Should I incorporate?

Should I incorporate? I'm a real estate agent on commission. I pay all my own expenses. If I incorporate I can write off some of those expenses. So... incoporate or not?

The decision to incorporate or not has a lot of ramifications. If you're not sure whether you should or shouldn't incorporate you might take a small business class at the local community college. Just an idea.

I have a couple of friends in real estate. I asked them if they had incorporated and they all said, "Yes." Of course, everyone is different.

Do you have an accountant you can run this question by? I remember talking to mine while he was doing my taxes last year and he was very helpful giving advice on this subject. My biz is very small and i ended up setting it up a sole proprietorship since i can't do major write-offs and would rather not deal with separate tax forms to handle personal and corp. business.

You should consult with both a lawyer (or get prepaid legal services if you can't afford a lawyer!) and your accountant (that understands accounting for real estate agents). Before you do that, read this article to get a good idea of what kind of questions you should ask.

Peace,
Terri Z

Thanks for the input and the link.

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Incorporating yourself has little to do with writing off expenses.

"Writing off" is often a misunderstood term. It simply means the expenses incurred while conducting business, etc. is money that you need not pay taxes on. It doesn't matter whether, you are an individual, a sole proprieter, a partnership, a corporation, an S-Corporation, a limited liability company or a limited liability partnership. All expenses should be kept track of and given to your accountant at tax time. When you form an entity like a corporation or LLC, they are treated as separate entities from yourself--in most (not all) cases.

In most states, both the individual, and the corporation he owns shares in are taxed. That sometimes can be disadvantageous.

You should talk to a lawyer, and have him/her explain your options.