S corps have some limitations: (from IRS.gov)
Be a domestic corporation
Have only allowable shareholders
May be individuals, certain trusts, and estates and
May not be partnerships, corporations or non-resident alien shareholders
Have no more than 100 shareholders
Have only one class of stock
Not be an ineligible corporation (i.e. certain financial institutions, insurance companies, and domestic international sales corporations).
Are the rules the same with an LLC electing to be taxed as an S Corp?
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Yes. Same requirements. Sure for IRS purposes you can just check the box, but it is good to remember that s corps have governance requirements that are inconsistent with most "off the shelf" LLC operating agreements.
My advice is that if you want an s Corp, form a corporation. Any perceived cost savings for going the LLC taxed as s route will likely be chewed up in the course of drafting an S-compliant operating agreement, especially if you have multiple members.
I disagree with some of the stuff in both of the above statements.
For one thing, the legal requirements of operating a true corporation are significantly more that the legal requirements of operating an LLC. LLCs are, in essence, "lite" corporations. Like "lite" beer. Or "lite" salad dressing. Think about some of the things that you are typically supposed to do one with a corporation: annual shareholder meetings, electing a board of directors, regular board meetings, electing corporate officers, etc.
Note: Agree that an off-the-shelf LLC operating agreement often would not address typical S corporation issues. But that deficiency appears in off the shelf corporate by-laws, too. I.e., they can skip or omit stuff that's important and revelent to an S corporation and its shareholders.
Finally, another big advantage of operating as an LLC is that you can operate as a disregarded entity during the startup phase and during the wind up phase. I.e., that first year or two with an LLC? And that last year or two? You can operate as a sole proprietorship. That'll mean you can probably prepare your tax returns yourself, avoid payroll taxes, etc.
The corporation option doesn't let you do that.