The Other Tax Deadline

April 15th.  It’s a day that’s become seared into the memory of millions of taxpayers each year as they eagerly gather their forms for that nice big refund or perhaps wait until the last minute to make their reluctant contribution to Uncle Sam’s coffers. But depending on how you’ve organized your business, there may be an even more important date on your calendar: the corporate tax deadline on March 15th.

For some types of businesses like sole proprietorships and some single member LLCs, the middle of March is nothing more than another day on the business calendar. However, if you’ve set up your business as a partnership or an S-corporation, you may want take the advice Julius Caesar so flippantly ignored and beware the Ides of March.

For LLCs, or Limited Liability Corporations, things are a little different.  Single member LLCs are frequently treated the same way as a sole proprietorship: you simply include the income and expenses on Schedule C of your personal tax return and file by April 15th.  The IRS charitably calls these “Disregarded Entities.”

It gets a little trickier with multiple member LLCs. By default, these organizations are treated as partnerships, file form 1065 for their taxes and have their return due by March 15th. However, just like grammar rules, there are always exceptions.

If the LLC remains a partnership, it can file form 7004 by March 15, and receive a six-month extension to file.

By filing form 8832, an LLC can elect to be treated as a corporation for tax purposes. If so, their return will be due on April 15th. Generally, you can’t decide these things at the last minute. The election cannot take effect more than 75 days prior to the date the election is filed, nor can it take effect later than 12 months after the date the election is filed.

Did we mention exceptions?

For S-corporations working under a calendar year, the deadline is March 15th.  The only difference is that they use form 1120 as their basic form rather than form 1065.

For traditional corporations working under a calendar year, C-corps for short, the filing deadline was recently changed, so they will have to file their return or an extension by April 15th.

Understanding the different filing requirements and figuring out which organization provides the best advantage for your business can be well… taxing. 

Full disclosure - we are not CPAs or tax professionals, just long-time business owners. For more information, consult your accountant or your tax professional. In the meantime, you can check out more information about LLCs, S-corps and the filing deadlines.