LLC Accounting Questions for New LLC Owners
4 Replies
Monica Kovalsky
Real Estate Investor from Amherst, New Hampshire
posted over 3 years ago
Hi everyone!
My husband @Kevin Kovalsky and I have been in the process of setting up a business structure for our rental properties where each property is in its own LLC and then all the individual building LLC's are owned by a parent LLC.
The purpose of the LLC's are for asset protection but from what I understand, it can all be for naught if you screw up the accounting and since we are brand new to this we have a few questions and I'm not even sure who to ask! Would you mind pointing us in the right direction? Are these questions for a lawyer, tax accountant or some other resource? Does anyone know these answers?
- How do we pull money out of the LLC to put toward a down payment of another building?
- How do we pay ourselves from the LLC's?
- How do we put money into an LLC to fund a project if there is not enough there already to cover it (i.e. new roof)?
- Does it make sense to have a bank account for our parent LLC? What would you use this account for?
Thanks so much!
Monica
Filip Filmar
Investor from San Francisco, California
replied over 2 years ago
Sorry, no answer for you. I am looking for answers to exactly these questions, and found this post of yours on page 32 of my search. Just wanted to say, you're not alone. :)
(Also, have you figured out the answers to your question in the meantime?)
Brian Stinson
New to Real Estate from Minneapolis, MN
replied about 2 months ago
@Monica Kovalsky @Filip Filmar I am looking into LLC's and wondering if you were able to answer those 4 questions? I haven't been able to figure it out myself yet.
Monica Kovalsky
Real Estate Investor from Amherst, New Hampshire
replied about 2 months ago
- I'm no expert but I'll let you know what I've been doing...
- How do we pull money out of the LLC to put toward a down payment of another building?
- We either take an owner draw and then do an owner contribution to the new llc OR loan the money from 1 LLC to the other, then you have the benefit of charging interest to yourself
- How do we pay ourselves from the LLC's?
- Owner draw
- How do we put money into an LLC to fund a project if there is not enough there already to cover it (i.e. new roof)?
- Owner contribution
- Does it make sense to have a bank account for our parent LLC? What would you use this account for?
- We did not set this up... still not sure if this is necessary or not
Hope that helps!
Sean Morrison
Attorney from Slidell, LA
replied about 1 month ago
Disclaimer: I am an attorney, but I am not your attorney. This is not legal advice, just friendly information.
On that final point, it's best practice to have a separate bank account for each LLC, including the parent LLC. In a multi-layered structure, the accounting needs to follow it. For example, 123 Main St LLC has a profit, which is withdrawn as an owner draw going to Parent LLC. Now Parent LLC has cash in the account, which is withdrawn as an owner draw going to the owner. That's two steps to take move that money from the property to the owner. Skipping the Parent LLC suggests to courts that it is not operating as a business.
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