Customer Reviews

Profits, Taxes & LLCs (Series 200: Investors & Businesses)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I gave Mr. Crouch 5 stars because it is obvious that he is not simply repeating the same old thing I can find in most other books relating to corporations and LLCs and their benefits. He walks you through most of the technical matters in a tutorial way, explaining the significance of different laws and what they say & don't say. He provides much food for thought that I found nowhere else. He is a breath of fresh air after reading extensively on these topics. This book should be on your shelf if you own, manage, or have a need to learn about LLCs.

The book is very detailed about the financial. Hard to understand and I have several degrees. I have taken graduate course in accounting and was a tax preparer and still found it difficult to understand what he's taking about. Overall it a reference book, but leaves some questions unanswered and might not help in doing the bookkeeping for a new LLC you just formed.

Although a couple of initial chapters are dedicated to general LLC formation issues, the bulk of the text is dedicated to tax issues and explanation of tax forms. The author does a thorough job covering everything you wanted to know about LLC taxation, presenting information not readily found elsewhere. This book compliments other "How to form an LLC" books very well.

This book was not what I expected after reading the other reviews. It only covers LLC's for California, which according to the author is similar to other State laws. The book spends most of it's time explaining how to fill out forms for starting a LLC and how to fill out tax return forms. I had trouble staying awake long enough to turn the page. I had a basic idea of what a LLC is before I starting reading the book. When I finished, I hadn't learned anything new of value.

I liked the approach. It's not a recipe for starting an LLC (there are plenty of those out there). It is more like background reading about the philosophy driving how LLCs are taxed, and what that means for how the LLC income is distributed and reported. Lots on maintaining capital accounts. There was a fair amount I ignored -- California and real estate specific information -- but the rest was very helpful. Chapter 5 on tax forms and Chapter 7 on partnership rules were especially useful.

I found the material important and well explained but the diagrams are completely irrelevant and useless. Its focus on California was especially useful for selfish reasons. I also recommend Nolo's "Form Your Own Limited Liability Company" as a general guide that is very well written. Crouch's book is useful if you are in California, however.

Lack of index in any book diminishes its usefulness, especially the ones that deal with how-to material. This one is no exception.

Very dry, not particularly insightful, lots of text copied wholesale from the tax code. A better text is
Tax Savvy for Small Business: Year-round Tax Strategies to Save You Money
by Frederick W. Daily

This book had a few good pointers, but concentrates on California law, which differs from other states in some regards. I was not impressed with the quality of the writing. I would not buy it again.

i just used the "search inside this book!" feature to read the first couple of paragraphs of this book; that's all i've read, but that's all i had to read to feel qualified to write a review. here, try it yourself. it amounts to a simple test: if your eyes haven't glazed over by the time you reach the middle of the second paragraph, this book may be for you.

"In our Introduction, we tipped you off that an LLC (Limited Liability Company) had some of the operating characteristics of a proprietorship, a partnership, and a corporation. We refer to these three entity types as the "traditional forms" for making money and distributing the net earnings. As such, an LLC can be thought of as a fourth entity form for conducting business.

"An LLC can conduct any kind of business which is not illegal, and which is not precluded by other legislative acts. The term "other legislative acts" pertains to those special laws (state and federal) that are directed at banking, insurance, financial services, public utilities, churches, charities, exempt organization [sic] (pension plans, hospitals, labor unions), private foundations, consumer cooperatives, and the like. In other words, where a special law exists for the creation of an entity other than the three traditional forms, the activity of a prescribed entity is off limits for LLC purposes. Still, this leaves much to the entrepreneurial imagination of the founders, owners, and managers of an LLC."

yes, you read that right: "...where a special law exists for the creation of an entity other than the three traditional forms, the activity of a prescribed entity is off limits for LLC purposes."

i understand perfectly. put into layman's terms, it means, "DO NOT BUY THIS BOOK UNDER PENALTY OF DEATH BY BEWILDERMENT."

i, for one, hear and obey.