As a Silicon Valley small business attorney, I am regularly helping new clients with choosing their form of entity. Almost as often, I am asked to help new clients complete entity formations that they did themselves on-line. Much too often I have to tell these small business owners that their intent to save money by forming the entity on-line is going to cost them a lot more money because they picked the wrong entity for their business and we need to dissolve it and form a new one. More than once I have had licensed California contractors come to me to complete the California LLCs they formed, only to have to tell them that they are not eligible to be LLCs. There was even more confusion when the LLC law changed as of January 1, 2011 to allow LLCs to be licensed as contractors, but the Contractor State License Board was not licensing LLCs.
Back in January 2011 I wrote about the change to the California Limited Liability Company Act to allow contractors to operate as LLCs. However, until now contractors could not actually form as LLCs because the California Contractor State License Board had not yet changed their rules to allow the issuance of licenses to LLCs. Finally, the Contractor State License Board is now authorized to issue a contractor’s license to an LLC.
Keep in mind that if you are going to operate as a licensed contractor in an LLC, your business will be subject to additional liability and insurance requirements. A contractor-LLC must either have a $1,000,000 insurance policy, or put $1,000,000 in cash into an escrow or deposit account. If the contractor-LLC has more than five employees, it must have an additional $100,000 of insurance or deposits for each employee (not including the first five), up to a maximum of $5,000,000.
It is also crucial to make sure your contractor-LLC stays in good standing with the California Secretary of State. In the event the licensed contractor-LLC is suspended at any time, each member who is a licensed contractor will be personally liable for up to $1,000,000 in damages as a result of the licensed activities of the LLC during a time in which it is suspended. Since one of the main reasons you would operate in an LLC is to insulate the members from personal liability, make sure you have a good LLC lawyer, or a business lawyer that is very experienced with forming and maintaining LLCs, that will remind you to file your statement of information when due, and a good accountant who will make sure your California income tax returns are filed on time and the LLC’s franchise taxes and gross receipts fees are paid when due.
Source: Spidell’s California Taxletter, Feb. 1, 2012, vol 34.2 p 16.
If you are a California contractor and would like to find out if an LLC is the right choice of entity for your company, please contact Structure Law Group, LLP to help you evaluate your options and form your company correctly.