What is the best type of company for photography.

[sebbomar]

Hello:

I am ready to set up a photography business. I wondering should I set up a corporation or just do a doing business as. What suggestions do you have and why?

[Rolland]

Steve,
Do you belong to PPA? They now offer great help on the business side as well as photo technique side. If I remember right, I took their week long course at the Texas School, a Coproration S type would be the way to go if you are making really good money. Reason, you can count 60% of the profits as dividends so you don't have to pay Social Security tax on that. Down side is that I think Texas has some type of corporate tax. If you don't belong to the Texas Professional Photographers and the Professional Photographers of America you should. There is a wealth of information to be learned and with the TPPA the prices are rightl
Rolland

[sebbomar]

Thanks for that info.

[haraki74]

Consult a reputable accountant. Each situation is different and they can help you decide which business set-up is right for your situation.

[Rolland]

Yes by all means consult a reputable accountant.

[Rolland]

PPA does offer an accounting service for pro photographers, they are not cheap but they definately know all of the ins and outs of the accounting business as it applies to photography. There are legal deductions that apply to photography that most accounts don't know anything about. Part of that 5 day course I took this spring was from the head of accounting for PPA.
http://www.ppa.com/splash.cfm

[Steelsun]

As the above had stated, contact an accountant.
Several factors should be considered when deciding on what kind of company you set up:
1) Annual revenue
2) Self Salary
3) Projected number of employees
4) Location (city/county property & business use taxes)
5) Type of services offered (i.e. easier architecture type shoots as opposed to potential litigious youth/event/wedding/budoir shooting, etc)

[Happyfunball]

I just went through this process and ended up going with an LLC. I am doing photography part-time for now, and wanted a structure that had low accounting and overall maintenance requirements, low startup costs, and good legal distance between me and the company for liability, credit, etc. For me, the LLC format worked.

To give you an idea of costs, I worked with a lawyer here in the Austin area who did the whole thing for around $1000, including state filing fees ( $300), writing up my bylaws, charter, stock cert, filing state and federal forms, etc. He is also a CPA, so he included the initial accounting pieces along with guidance on starting up the company so the IRS doesn't come looking for you later on...