Question

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Sandra would like to organize BAL as either an LLC (taxed as a sole proprietorship) or a C corporation. In either form, the entity is expected to generate an 9 percent annual before-tax return on a $530,000 investment. Sandra’s marginal income tax rate is 37 percent and her tax rate on dividends and capital gains is 23.8 percent (including the 3.8 percent net investment income tax). If Sandra organizes BAL as an LLC, she will be required to pay an additional 2.9 percent for self-employment tax and an additional 0.9 percent for the additional Medicare tax. BAL’s income is not qualified business income (QBI) so Sandra is not allowed to claim the QBI deduction. Assume that BAL will distribute all of its after-tax earnings every year as a dividend if it is formed as a C corporation. (Round your intermediate computations to the nearest whole dollar amount.)

a. How much cash after taxes would Sandra receive from her investment in the first year if BAL is organized as either an LLC or a C corporation?

b.What is the overall tax rate on BAL’s income in the first year if BAL is organized as an LLC or as a C corporation? (Round your final answers to 2 decimal places.)

Answer 1

Part A

	After tax cash flow
LLC	28614
C corporation	28714

Part B

	Overall tax rate
LLC	40.01%
C corporation	39.80%

Explanation

Part A

		LLC	Description	C corp.	Description
1.	Pretax earnings	47700	(530000*9%)	47700	(530000*9%)
2.	Entity level tax rate	0%		21%
3.	Entity level tax	0		10017	(1) × (2)
4.	Earnings after-entity-level tax	47700	(1) – (3)	37683	(1) – (3)
5.	for 50 percent of SE tax	(639)	(1) × 0.9235 ×0.029 × 0.5		NA
6.	Net income taxable to owner	47061	(4) + (5)	37683	(4) distributed as dividend
7.	Income tax paid by owner	17413	(6) × 0.37	7537	(6) × 0.20
8.	Self-employment tax	1277	(1) × 0.9235 × 0.029
9.	Additional Medicare tax/Net investment income tax	396	(1) × 0.9235 × 0.009 additional Medicare tax	1432	(6) × 0.038 net investment income tax
10.	Owner-level tax	19086	(7) + (8) + (9)	8969	(7) + (9)
	After-tax cash flow	28614	(1) – (10)	28714	(6) – (10)

Part B

10.	Owner-level tax	19086	(7) + (8) + (9)	8969	(7) + (9)
	After-tax cash flow	28614	(1) – (10)	28714	(6) – (10)
	Overall tax rate	40.01%	(10)/(1)	39.80%	[(3) + (10)]/(1)

Dear student,

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