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:)

I forgot to file one year (still paid the $800 on time) and got hit with a $500 fine that there was no way around.

That LLC made -$1300 that year.

Yea similar story. Had a partner and thought we would do a startup. Wanted to be all official so formed a LLC in CA. At the end of the year we had no revenue, and just some source code we had been plugging away at for the year. So our biggest two expenses were: $800 “standard fuck you” tax from California and about $400 to a CPA to write “$0” on a bunch of federal and state tax forms. After a couple of years of that we decided what we were working on was an expensive hobby rather than a startup and dissolved.

In other words, both of you were idiots. Sitting on your butt and programming is not a business. It doesn't make sense to form a company unless you are actually running a business.

FYI -- You and your partner could have formed a general partnership, gotten a separate TIN from the FTB and IRS, and registered a ficticous business name with the county. When the company is ready to sell software, you can transition from a GP to an LLC. Your CPA should have told you this; get a better one next time.

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