Taxes for an LLC: Easy or Difficult?

[Fretty]

Hey guys, quick question:

I'm a Canuck, but I have an LLC registered in Delaware, like so many other people/companies in the world. 2014 is the first year that we were in business and as such will be needing to file taxes for the LLC. Right now the company is VERY small (and I mean it). Very little expenses and income. It's none of our full time jobs (yet), so when I say small, I can't stress it enough. The extent of the business in 2014 was simple income and simple expenses, nothing else.

We have a 5 person "board", which as I understand means it would be considered a 5 way partnership for tax purposes according to the IRS. Also, from my understanding, this means that each person on the "board" simply adds any profit and deducts any expenses from their own personal income tax based on their percentage of the LLC, and the LLC is only responsible for filing a 1065: Partnership Return of Income form and include a Schedule K-1 for each "board member", which states each member's income/deductions/etc.

IF I am getting this right, it sounds simple enough and seems like I can easily handle the filing myself using software like Turbo Tax.
Do any of you have any experience with LLC tax filing on such a small scale that can tell me if this is in fact something I can handle on my own, or should I look into paying an accountant upwards of $1000-$1500 to handle this for us?

Any feedback is appreciated.

Thanks guys!

[Jakensama]

Your LLC would be considered a partnership, so it needs to file a 1065 which should break down the shares between the partners - who will then report that as self employment income on their own returns. It's not rocket surgery and shouldn't require investing in a tax preparer.

I am, however, unsure if one of the partners being a non domestic filer changes anything - so you should definately look into that. I think you would also have to file a US tax return on your portion of the income from the LLC, but once again I would probably ask around. I found expat forums are often good places for this kind of advice since lots of people have to deal with it.

[Fretty]

Awesome, that's what I thought.
I had it all right then, and you just gave me the confidence that I can handle it on my own (especially considering how simplistic the 2014 year will be for this company).

I definitely have to look into how a non domestic filer has to proceed, as there are two of us that are Canadian.

Thanks again Jake!

[Arsilon]

We have my wife's horse operation set up as an LLC. It couldn't be simpler to do. TurboTax can help you prepare the form 1065 for both state and federal as well as prepare the necessary K-1 forms for your personal taxes If you are not so inclined to prepare them by hand.

[Fretty]

Thanks Arsilon. Do you by chance know if TurboTax will also help with filing any forms necessary for those non domestic members, such as myself?

Also, do you know which version of Turbo Tax will be required to do all of what you mentioned? That sounds like the version I'll need, so I want to make sure I get the right one.

[Arsilon]

Pretty sure we used Home & Business to file for the LLC. I'll have to double check when I get back home on Friday on the specifics. I seem to recall it asking you whether you are a domestic partner or not but no idea what it does if you say yes.

That being said, I'm pretty sure there is no difference in tax treatment for the LLC itself and form K1 should work either way especially if you're just partners and not employees and none are taking a salary where you'd have withholding issue to deal with (we have any payments made to partners set up as Guaranteed Payments instead of Salary so there is no witholding by the LLC and instead partners would pay self-employment taxes on their personal returns -- the guaranteed payment would also be reflected on the K1).

I'll check and let you know what TurboTax says about it when I get home. I thought the whole point of partnership tax treatment is its a total pass through. The only question is if non-domestic partners get a different form than form K1 which I doubt would be the case.

[Fretty]

Thanks a bunch Arsilon.
I appreciate you checking for me when you get home.

I would assume a K1 would get filed for both domestic and non domestic partners, but it's always better to be sure.
And if that is the case, I'm also going to assume that us non domestic partners simply make our payment to the US government in the same manner that domestic partners would (online payment, check, or whatever they accept).