I’ve been running a stable consultancy business via an LLC for the past ten years. My accountant has been running a payroll so I was W2’d to my own company, and taxes (federal and state) were withdrawn directly from my business bank account on a monthly basis.
I’ve decided to take a W2 role at a large company, and the automatic payroll on my LLC was stopped, and I stopped being W2’d to my own LLC (but I’ll keep the LLC alive for another year). However, a few residual (late) payments from clients have come into my business account, and I’d like to manually pay state and federal personal taxes on this amount, rather than getting dinged with a fine during my 2024 tax prep.
Kinda an odd question, but I’m not sure whether I can be paying the taxes directly from my business account, or whether I should transfer the tax money first to my personal checking and pay from there. The reason I’m asking is in regard to commingling - for example, I wouldn’t make my home mortgage payments nor pay my grocery shopping bills from a business account. Does it matter?
Thanks
How is your LLC taxed? If it’s a pass-through entity and reported on your 1040 on Schedule C, I think you’d be ok. If it’s taxed separately, I don’t know the answer.
FWIW, I’d recommend keeping the LLC around. It doesn’t cost much, and you may want to use it again in the future. I have a consulting business on the side that predates my current W-2 job. My current employer knows about it, but lets me continue to do side work (different business, so they know I’m not competing with them.) Extra side income is nice.
Yes, as a pass-through (elected as an S Corp). Regarding keeping the LLC around, that was my thinking too. I’m based in CA so there’s a minimum franchise tax of $800/year, irrespective of income, plus I’ll need to file business taxes regardless of whether the entity has been active, but I’d like to earn some side money through it, and it’s a constant if I end up getting laid off from my current W2.