Unlike most of the common business entities that exist today, the LLC has a fairly brief history in the United States. Entities such as partnerships, sole proprietorships and corporations have existed since the founding of the country. The LLC, however, has only existed in a recognizable form for roughly thirty-five years. What, then, led to the creation of this new entity? The single most important reason for the creation of the LLC was what has come to be known as “the tax-shield conundrum.”
The term used for an owner of an LLC is “member” and an LLC can have a single member or many members. The difference between the two is fairly obvious, but can be worth addressing. Generally a single member LLC will be managed by that single member, though it is entirely possible that the single member could chose to have a manager run the LLC instead. The single owner LLC generally operates much like a sole proprietorship with the owner exerting full control over the business.
In the last presidential election, one of the rallying points for voters was President Trump’s desire to “drain the swamp.” The “swamp” is a metaphor for the bureaucracy of the federal government and the special interests that control our laws. President Trump never said how this goal would be accomplished, but one thing for sure is he has failed to use the one true vehicle to accomplish this goal — the United States Tax Code.