LLC or Sole Proprietor???

If you are the driver then a LLC would not protect you. Get a book called "Own your own corporation" it is part of the Rich Dad series of books and it was written by a lawyer in layman's terms. It explains it all very well.

 

Many times for a one man show best deal is to just get a very comprehensive liability policy, plus an umbrella. Then a service like legal shied that can have a lawyer in any state for you with just a phone call that specializes in trucking. An LLC does separate you from the Business but that separation is not as deep as a "real" corp. More of a tax thing than anything. Creating an LLC is still a good idea but it's not 100% separation. I'm not an O/O but was self employed for about a decade.

 

You passed on the reefer?

 

I wouldn't get an LLC for this business, there is no protection of assets no matter what any one says. This is all a fallacy because it produces a through tax situation where you actually have little to gain from it.

If you get into a business form, I would go corp, get a good lawyer to set it up and watch it for you, get a good accountant to setup the book keeping and to have on hand to help you make decisions. There is a lot more you can do with the corp on the subject of taxes, you spread them out and in many cases pay less.

 

sol propretor you can take all the income for your self and put it in a online stock trading acount and buy gold and silver stocks.

 

Really??...in my state there's protection

 

Really there is no protection, none, not a bit. No state has protection into an LLC because of two factors, one is litigation and the other is liabilities of managing it. States can't provide indemnity like that.

Your assets are fair game with an LLC as they are with a limited partnership or a SP, even in some cases a S-Corp/C-Corp depending on if it is an issue of fraud or some other criminal activity. This is because you own those assets as a SP, with a business entity as a holder. So what can be passed through as taxes can also be passed through as a liability to pay debts from your assets with exceptions of a pension.

With the court cases in the past where management decisions were judged to be wrong and negligent, the actual people who made those decisions were financially/criminally liable for their decisions, even though there was a separation between the decision maker and the workers - like in a regular old corp.

In this case, you are an owner and operator, you have a duel stake in the game. So you make a decision and it turns out to be a nightmare, an accident happens, damaged freight ... what ever. A good lawyer will go beyond the insurance limitations and dig up all your assets, no matter how well you hid them (LLC can be considers a tool for that) and base his case on the worth of those assets because you were both the operator and the owner.

The only reason why people should use an LLC is to setup a store or something where there is a limit to the liability built in.