Can I have multiple business activities under one LLC?

Question

I'm a single member LLC. I'm involved in several businesses. 1) photography- actual business involvement trying to sell photos 2) real estate- expended money actively searching and reviewing income producing real estate investments and 3) invested small portion in an interest bearing note yielding only interest income for now. May be converted to equity stake. To keep it simple for now, can i consolidate all the expenses incurred to search for realestate and buying photo equipment under the same LLC? So far, only received interest income and minor income from photo sales which have not exceeded the expenses to date. thanks

Answer 1

Yes, you can. We have 3 separate business units under one LLC. But, talk to your accountant about how to set it up.

Answer 2

You really should speak with a CPA, or a tax professional, or your state's small business bureau, as it's a tough call.

Can a business like Best Buy install car radios, offer tech support for computers AND sell DVDs under one corporation, or do they have separate corporations managed by an umbrella corp?

In any case, a business is allowed to invest its money as its governance so chooses. So what you could do, is form three LLCs. One for your photography, one for your real estate, and one responsible for managing the other two. Funnel all your profits into the management company, and distribute investment interest to each of the other two companies.

Or simply form two LLCs, one for photography and one for real estate, invest enough capital into the photography LLC to get it off the ground, and manage the two companies separately.

Or you could have one LLC for real estate, which then invests its profits, and register your photography company as a sole proprietorship.

Answer 3

You will want to talk to a CPA about this. There may be tax advantages to keeping them separate. In terms of business sense it's always best to keep things separate for the sake of ease of accounting. However, have you thought about creating a third legal entity that would serve as a holding company for anything you may do. After all, there's nothing that says any holding company can't own a photo business and a Real Estate business. But for tax and accounting purposes, the businesses themselves and their related incomes and expenses should always be kept separate.

Answer 4

multiple business activities llc