Small Hobby producer and LLC

[devils11217]

Very Small hobby producer, Approx 120 taps.... Pondering all the legal sides of maple producing... How did everyone go about forming an LLC? Is it a hard process? Does the state perform inspections? Currently only sell word of mouth but would like to add to local deli counters and such.. Wondering if forming an LLC is going to open a large can of worms or should i just continue selling for fun out of my home.. Any input or direction would be greatly appreaciated.

[Moser's Maple]

Forming an LLC is our instance was easy. We contacted a lawyer and went in and did the necessary paperwork and percentage of each brother (3 of us). gave a list of the assets that the operations owns, gave a list of insurances. The lawyer checked to see if our business name was taken, or if available, them we decided while we were doing the paperwork to make sure we trademarked our name and logo. All said an done, a few months later, because your business has to be published for public viewing and around $1700 later we had our EIN number. Be prepared to show all income and expenses. Be prepared to set up a sales tax id number for doing wholesale with a store. be prepared to get product liability (about $400 for $1,000,000 a year) be prepared to ask for stores tax exemption certificate for wholesale business. A LLC protects you personally, and has advantages when it comes time for business deductions (legally) vs. a DBA. A LLC can effect your unemployee if ever need to use, but if you are a seasonal business then less likely, if year round then you may have to claim you are working 1 day a week. All in all the LLC IMO has made our life a lot easier.

[Urban Sugarmaker]

I formed an LLC in NY for another business myself (without a lawyer) for about $550 including all publication fees and requirements. You can file these online via the Department of State's website. I definitely recommend consulting an attorney if you are sharing the business with others and there's assets involved. As I said, my filing was for a different business and that's why I didn't use an attorney. I also did not have to trademark anything for that business. One thing your should absolutely NOT pay for is an EIN. It's free and takes about 5 minutes to get on the IRS website. There are services out there that will solicit you to file your EIN and charge up to $200. Total scam. There's other things like a certificate of good standing that people will solicit as well. Not necessary.