LLC. Advice

Should I start an LLC right from the start as a new driver?

 

As a driver, like working for a company and getting a paycheck - no.

 

If I plan to lease or buy within the first 12 months would getting the LLC started help with time in business etc for future business loans? Also, could my CDL training be paid for by the LLC and use that as a tax deduction?

 

Well I would do this, search around for an accountant, not a tax prepayer and ask about the use of education write offs. I wrote my CDL costs off as business expenses, I started out in a van doing expedite and upgraded to each license I needed so I would think that career change could be a direct write off.

As for a lease, I would think hard about what your goals are, do you want to become a contractor or remain a company driver with a lease purchase?

If you are starting out, I wouldn't jump into a lease or anything other than getting seat time for the first year and then after that I would start looking at options.

For the most part, the LLC would work if you want to just have the basic write offs, pass through tax liabilities and to use it for other business reasons, the LLC in itself is not a protection for any thing because of the nature of the business we are in, both managing the company and being a driver removes that protection. In truth many discount a Corporation as something that has double taxation and a pain but got to tell you that if you plan on being a fleet owner or even a one truck business, it isn't the times that money gets taxed but the amount of taxes you pay.

 

Great advice. I plan to drive a year and then decide. My goal is to just purchase my truck outright and not lease. Depreciate it over 3-5 years and keep moving up. I have been saving for years and leasing usually is not the best route from what Dave Ramsey says.

 

I started out as a sole pro when I got my lease. Then switched to LLC when I paid the truck off 6 months later. Wished I knew what I read here. But anyway I use money from my business/ LLC to pay for anything that has to do with the truck and business, including putting gas in my mom car to go pick up my truck out of shop. All work related.

 

How much did you spend on your first truck?

 

$28,000 07 Pete 386 63" sleeper had 700,000 on it.