I need a few details on this if there are any. My objective is to put the business in my wife's name for income deferral if that is possible. I don't intend to do anything dishonest!
How do you change ownership of a sole propietary business?
I'll leave the income deferral to a tax expert.
But to change the business to your wife's name, you would need to have all licenses and registrations changed to her name. Most likely she will have to purchase new licenses, because a sole prop. is tied to you as a person and is not a separate entity that could be purchased. Essentially meaning that she would be starting a new sole prop with your assets, and you would be dissolving your business.
Also, if you are the one doing the work in the business, this may cause issues, because you would then be her employee, and she would be responsible for matching your FICA, medi-care, etc. Also, she would have to pay unemployment- fed and state- and in some state's worker's comp.
Have you considered an LLC? You and your wife could share ownership- you hold 10% and she 90% or however you wanted. This would allow you to remain self-employed and avoid the issues discussed above, and distribute the majority of the income to your wife.
For more information on LLC or other business structures, visit www.nolo.com or contact your local small business development center for free business consulting.
Hope this helps, best of luck.
How do you change ownership of a sole propietary business?
hmmm, i don't know... we sold our business to somoene else, but the name changed and we didnt have to really do anything at all. Contact your state or federal agency where you got your federal ID number and ask them what steps you need to take to transfer ownership.
Just draw up a sheet of paper where you sell her the business for $1. and have it notarized.
On your wife's name? There are many guys that have done things like that and now are sorry. It might looks like a good idea now but if in the future things get bad between both of you, it will be hard or impossible to get the business back.
Besides that, you better talk to a tax accountant to make sure you are not getting into more tax problems; too many tiny legal details can become big problems.
sign up an agreement saying that she now owns the business.
