Buying a home when you're self-employed

Robbie wrote: from my perspective (having only done this once with US bank), banks make the whole "more gage" process such a joke. Loan officers have no power to make decisions. Their only job is to play human telephone from the underwriter to the customer and back. And the underwriters have no power to make decisions, their only job is to type the customer info (that was relayed to them from the loan officer) into a computer and click enter, then call the loan officer to tell them what the computer says. And the computers are not designed to appreciate extenuating circumstances. All in all, what could be done INSTANTLY by putting the customer in direct connection with the computer program, actually takes weeks and has tons of frustrating miscommunication. And it only costs the customer more money because their loan is paying to employ the loan officer and the underwriter. mort-al, mort-uary, postmort-em, mort-ician, mort-gage.

While this may be true at USBank, it is not true at all at the bank I work at (mid-size regional bank, mostly commercial)

EvanB wrote:

John Welsh wrote: In reply to Nick (Bo) Comstock: Life's been good to me so far.

Does your Maserati do 185?

I haven't bought one... yet!

I have a limo and ride in the back.

She should be W2'ing some income out of that LLC. A nominal amount, not only does it let you make estimated tax payments through payroll, but it also lets you directly fund a 401k and take advantage of the tax benefits there.

I've been self employed for twelve years now, W2'd every one of them for part of my income. The rest I do direct owner draw.

In reply to docwyte:

Her accountant tells her since she is not an employee but a partner she cannot be on the payroll. Therefore no W2

Sure she can. I'm not an employee, I'm the owner and I can W2 myself, you can always add yourself to the payroll and pay yourself a salary. Get a different accountant!

There are other implications.

ALL employees need to be treated the same.

If you are an employee, anything the company funds for you must also be funded for all other employees (healthcare, 401k, etc are the big ones normally).

If there are no non-owning employees, its really no difference, but it can be for say an insurance agency or a contractor.

Yes, I have to have a 401k for my employees too. Not a problem, I want one for me.

Are you having to pay self employed tax? If so, your going to want to set up an S Corp...

Appreciate your opinion doc. Don't believe you're right in this matter.

Hey, I'm not an accountant for sure. However I've been self employed/owner for 12 years now and have W2'd/payrolled myself every year.

If you can't do that, something funky is going on.