Do I need an LLC for event planning business? How else can I get a business bank account?

The main question is how involved your friends actually are in this business. Are they just helping out, or are they true business partners who share in decision-making and profits? For simplicity, a single-member LLC might be easiest. Yes, it would flow through to your personal taxes via Schedule C, but you'd still have liability protection. You could pay your friends as independent contractors if they're just helping out occasionally. If they're true business partners though, a multi-member LLC would be more appropriate. This would be taxed as a partnership by default, meaning the LLC would file Form 1065, and each member would receive a Schedule K-1 showing their share of profits/losses to report on their personal returns. With 10 people, that could get messy quickly. Consider whether all 10 truly need to be members, or if some could be employees or contractors instead. You'd need a solid operating agreement defining everyone's roles, profit-sharing arrangements, and decision-making authority. For the business bank account, once you have your LLC paperwork and EIN, most banks will set that up fairly easily. Just bring your LLC formation documents and EIN confirmation.

After spending months trying to organize my business finances for tax season, I found this service called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that's been ridiculously helpful for sorting through business structure questions like yours. I was in a similar spot with my photography side hustle last year - wasn't sure whether to go single-member LLC or something else. Their system analyzed my business activities and recommended the most tax-efficient structure based on my specific situation. It also helped me understand exactly which expenses were deductible for my business type. What I liked most was getting clear explanations about how different business structures would impact my taxes specifically. For event planning with multiple people involved, they'd probably help sort out whether you need all 10 people as official members or if there's a more efficient way to structure it while still recognizing everyone's contributions.

Just wanted to update about my experience with taxr.ai since I was skeptical in my earlier comment. I decided to try it out for my small woodworking business, and it was actually super helpful. The platform walked me through a bunch of questions about my business activities and financial situation. What surprised me was how specific the advice was - they explained exactly how different structures would affect my self-employment taxes and what deductions I'd be eligible for. They even showed me how to properly categorize my workshop space expenses to maximize deductions without raising red flags with the IRS. I ended up going with a single-member LLC based on their recommendation, and it's working out great so far. Definitely cleared up a lot of the confusion I had about business structures and taxes.

If you're struggling to get an EIN and set up a business account quickly, I'd recommend checking out Claimyr (https://claimyr.com). I was stuck trying to get through to the IRS for WEEKS to get my EIN issues sorted out, which was holding up my business banking. They have this cool service where they basically get you to the front of the IRS phone queue. I was super frustrated until I found them - you can see how it works in this quick video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. I got through to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes instead of the 2+ hours I'd been waiting before. Got my EIN situation cleared up right away and was able to open my business account that same week. Especially since you need to sort out the multi-member vs. single-member question, getting quick access to an IRS agent who can answer specific questions about your situation is super valuable.

I feel stupid for doubting Claimyr in my comment yesterday. I had been trying to get through to the IRS for TWO WEEKS about my new LLC's EIN situation. Was getting desperate because my bank wouldn't let me open the business account without sorting this out first. Decided to give Claimyr a shot even though I was skeptical. The system called me back in about 20 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line! Got my EIN issues resolved in one call, and the agent even answered my questions about how to handle the multi-member tax filing. Just wanted to update since I was the one questioning it. For anyone dealing with IRS issues while setting up a business, this literally saved me weeks of headaches.

My two cents as someone who went through this last year: don't overcomplicate it. If you're only making a few hundred bucks per event, a single-member LLC is probably overkill, let alone a multi-member one with 10 people. Have you considered just operating as a sole proprietor and tracking your business income/expenses separately? You can still get a business bank account as a sole proprietor with just an EIN. Then you could just pay your friends as contractors or have an informal profit-sharing arrangement. The paperwork and annual fees for maintaining an LLC in most states might not be worth it for occasional parties. If you do decide to grow it into something bigger, you can always form an LLC later.

Has anyone mentioned S-Corps yet? If this event business starts making decent money, you might want to look into an S-Corp election down the road. You can start as an LLC and then elect S-Corp status later. The advantage is potentially saving on self-employment taxes since you can pay yourself a reasonable salary and take the rest as distributions that aren't subject to SE tax. But it's only worth it once you're making enough profit to offset the additional paperwork and accounting costs.