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converting sole proprietorship
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Ken
I am interested in obtaining some information on changing my small CCTV and Fire Alarm business from a sole proprietorship to an LLC. Is this something that you help your clients do? Are there any benefits to doing this besides limiting personal liability? What are the costs to do this?
Any information or advice you can provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.
Adam
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Response
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It's foolish to conduct your security business in your name or as a sole proprietorship. There are many reasons to support that statement, and I really can't think of a single benefit to continuing business in your own name.
You already know about the liability issue, no personal liability for contractual debts and other exposures you now face [not all, but many]. How the new tax law will effect your business is not yet clear to me, but there won't be any tax benefit to not incorporating.
Especially for a single owner operation it makes little difference if you're an LLC or sub S corp. The LLC won't file it's own tax return and annual filing fees with the state may be different. However, unless the new tax law has some favorable treatment for the LLC, and I don't think it does, you are probably better off with the sub S corp. If there are multiple owners then the LLC may have a few advantages.
A few things to remember:
- you should decide on an entity, get it formed and start using it first thing in 2018
- check with tax expert, accountant or tax attorney [Mitch Reitman is alarm industry expert for this] and check if there are any tax issues transferring your current operation to the new entity. Should be no tax consequences.
- You will need new contracts for the new entity. Get the updated contracts and start your new business on the right foot. The 2018 sale will be in a few days so watch for it and order as soon as it comes out so you don't have to wait too long for the contracts.
- You will need new bank accounts and stationary
- Very important: notify the licensing agency that you are now qualifying for the new entity. The new entity will need to be licences
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more on fines
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Ken
Re: All in One coverage / fining the alarm co December 21, 2017
Glad to see Leo sold his alarm company. Since he's in California maybe
he can use the proceeds of the sale and fund an entry into the marijuana business.
Al
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Ken
RE: Dec.21 Newsletter False Alarms vs. UPR.
Ken and Leo share their conflicting opinions, yet both can be correct. Which highlights an issue that has been debated for many years and now culminating in a big hurt for the alarm industry. The alarm industry calls it “False Alarms”, law enforcement calls it “Unnecessary Police Response, UPR”; not the same but both are correct with different responsibilities and perspectives. A good example of the public/private conflict can be found on the Washington and Oregon Alarm Association website, WAESA. Search for the “Alarm Ordinance Matrix”. It identifies the time and court tested policy/ordinance for about 50 communities serviced by the membership. This one regional Association is experiencing the full range of conflict, VR-Verified Response; SR-Subsidy Recovery; BF-Broadcast & File; ECV(C); No permits/registration; Collector of permit fees; (much more). The diversity and disclosure is frightening as compared with a decade ago. Monitoring firms “.. aint got no respect…”. Also, Leo referenced a new California law that prevents munis from billing licensed monitoring firms for false alarms…. which seems to be more PR than substance… Fontana CA is example of court tested work-around. Plus, Class-Action litigation is in motion in another state to exempt the alarm customer from the actions of their licensed monitoring firms. Yes, they can try to off-load the fees/fines to their customer.
Lee Jones
Support Services Group
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Fire alarm won't set from Dec 25, 2017 article
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Ken,
Your answer to ''fire alarm won’t test’’ reminds me of Car Talk’s answer about electric brakes. The following week a listener wanted a philosophical question answered, ‘’Do two people who don’t know what they’re talking about know more of less than one person who doesn’t know what he’s talking about?’'
You should have told the A. Ferg to go to his code book and look up ‘’line seizure.’’ Since the 9 in the dial sequence indicates a premise telephone system send A. Ferg the attached.
I would think the state fire marshal and the school insurance carrier would want to know about this situation?
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