[alberto]

I was offered participation in a new electrical contractor bussiness. I am a Master Electrician and currently working on a salary. I am interested in drawing a contract with the people who have organized this company.
Please help me with some of the issues that I should be addressing in that contract. Commissions, liability, whether to work with them as a partner or as an independent contractor, etc. I live in Florida. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Grumpy]

If your a partner you have a high risk for liability. If you are an independant contractor you are at less risk, but will probably also have less reward. Florda is a b!tch of a state when it comes to contractor regulation!

My advice: Seek the advice of a lawyer before you sign anything. A few hundred bucks now might save you millions (literally) in the end.

 

[ABA Const]

you can become a limited partner in the company. they would be the general partners and you would only be liable for the money you put into the company, they can not go after anything personal, etc etc. so the company would be formed as an Limited Partnership (LP) an attorney would be more than willing to draw up the paperwork and set out what percent and rules etc etc. cost would be around 3-5K that is based on what it has cost me for a LLC with partners here in cali through an attorney. indendent contractor you would need to get your own insurance, pay your own taxes, do your own books etc etc.

 

[Teetorbilt]

Alberto, Are you a member of your local builders assoc.? I belong to TCBA (Treasure Coast Builders Assoc.) and they have a couple of attorneys that are available and willing to answer members questions. The longest I have spoken with one was 1/2 hr. about the new Workers Comp. laws. They also give member discounts for contracts, etc.
Grumpy's right about FL being tough and about the attorney. I do very little without professional advice. I think that we're in the lawsuit capital of the world. I'm an S-2 corp, cost about $350 back in the day, I think that it runs about $6-800.00 today.
Don't forget your State Taxes. Your local office offers a 4 hr. course with Q+A afterwards, a day well spent. It will save you having to pay to have the attorney to explain it all to you and wou will be armed to ask him intellegent questions if you have any. You will!
It takes a while to get the ball rolling but I don't think that you'll ever go back. I never will.

 

[Grumpy]

Hey Teetor nice headsup about the QA. I am going to look into that. There is nothing about taxes that doesn't confuse me.

 

[Unregistered]

The FIRST thing I would do is learn how to spell "business".

 

[Teetorbilt]

Grumpy, at the seminar that I attended the guy would have spent all afternoon. I was the last guy standing and had him all to myself for 1/2 hr.
You may find this as interesting as I did. Capitol improvements, windows, doors and anything considered permanent are non-taxable. Then we enter a grey area between capitol and decorative (taxable). False ceiling beams, taxible. cove mouldings, non-taxible, board and bead ceilings over existing ceillng, non-taxible, on and on.
We finally wore each other out. I took his card and he said that if I had any problems to call him. It's 4 yrs. since then and no tax problems, I wonder if I was placed on a special list as all of the other remodelers in this area have had problems with them.

 

[Grumpy]

I think I'm going to give my accountant as much control as possible. He's a smart man and charges a fare (fair?) price for his time. LOL I sent him a tax form the other day asking what to do with it. I said "It's due in 10 days!" He took one glance at it and said "not until 2005" Woops!

I knew various home improvements are tax write offs, and that's something I wanted to discuss with him more in depth so I could work it into my sales presentation. It's still on my todo list.

 

[Teetorbilt]

Grumpy, fill us in on the deductions. I'm sure we all could use the info.

 

[Grumpy]

Teetor, you yourself just stated "Capitol improvements, windows, doors and anything considered permanent are non-taxable" GAF has sales training tapes that tell us to say "Your roof might even be a tax write off, but you should contact your accountant to make sure." I know when I was a child my parent's accountant had them saving all their receipts when they were remodeling.

I'm supposed to meet with my accountant to go over my corporate structure after the tax season. I will make it a point to consult him about these improvement write offs.

 

[Teetorbilt]

I was refering to charging state sales tax.
According to my new CPA there is not much that is a write off. I'm beginning to think that she is just lazy or dosen't want to be bothered. The guy that I had before pulled off some stuff that I really questioned but I'm not the CPA and it never flew back in my face, maybe he was just that good. Wish he hadn't moved to Colorado.

 

[Grumpy]

Teetor you have the copies of the returns so you know what all the write offs were. Tell your new accountant to write off the same stuff. Heck, the first thing my account told me when I switched was "Do you have copies of your previous returns?"

 

[Teetorbilt]

Grumpy, unfortunately the current CPA does not want to stick her neck out very far and it falls upon me to verify that the deductions are current and find any new ones. I am consolidating all of my info and questions as we speak ( I came here to allieviate the boredom). I am looking forward to seeing how she handles the new vehicle deduction as I bought 3 last year. That will establish the make or break point. I already have a guy that reputadley very savvy lined up.
I want to go back to the Bahamas....NO TAXES!

 

[Grumpy]

Find a new cpa, is my advice. When i was interviewing new CPA's I asked them what their standard write offs were. My cpa writes off anything possible without proof. The rest falls on me to show proof, AND he gives me advice to maximize on the return legally.