechanism to make money. But my assets, my rental properties or real estate investments or financial investments, I've got those hidden as well as in an llc. So I'm using privacy as well as protection. In your operational business, privacy may not be a big concern because you're not trying to hide any assets. You're trying to market and get the good word out there. So anyway, let's remember those two things. Just setting up an entity doesn't mean you're protected in every instance. You've still got to be a responsible business owner. And number two, privacy is a very different issue. So with that said, if you have any questions about that distinction, let's get into it. But I'm going to give you five ways to protect your entity. Now, this is very, very important. Number one, you have to have. Actually, let's do this. Number one, you have to have the proper setup. Now, what I mean by a proper setup. Now this could be for an LLC or a corporation. And I know many of you say, well, I got my one page on LegalZoom. I'm an LLC. I'm done. No, you're not done. You should have an operating agreement, minutes, membership certificates, a company seal. You should have it all packaged up. You should be doing annual minutes. I'm going to talk about that in a minute. But see, some of you I know are really upset or frustrated. You're like, hold it an LLC supposed to be easier. No, they're not. You've got to still do the same maintenance because if some tenant falls in your rental property or in your business and gets hurt and they come after you and they sue you, you're going to show up in court and you're going to, I got my one sheet of paper. Did you follow all the rules of maintaining that llc? If you didn't, they're going to pierce the veil and get to you personally. So you want to be really, really careful about just thinking that setting up an entity with one sheet of paper is sufficient. So what should you have in a proper setup? You should have articles, you should have bylaws if you're a corporation or an operating agreement if you are an llc. So operating agreement or bylaws, you should have membership certificates. I'm going to put stock certificates if you're a corporation or membership certificates if you are an llc. And finally, you need to have minutes. And myths are like the agreement between you and yourself if you own the company 100% or your partners, that says, here's how I'm going to run the business, here's the name, here's the people in charge, here's what I do. And you're going to do that on an annual basis and report on your company. Okay, so this is set up. Now, I know some of you are like, why can go to the state website, do it for 50 bucks. You be careful. Now, every year in September. Now, this is my only quote, unquote sales pitch today, and I've got five major points to make. But ironically, this is right here. Every September, we do a company cleanup special where my paralegals go through your entity. They do minutes three years back. They clean up your bylaws or operating agreement, they make sure that all your docs are clean and hand them back to you in a pretty clean binder. Now, I know some of you cut corners when you set up your entity. So 500 bucks to get that all set up is wonderful. I have one of my current legal. Sir, give me the list of this. You get a 30 minute consult with a real attorney talking about why you set up this entity anyway and any questions you have about the maintenance or tax filings or how to use that company. We want to make sure we go through all of your paperwork that you've already filed and make sure it's filed with the state property properly. Are you still in good standing? So this is something that a corporate cleanup has done and a lot of law firms but they do it for big companies and charge a lot of money. We do ours for less than 500 bucks. So it's very, very helpful to get clients cleaned up. So that's number one, proper setup. Now I'm on the proper setup. Many of you know I talk about this on a regular basis. Remember, you're going to put your operations on this side and your assets on this side. I want to keep your company that you're out selling and marketing your URLs, your DBAs. This is going to be out there with your merchant account. Typically, that's going to be a corporation, an S corporation topic for another day. Over here, you're going to have your LLCs, and this is going to hold your rental property or your investments. And this one, we might use more privacy, but you're still going to have that corporate veil with an LLC and protected. So you want to make sure you have the proper setup. I have clients come in all the time. They have a corporation with rental property in it and some people with an LLC that are trying to run their business with the rentals. And it's jacked up and it's going to be a problem if you get a lawsuit. So number two, I'll go through number two, make sure you have separate checking. In fact, I'm going to use the same diagram right here. So on this one, you're going to have three different checkbooks in your life. You're going to have a checkbook for your corporation. I'll call that checkbook number one. You're going to have a checkbook for your llc. That's checkbook number two. And then you're going to have a checkbook for your personal life. That's number three. One, two, three. Separate checkbooks, separate banking. And I like to put all my banking at the same location. I'm a Wells Fargo guy, sorry, Chase or B of A, but I like Wells Fargo because my online banking, I can move money from my companies into my personal account anytime I want. And I can put money into my companies or back and forth. Your QuickBooks and your bookkeeping will track all that. But I want separate checking. You can't go to court and say, oh, I've got an LLC or a corporation and everything's done in your personal checkbook or on your Visa card because you wanted the points. No, no, no. Make sure you have separate credit cards, separate checking. One example of this is if you're selling product on ebay or Amazon, you're going to have a separate merchant account and checkbook here. If you have a rental property, the tenants are going to pay their rent to a separate checkbook here. Whenever you make profit, you don't go buy underwear and groceries. You transfer the money to your personal account. Then you go to the grocery store. So you want that separation, and that is the second way to get protection. Now, first thing that I want to talk about is using your name. You've got a company name. And for marketing, this is a really good thing. Where do you want to put it? I want to put it on all sorts of things. Let's think about business cards. I want to put it on your website. I want to put it on your sign. I want to have it on all your flyers. Remember, it's not you doing business, it's your company doing business. You just happen to be the manager or the president or the vice president or the marketing director, whatever. Make sure that people know what your company is. I feel like I got to tell you a quick story of this real quick. This is a great story. I was back in college. I ran a janitorial business. We would clean floors and carpets and windows and all this good stuff. Well, I was cleaning this hair school where they teach, you know, the salon thing, and you get your license. Anyway, we stripped and waxed all these guys floors for like three weeks. It was a lot of work, and it was like a four or five thousand dollars bill. I was going to University of Utah at the time, Go Utes. And I was working on just getting through school, and this guy skipped me for four or five grand. And I was like, what the freak? I was so upset. But I was watching Judge Judy and Judge Wapner and all these TV shows. I was like, man, I'm pre law. I better have my first experience in court. So I was pretty excited. So I filed in court and I had him served, and I sued him for about 4,500 bucks. Now, I went to all my professors at the time, like, okay, how do I beat this guy? And all this stuff? And. And I was trying to get at this guy personally because I wanted him to pay me. Now, in this situation, you would say to yourself, well, you've got to sue the business. I sued him. The owner. I sued him, not the company. Now I walk into court, and I still remember the day I get up to my little table. It's like, Law and Order guy's over here, he's got two lawyers, and they're like, put there. I remember the sound of the first guy throwing his briefcase on the table. It Made this big sound in the courtroom. And then the judge came in, we stood up, and first thing out of this guy's mouth. Your honor, this is. Case dismissed. This punk over here, he can't sue my client. He's got to sue the company and blah, blah, blah. This is statute this and court case this. And he goes off. And I was like. And the judge looks at me, and I finally get my chance to talk, and he's like, Mr. Kohler, do you have a response? I'm like, hey, this is the first I've heard of this corporation. I never heard of this thing. It wasn't on a contract. He never wrote me a check from this corporation. This is news to me. Now, my. My professors had prepped me on all this, so I was, like, ready to go. And this guy goes off again on all the laws and all the rules and all this stuff. And then the judge came back to me and he threw me that softball. I screwed him. Time stood still, and I practiced my line in the mirror all night. I was ready to go. I had my line. It was like Matt Damon and Rainmaker. I was ready to go. And I go, your honor, if he doesn't respect the corporate veil, why should we? Let me repeat that. He doesn't respect the corporate veil. Why should we? The judge said. Very well said, Mr. Kohler. You win. I was like, whoa. There was press and news anchors and every. Now there's none of that. But I did win. And out in the hallway, this guy had to write me a check. And he was so mad, like, what? You freaking owed me. Why are you mad at me? Anyway, the point is, at that first. I mean, this is like 25 years ago. Yes, I look like a millennial, but it's a curse. But here's the. That was a long time ago, and it was the first time I ever went to court. And I wrote, and I remember that I pierced the veil. I got through this guy's corporation. I. Bernie Madoffed him. And I did it because this guy didn't have any of the crap. He didn't have minutes. He didn't have the corporation. The judge was like, well, do you have all your pieces and parts of your corporation and do you know. But I got my sheet of paper and I won. That's what protecting the corporate bail is all about. I don't care if it's an LLC or corporation. If you're not doing all these steps, you're going to get to court and lose. Now, I know some of you have some Questions. Give me one. Maybe. Should I do some questions or we should get to the last two. I'm going to leave the last two as suspense. We've done three things you need to do. Set it up properly, use separate checking, and use the name on all your marketing. Okay, Caleb, what's your question?
Calo, can they come after your money from a holding company if you transfer your front funds there?
Okay, so Kayla says, can they come after the holding company if I move my money over there? Okay, I like this question. This is a good one. So let's say Kayla is over here, this is Kaylo, and I must. I don't know if that's a man or woman, so I'll just call. Kaylo is over here with his. With his or her corporation, and they're making money. Kayla's making money. But soon as he or she makes money, they put it over here in their llc. Well, they maybe go buy some bitcoin, they buy some stock, some gold, some silver, a wine collection, a rental property. Who knows they're investing their money up here. So Halo does something really bad. Maybe he's texting and driving and he runs through a crosswalk and kills a family of five and someone comes after him to sue him. Wow. Can they get into the holding company? Can they get into the corporation? In most states, the answer is no, you can't. But some states you can. And one of my books here in the back of the book, and I'm going to give away a book today on our broadcast. I'll tell you how here in a minute. I have a table that tells you which states give you what type of protection. I use it on my desk all the time when clients ask me. I can't memorize every state. So you want this resource that you can look and what's the rules where you're at? So the point is, is that generally your assets are protected in this company. But let's say Calo's up here in his small business and there's ice all over the street and the doorway to his business, and he doesn't scrape it or throw down ice melt or salt, and someone comes up and slips and break their arm. Happened to a client of mine that was a dentist. He had ice all over the front of his Montana dentist office. Someone fell and broke their arm in a bad way. He ended up paying for their broken arm because he was negligent and not scraping away the ice. So again, this bulletproof vest can protect you, but you have to act responsibly. And he didn't by not shoveling off the walk. Now, could they get into the corporation and get anything the corporation owned at that situation? They could have because he was negligent. But anyway, for the most part, we're going to be protected. We're going to be okay. And I want you to take your profits and put them over here in a holding company. If you claim bankruptcy later or if there's already a pending action, there's fraudulent transfer rules. Some of you lawyers watching this, you know I'm walking a fine line here. So you've got to be careful trying to hide assets when you're in the middle of a divorce or the middle of a lawsuit, we can't get away with that. But while nothing's pending, I want you to try to hide those assets. And I'm here to help protect you. That's why lawyers do here. Okay, Ben, what's your question?
Ben from Facebook. I have an existing LLC filing as an S Corp and created another LLC with your confirmed earlier this year. They are both operation business. I don't want 2s corps. Can I have a new company income blow through existing escort business? Or is that putting that income at risk? Would you recommend a parent company S Corp? If so, is it possible to undo current escort.
Oh, my gosh, Ben, you're killing me. What do you want world peace in there, too? Geez, you took advantage of that question. I like it. You need to call me, set up a consult. No. Here's what Ben's question was. You were all in suspense, waiting to see what Ben's big question was. Ben said he set up an LLC taxed as an S Corp. All right, that's cool. Ben's running his business through here. Then he said, ooh, ooh, I set up a second LLC for another type of business. And it's operational. That's what he's alluding to. It's not to hold rental properties. It's to do business. And he says, but I don't want a second S Corp. Can I have a parent? What can I do? Well, Ben, what I would do before you set up another company, if possible, I just have this LLC owned by your parent S Corp. It's called a subsidiary. And I'm going to just set up this LLC and I'm going to backdate it to the beginning of 1119 or whenever you set it up. So all operations flow into this one S Corp. So you can do your salary and get your 199A deduction, save on self employment. Tax. Oh, I love what Ben's doing. But don't have 2s corps. Make this LLC owned by this company and you're good to go. I like it. I think that's a great way to roll. And now you're still going to have a separate checkbook. You're going to still have separate entities, separate maintenance, separate procedures. But you but one tax return. That's the goal here. So, Ben, you're on the right track. Call our office. We can help make that membership ownership change and get it done that way if you want. Okay, this is my opinion 46.
Yes.
Aggressive there.
I use my attorney's name on my businesses. Is that okay?
Okay. So my opinion 46 says that they use their attorney's name on their businesses. Is that okay? I would say that's very unique, very odd, if I may say. Most attorneys like me. I don't want my name out on your company with you screwing around out there. So what I think my opinion 6 is saying is that when they file the entity and I do this for clients, when I set up an entity for them in certain states. Really, Wyoming's a great state for this. I'll set it up. And my client's name is nowhere. So on public record, no one knows you own this company. My name as lawyer with attorney client privilege. I know who the owner is, but no one else does. That's a great technique. Even President Trump buried some of his jets, and he has three jets and Trump Inc. Whatever, with like 20 entities between him and the jets. It's pretty cool. So the layout is pretty sweet. But here's the thing. I can do that for my clients too. I can hide you. And if I'm going to put an asset over here and try to hide that asset, I'm going to set up the llc and my name might be on public record as the one that set it up. But my opinion 46, I don't want the attorney being the manager of the entity or the owner of the entity. So when you say I put my attorney on the company, I think you mean in the formation stage. So I would get a second opinion if you're doing more than that because it could be a little precarious. And I would get another opinion from a different lawyer on what you're doing. Jethos, what do you got?
Jethos? I have a 401k meeting tomorrow with my employer. What questions should I ask about moving my contributions to a self directed.
Wow. Okay, Jethos. Jethos has a sweet question on 401k planning. I'm going to answer that at the end. And so I'm going to put it right here. 401k. So Jethos don't go anywhere. Let's finish up our last two points. Remember, there's five ways to bulletproof your entity. And I would argue that 95% of companies would be protected in any type of lawsuit, meaning you, the owner, are protected. And the corporate veil provides a bulletproof vest for you, the owner. And that's if you do five things. Number one is set it up properly. Number two, use separate checking. Number three, use the company name on everything. Now, I'm going to put out two more things. Number four is company maintenance. Company maintenance means this company can actually go in default at the state. You have to make sure you pay your annual fee to the state. File paperwork with the state. And every state's different. There's like 13 states where there's a deadline every year to do it. And I have a company maintenance team that does this for clients. What you're going to do is file with the state. You're going to pay any fees. This keeps you in good standing. And you're going to do your annual meeting. This is where I like you to take a little trip down to Vegas. Hold your annual meeting. I just had a client call me today that's doing an annual meeting in Maui, and they're going to take their family over and have a company meeting. Now, I can't write off 10 days in Maui, but I could write off a couple days. So you're going to do your annual meeting, pay fees filed with the state, and you're going to update your documents on a regular basis. Now, we do this for our clients for 150 bucks a year. Very common, very affordable. Now, if you need the cleanup on one of your entities or you want ongoing maintenance where you don't have to worry about it and we just take care of you, I'm going to ask you to do this. Just send me an email. Send it to markjcohler.com. so that's markjkohler. Mark J as in Jolly Kohler. K O h l e r.com and send me an email that says, mark, I want your CMP or I want your cleanup. And Maria, my assistant, will get right back to you. Our special launches tomorrow. So I send you to a site, but you're getting first, you know, crack at this. Now, the number five thing, and I may even add a six rider. I am going to add a sixth one. So I'm going To say number five is use the company name on all your contracts and deeds. Contracts and deeds and agreements. Now, what I mean by that is if you have an LLC and you have rental property, I want the LLC on title now. In our office, Mallory Warner is the one that transfers everybody's company, transfers their property into their company name. It's titled title transfer or deed transfer. There's 3,500 counties across the country, approximately. And if you buy a property in Tennessee, you're going to have to transfer the title into your limited liability company. You shouldn't own the rental. Your LLC should own it. Don't worry about the due on sale clause. With a mortgage, in 20 years, I've had one client get the bank upset at them for transferring the property into their llc. Do not worry about that. Get it done. Also, who should be on the lease agreement with your tenants, you or your llc? Who should be on the copier lease for your company, who should be on the lease for your company building on the lease for the paper shredding service or the Internet service. I don't want your name on those contracts. I want the company's name on the contracts. Now, number six. I'm going to add that number six. Rider here is be responsible. I just, I have a lot of clients that think setting up their LLC or corporation gives them carte blanche to be an idiot. No, no, no. You want to be cautious and careful. And just like that dentist up in Montana, scrape the front driveway of the ice. You want to drive cautiously when you're running your business. Do good screening of your of your employees before you hire someone and just be a good, responsible business owner. Because if you steal someone's money, lie on a contract, or cheat, they're going to pierce the veil. Your corporation will not protect you. All right, we're going to do a few more questions and then I'll get over to jethos in that 401k. Wesley, what do we got?
I'm a partner in an llc. As an individual, I want to create a new S Corp and transfer my ownership to the S Corp. I haven't created that S Corp yet. Is it possible to make that transfer effective January 1st, so all my income for 19 will flow through the S Corp.
Okay, so Wesley says he has an llc. Now, the first thing is, Wesley, I don't know what you're using that LLC for, so I'm going to put it in the middle. Are you using it to hold properties or are you running a business with it? I don't know. Then he said in his message, well, I need to set up an S corp because I'm a part. Oh, I'm going to restate that, Wesley, I misunderstood your question. Okay. Jethro says he's a partner in an llc, didn't he? And then he said, I want the profits from that LLC to flow into an S corp. Wesley, you're right on. So here's his llc, and Wesley's right here. I think of Wesley and Princess Bride. We'll pass on that example. Okay, so Wesley's right here. What we're going to do is change out Wesley to an S corp. And that's very, very common. I do it all the time, Wesley. And I want your ownership to be changed to the S Corp. We charge like 150 bucks. There might be a filing fee somewhere. You want to make sure your partners agree to it. But we take you out and put you down here. Very common. But I've got bad news that is as of today, moving forward, I cannot backdate this to the beginning of 2019. So you want to do this immediately. Now, we have a setup service for 800 bucks for any entity in any state, and you get to talk to an attorney for an hour specialized in helping you. Or we've got a paralegal service for 400 bucks. Again, just email Maria markjcohler.com and say, I need an entity help. She'll get you with a scheduler and get you with an attorney to do that. Or a paralegal if you just want to knock it out for 400 bucks. So, Wesley, get it done. But again, what you've learned from this presentation is you're not going to go online and do it yourself for $50 and get one sheet of paper because your S corp will suck and it will not protect you and it'll hurt you in an audit with the IRS as well. Okay, Now, Jeff, those asked, he's over here and this could work for Wesley. He wants to set up a 401k. Now, Jetho's question is kind of interesting because he said, I'm at a day job. He's got a day job as a W2. Let's say he works for Microsoft and he works up here for Microsoft and they've got a 401k. And he goes, I'm meeting with my 401k administrator tomorrow, but I want to self direct my 401k. I want to invest it in real estate or what I know best. But my employer, I don't know if they'll Let me do that. I've got good news and bad news. The bad news first is that you're going to generally be stuck with whatever your employer is willing to offer. Now if it's a small enough company and you want to tell them, I know a better law firm that can get you a self directed 401k, feel free, hook me up. But if you're part of a big company, they're not going to want to change their 401k because their broker has them captive. I'll leave it at that. And so their broker is going to freak them out and not allow them to do that. So the bad news is most of your money is going to be stuck there. The good news is what you want to ask is about an in service rollover, which means your contributions to the 401k, not the company matches, but your contributions. If you're vested, you might be able to roll those out to an IRA. Then you can start self directing or take that IRA money and create your own 401k. Like Wesley could create up a 401k for his own S Corp. So you could get your own 401k, your own IRA and ask for an in service rollover. Another way to do it guys, is just ask your employer, can I take any of my contributions and roll them out to an IRA and see what they say. Just give it a shot. Okay, Taylor, what's your question?
Is there any special wording needed for a series LLC in Delaware? I'm using it as a parent company to two Massachusetts corporations. Should I have in my MA filing that the series LLC owns the corporations?
Well, what's his first name? Taylor has a Illinois series llc. Illinois, sorry, Delaware series llc. And he says it owns two corporations. Right, and they're in Massachusetts. Right off the bat I'm going to hope Taylor, you're worth a million dollars or more or else you've been sold a bunch of crap. I would never do this for a client unless they're a heavy hitter. So that's point number one and I hope you are a heavy hitter watching. So this is good. This is, this is a big deal. This is expensive. So you've got two corporations and I presume they're S Corps, but they can't be because an LLC cannot own an S Corp. Oh, you're making me nervous, Taylor, because if these are C Corps, I'm already. I literally just had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I am not a C Corp fan and an LLC cannot own an S Corp. What you might be doing, Taylor, is you made an S election on this. So that series LLC is an S corp and these are sub series LLCs. And maybe you have partners over here. And then his question was, do I have to have special wording here? Yes, you do. Or you can't even have a series llc, Taylor. You're in a very, very complex structure. I understand these. I can set these up. I can also tear them apart. I would set up a consultant and get a second opinion from a lawyer that knows what the hell they're doing and don't listen to the company. Maybe out of a cubicle in Nevada or, or Delaware that set this crap thing up. Maybe again, you better be pushing some serious money and have a good reason for this, Taylor. And I'm saying that for everybody's sake, not to beat up Taylor or be rude, but there are so many people out there getting ripped off with companies that set up over elaborate structures. And this is pretty elaborate. So you better have a lot of crap going on and get a second opinion. And you better not be a C corp. The bad news. So let's talk. You use some words in there that make me nervous. Ricardo.
Ricardo, what is the difference between doing an entity with an attorney or doing it with a paralegal? Other than the price?
Okay, Ricardo said, what is the difference between doing an entity with our office? And I think you could ask this generally around the country. He said, because we charge $800 for an attorney setup and $400 for a paralegal setup. The difference is you get an hour with a tax attorney with years of experience with sharing their computer screen, talking about your world. Why are you setting up this entity? Are you married or single? How much money you're going to make? Do you have a day job? Do you have a 401k? Do you have an IRA? What are your write offs? How do I handle banking? You may have questions you don't even know to ask. The attorney for an entire hour is going to be building your structure and talking about you. That's our 800 bucks. If you're like, I don't need that. I know everything. I know what I'm doing. Just call a paralegals. They'll freaking knock it out. But you're not going to be able to ask any questions, really. Because paralegals should not be giving legal advice. Neither should CPAs, and neither should some freaking online company be giving you legal advice unless you're talking to a lawyer. And we try to be affordable. People be careful out there setting up something crazy. Okay. All right. I'm going to wrap it up. I just want to say this, and thanks for letting me goof around here with a bulletproof vest and just make the important point that having a company living the American dream is an amazing opportunity, but we've got to take care of it. We can't just, you know, throw caution to the wind once we have that one sheet of paper in the drawer. So if you need to clean up, if you need company maintenance, if you need a consultation because you're not sure what you're doing, talk to your attorney, talk to your cpa, or give us a call if you don't know where to turn. But don't give up. That's the important thing. I mean, I had a 12 hour day on Monday, a 10 hour day yesterday. No, I guess Monday was a holiday. Anyway, I'm putting probably 50, 60 hours a weekend as well. Working hard because it's tough. You got to get out there and just make it happen. So if you're an entrepreneur, I feel your pain and I feel your joy. So don't give up and keep living the dream.
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