How do you take money out of your business if you are not paying yourself a salary?
I have a Single Member LLC which I believe is categorized as a Type C Corporation. The business has it’s own EIN and a business checking account. I don’t believe I am considered an Employee of the business because I own the business.
If it matters the business is incorporated in New Jersey.
The usual means is to make yourself loans which you pay off from the profits at the end of the year.
It’d be really unusual for a single person business to be a C-Corp. S-Corp would be much more likely. And an LLC can’t be either of those things. So first things first, you need to get your facts and terminology straight.
All the above is Federal tax law, so NJ or elsewhere doesn’t matter. Although NJ certainly has their own taxes & rules you do need to know about.
At the 10,000 foot level:
As a payment matter, the business writes a check from the business account payable to the owner(s). Who then deposit in it their personal checking or investment accounts. The amount can be as much as you think the business doesn’t need to retain to pay future routine bills or to fund future capital investment = buy more plant & equipment to produce more revenue.
As an accounting matter, the accumulating profits of the business accrue into the owner’s equity account. Which can be paid out as dividends in a C-corp as or a simple payment to the owner(s) in an S-corp. Which payment increments those accounts and decrements OE.
As a tax matter S-corp, AKA flow through, taxation means the entire accounting profit of the business is applied to the personal income (and hence tax return) of the owner(s). C-corps are different, more complex, and have their own tax returns.
If your LLC has elected taxation as a subchapter C Coporation, then you are an employee of the company and must be paid reasonable compensation for the job duties you perform. This is reported to you on form W-2 and taxes paid on a variety of federal and state forms. Note: some states have special treatment for owner-employees of corporations (for example, Washington), but the federal government does consider you an employee.
A C corp can also pay you dividends as a shareholder, which are reported on form 1099-DIV and taxable to you.
I think you probably need to go to your tax advisor on this one, though. Who helped you make the C election? It’s rarely the recommended structure for an SMLLC. Don’t rely on a message board, no matter how qualified anyone here might be.