Do-it-yourself Illinois S Corporation Kit

Ready for your own S corporation?

To be frank, setting up an S Corporation in the state of Illinois costs way too much. The filing fees for incorporating a business or setting up a limited liability company rank near highest in the country. And Illinois also includes a mandatory $100 expedited fee on all submitted Articles of Incorporation and Articles of Organization forms.

Considering all this, you don't want to add to the burden by also paying hundreds of dollars or more to accountants and attorneys to set up an S Corporation for you when you can easily do the work yourself.

Furthermore, to help you with this work, I've written and sell two affordable do-it-yourself kits explaining how to turn your business into an S corporation using either of two common approaches, one approach using an LLC and one approach using a traditional corporation.

Note: Both LLCs and corporations can be the starting point from which you create an S Corporation, which is why I publish two kits. You file Articles of Organization to set up an Illinois LLC and Articles of Incorporation to set up an Illinois corporation.

Version 1: Using an LLC to Make Your Illinois Subchapter S Entity

The LLC version of my Illinois S Corporation e-book describes the benefits and drawbacks of forming an LLC in the state of Illinois and making a Subchapter S election. The e-book includes detailed instructions for the three big steps in this process: setting up your LLC, obtaining a federal Employer Identification Number, and making the election to have your LLC treated as an S Corporation. As a bonus, I include two sample LLC operating agreements, one for single member Illinois LLCs and one for multiple member Illinois LLCs. (LLC owners are called "members," in case you want to know.).

Note: While an LLC is not a corporation, it can still elect to be treated as an S Corporation for tax purposes. Many attorneys and accountants, including myself, prefer using an LLC over a regular corporation, therefore, because LLCs are easier to manage. For example, you don't with an LLC need to worry about regular meetings with the board of directors or annual shareholders' meetings or anything like that.

Version 2: Using a Traditional corporation to Make Your Illinois Subchapter S Entity

If you're really set on having a true corporation, perhaps so you can have "corporation" or "inc." somewhere in your business's name, instead of "LLC", I publish a kit for that too.

The traditional corporation kit option, for example, discusses the benefits of using a regular corporation to set up your S Corporation, as well as detailed steps for incorporating your business in Illinois, for getting a federal Employer Identification Number for your business, and for making the election to have your corporation treated as an S Corporation. I include sample corporate bylaws with the kit, which can be used as a starting point for creating your own corporate bylaws by you or your attorney.