@DonMeixner I had a subchapter S corporation some years ago.
Betty was right that you need to act like a business, but she didn’t go far enough.
If you have a corporation, subchapter S or LLC, you have to run it like a corporation. Have to as in ’must’. You need to hold ‘meetings’, keep minutes, whatever else your lawyer says you must do as a corporation, or you do not in fact have a corporation, you are just a sole proprietor making believe you have a corporation. It won’t matter until you are challenged and required to document that you are in fact running a corporation.
Having a corporation makes you the president. The difference between a corporation president and a jeweler with a corporation is the the president of a larger corporation was hired to do the job, and he / she wants to be a corporation president. In the case of an LLC jeweler, you are not a corporate executive who wants to do that work, you want to make jewelry. You will not think or act like a corporation president, you will act like a self-employed jeweler, and in that way you will run the risk of being declared not a real corporation if challenged (by someone suing you or by the IRS perhaps).
A main reason for an individual to have a corporation to limit your liability is to not lose your house and savings if someone sues you. The person who sues you will not be an individual, it will be his / her lawyer. Lawyers know full well individuals having a corporation almost never do it right year after year, and that lawyer will know to challenge the legitimacy of your LLC, to get all they can from you.
I’m just someone who once had a limited experience with this, years ago. You need to sit down with a lawyer and find out all the details in your state, for these days. you need to find out how to deal with ‘meetings’ and minutes, and whatever other requirements there may be, some of which may seem nonsensical to you - how do you hold a meeting with just you? How do you send out notices of the meeting? (Hold meetings with your lawyer…)
You need to do it right, or it won’t count when you need it to.
Regards,
Neil A