Lawyers, LLC, & Accountant Questions

ItsYoBuddy

ItsYoBuddy

Rise And Grind!
Apr 6, 2008
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Philly
Just had a few questions about Lawyers, LLC's and Accountants. I know none of you are lawyers or accountants, but if you could give me your experience and how you did the following.

Lawyers and LLC's
I emailed a bunch of lawyers around the area and got two emails back. I could only find 1 lawyer/firm that dealt with internet marketing. They called me back and I asked him a bunch of questions. I asked about getting a terms of service and he said it would cost $3500 per site. Do you even bother getting a terms of service for your site from lawyers? Also asked about getting an LLC and he said it would cost around $700 plus up to $200 for filing and paperwork and what not. And he said $300 for consulting, which I thought was fair.

Another lawyer emailed me back only because I know their family. They said they wouldn't have emailed me back if they didn't know me because internet marketing isn't in their practice(I'm guessing that's the reason why the other lawyers didn't email me back). They said they would charge $700 for an LLC.

One of my family members has an LLC for their company, and it cost $500.

Long story short: Does it matter who I get an LLC through? Will it be the same with any of the lawyers? I cant find if there is any pro's or con's if I use one lawyer to get an LLC compared to another.
Also, $3500 average for a terms of service or you guys dont even bother?

Accountant
I've never had to use an accountant before. Don't really know what to ask him. Any suggestions on going about using a certain type of accountant since there are so many out there? Do you go to your accountant every month/few months or do you just go to him when its tax time?

Only question I can think of is asking him what is considered a write off.

Thanks
 


Maybe try LegalZoom.com? See what kind of pricing they offer for setting up an LLC.
It's worth doing some research and figuring out what kind of leal structure best fits the kind of business that you want to run. There is a great thread Affiliate Marketing section about this (I think it was Jonathan Volk who made the specific post Im thinking of).
There are many different pros and cons to each type of setup - you might be better off with an S-Corp rather than an LLC. Definitely worth doing 45 minutes worth of research before you shell out any money.
 
fuzzybunny said:
There are many different pros and cons to each type of setup - you might be better off with an S-Corp rather than an LLC. Definitely worth doing 45 minutes worth of research before you shell out any money.
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I think he's asking whether he can make an informed decision just researching stuff on the internet, or whether he should talk to a professional about it. Now I don't know the answer to that question but I would be curious what other people have to say.
 
It really depends on how much money you have to spend.

It is always best to consult an attorney for anything legal and an accountant for anything financially related to your business. But, a lot of what they can tell you and do you can do and learn for yourself, i.e set up an llc, "borrow" from similar sites as yours a TOS, and learn how to do your own taxes.
 
peacestone said:
It really depends on how much money you have to spend.

It is always best to consult an attorney for anything legal and an accountant for anything financially related to your business. But, a lot of what they can tell you and do you can do and learn for yourself, i.e set up an llc, "borrow" from similar sites as yours a TOS, and learn how to do your own taxes.
Click to expand...

I have an idea about which accountant I want to use, but I just dont know how things work. I hear people meeting their accountants every month or they send them information every month. Do you just go to the accountant when its tax time?

I could absolutely "borrow" a TOS from another site, but if I get an email/letter that involves me having to take the site down or court related, I rather have the lawyer to go to and they were the ones that wrote the TOS. Hopefully that made sense to you.

fuzzybunny said:
Maybe try LegalZoom.com? See what kind of pricing they offer for setting up an LLC.
It's worth doing some research and figuring out what kind of leal structure best fits the kind of business that you want to run. There is a great thread Affiliate Marketing section about this (I think it was Jonathan Volk who made the specific post Im thinking of).
There are many different pros and cons to each type of setup - you might be better off with an S-Corp rather than an LLC. Definitely worth doing 45 minutes worth of research before you shell out any money.
Click to expand...

I checked out legalzoom before but I rather get it done through a lawyer I can meet face to face rather then a program like legalzoom. Also, I saw a few threads here about S-Corp, LLC, C-Corp, etc. After talking to the lawyer on the phone and reading posts, LLC is definitely the best fit for me. But I was asking, does it matter which type of lawyer I go through to get an LLC? Is there a difference?
 
As for terms of service, I found several automated terms of service creating tools that you can use for free by doing a google search. I would not spend money on that because the free ones are done in 2 minutes and are awesome. I also found an automated privacy statement creator that matched Adsense/Adwords requirements - also free.

On the LLC VS Corp issue, it depends on what products you are promoting and if you are going to have any investor/partners.

If you are doing all clean business (IE-no porn, shady stuff, or anything that might get you into a lawsuit) and don't have any partners the tax benefits from the corp look really good. I went the corp program.

I found an accountant that a relative had used for his taxes every year. The accountant set up the corp for me very cheap - much cheaper than a lawyer costs.

Your accountant can tell you in 10 minutes what structure you want, well worth the small amount of money I spent.

Hope that helps.
 
Go to an accountant, and ask him your questions about corporate structure, if he knows what he's talking about, hire him. references are probably not a bad idea either.

A good accountant will definitely set up a corp or anything else for you. plus he has the benefit of actually being an ACCOUNTANT, so you're probably going to get the best structure for your TAX needs. should be around $3-600. 700 plus 500 on consulting and fees is way high. fucking lawyers. best to think of this as a financial matter, not legal.
 
Thanks for both of your replies. I asked my family member that has their LLC and asked him for his accountant so I can ask him questions about setting up an LLC. They looked at me weird saying, "They don't do that, a lawyer helps you with that." I'm going to talk to the accountant and see what he has to say.

From what it seems, I don't need a lawyer to set up the LLC or s-corp. I can use the accountant for that? I'll have to call and make an appointment to talk to the accountant this weekend.

Thanks for the replies. If anyone else wants to reply with their experience that would be great.
 
Honestly, I will be filing the paperwork myself. Oklahoma has it to where you can print out the forms from the website, which I'm sure most states offer this. This brings down the cost to only the filing fees which are only a drop in the bucket.
 
ItsYoBuddy said:
Thanks for both of your replies. I asked my family member that has their LLC and asked him for his accountant so I can ask him questions about setting up an LLC. They looked at me weird saying, "They don't do that, a lawyer helps you with that." I'm going to talk to the accountant and see what he has to say.

From what it seems, I don't need a lawyer to set up the LLC or s-corp. I can use the accountant for that? I'll have to call and make an appointment to talk to the accountant this weekend.

Thanks for the replies. If anyone else wants to reply with their experience that would be great.
Click to expand...

Thats tru you dont need a lawyer or an accountant to set one up. Most states make it incredibly easy and only require like one or two pages of paperwork. Most states also only charge like $50-$100 to file an LLC. If you goto your states website you should be able to easily find the documents you need.

Legalzoom and lawyers get you because they try to be your "agent" and you pay a yearly fee for that. That basically allows you to live in say Michigan, but file for an LLC in New Mexico. That way you can benefit from the "lax" tax laws but still comply with that states rules of having to have an office in that state. Dont fall for LegalZooms over priced solutions... Just do some research on your states website.
 
one resource you may want to check out is mycorporation.com. when i was looking at forming an LLC, it looked like a pretty decent deal...
i believe they provide all the paperwork and filing for you, and i think it's only a couple hundred $$ depending on which package you choose.
 
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