Retroactivly claiming my business?

[LTParis]

For about 9 months I have been running my business as just an extension of my person, a sole proprietorship. But I would like to change that up soon and "restart" my business as a LLC. I have some questions:

1. Is it possible to retroactively "start" my business for the purpose of taxes for last year?
2. Is it possible to claim capital investments retroactively?

I ask because I made significant capital investments (well significant compared to the money I made) last year and don't want to lose out on any tax benefit I may be able to obtain.

[vangogh]

This isn't my area of expertise, but I wanted to respond to help keep your thread active.

I did a little research and it looks like you can set a prior date when incorporating, however you're limited to 75 days prior. See line 8 on form 8832 (PDF) (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8832.pdf). I don't think it's possible to go back 9 months. It's one of those things the IRS expects you to think about from the start. This is probably something you want to talk to an account or attorney about. Depending on what you invested and how the company is or is going to pay you back perhaps there's a way to still get some benefit from the investment.

[Evan]

No, you can't retroactively "start" your business through a different legal entity that didn't exist at the time.

I'm a bit uncertain to your question about claiming prior capital investments retroactively. Wouldn't you be capitalizing that as a contribution when the entity was formed? Generally you incur startup costs prior to beginning operations, and those costs are capitalized once your operations begin.