Can I transfer self-employed income into LLC?
An LLC is a very flexible company when it comes to taxation.  You have three basic tax options: There are other good reasons to create an LLC (mainly to protect your personal assets) so even if you decide that you don't want to deal with the complications of an S-Corp LLC, you should still consider creating a sole proprietorship LLC.
If you're simply trading with your own money and have not incorporated, then you are not eligible for a solo 401(k).  Nerdwallet has an excellent Q&A on the topic here for example.  Solo 401(k) is only allowed to be funded with earned income, and capital gains are not earned income. From the IRS page on One Participant 401(k) plans: Elective deferrals up to 100% of compensation (“earned income” in the case of a self-employed individual) up to the annual contribution limit Earned income is defined by the IRS here: But not including: Even more clearly, that page notes: There are two ways to get earned income: You work for someone who pays you or You own or run a business or farm Capital gains are certainly neither of these. Now, I have read several articles suggesting one way to go about using the Solo 401k.  All of them suggest that you would need to incorporate in some fashion that would require a Schedule C tax return, though, and be trading with the company's money rather than your own, and then pay yourself a wage from that.  In that case you would be eligible for a Solo 401(k), and you might even be better off as a result of all that maneuvering (even though you'll be taxed at a higher rate for any income you do keep, likely, and have to pay self-employment tax). LLC is not a federal tax designation.  It's a state-level organization. Your LLC can elect to be treated as a partnership, a disregarded entity (i.e., just report the taxes in your individual income tax), or as an S-Corp for federal tax purposes. If you have elected S-Corp, I expect that all the S-Corp rules will apply, as well as any state-level LLC rules that may apply.   Disclaimer: I'm not 100% familiar with S-corp rules, so I can't evaluate whether the statements you made about proportional payouts are correct. "Your question asks ""how"" but ""if"" may be your issue. Most companies will not permit an external transfer while still employed, or under a certain age, 55 or so.  If yours is one of the rare companies that permits a transfer, you simply open an IRA with the broker of your choice. Schwab, Fidelity, eTrade, or a dozen others. That broker will give you the paperwork you need to fill out, and they initiate the transfer.  I assume you want an IRA in which you can invest in stocks or funds of your choosing. A traditional IRA. The term ""self-directed"" has another meaning, often associated with the account that permits real estate purchases inside the account. The brokers I listed do not handle that, those custodians have a different business model and are typically smaller firms with fewer offices, not country-wide." The only possibility that I've seen in the past is if some of the income is for deferred services which are to be delivered in the following tax year, a portion of the income can be deferred.  Also, agree that you should be an S-corp and talk to another CPA if yours hasn't told you that yet. "S-Corp are taxed very different. Unlike LLC where you just add the profit to your income with S-Corp you have to pay yourself a ""reasonable"" salary (on w-2) which of course is a lot more paperwork. I think the advantage (but don't hold me accountable for this) is if your S-Corp makes a lot more than a reasonable salary, then the rest of the money can be passed through on your personal return at a lower (corp) rate." how does a single employee LLC bring in 500k?  I mean if you want to have it in a low-tax environment, you can probably invest it in something and then pull them out? I don't think you can put away pre-tax earnings to then use on salary costs. The LLC will not be liable for anything, it is disregarded for tax purposes. If you're doing any work while in the US, or you (or your spouse) are a green card holder or a US citizen - then you (not the LLC) may be liable, may be required to file, pay, etc. Unless you're employing someone, or have more than one member in your LLC, you do not need an EIN. Re the bank - whatever you want. If you want you can open an account in an American bank. If you don't - don't. Who cares? That may become complicated depending on the State laws. In some States (California for example), LLCs are taxed on gross receipts, so you'll be paying taxes on paying money to yourself. In other States this would be a no-op since the LLC is disregarded. So you need to check your State law. I assume the LLC is not taxed as a corporation since that would be really stupid of course, but if it is then it adds the complexity of the Federal taxes on top as well (corporate entity will pay taxes on your rent, and you'll pay taxes on your dividends to get the money back). The best option would be to take that property out of the LLC (since there's no point in it anyway, if you're the tenant). I took littleadv's advice and talked to an accountant today. Regardless of method of payment, my US LLC does not have to withhold taxes or report the payment as payments to contractors (1099/1042(S)) to the IRS; it is simply a business expense.  He said this gets more complicated if the recipient is working in the US (regardless of nationality), but that is not my case "Yes, you can make the election to file your LLC as an S-Corp, and Turbo Tax Business can help you with the S-Corp business return. You need to make sure you're set up correctly and there are a lot of things to be aware of. For example, the whole ""reasonable salary"" thing is a can of worms. So while the answer to your question is ""yes, it's manageable, you can do it on your own,"" it might be worthwhile to have a professional help you the first year, make sure it's set up right, and then you can do it on your own in subsequent years." There are certain situations where you could legally pay yourself rent, but it'd be in the context of multiple business entities interacting, never in the context of an individual renting their own property.  Even if you could, any rent paid to yourself would count as rental income, so there'd be no benefit. Edit: I was hunting for examples where it might be acceptable, and didn't, but I found a good explanation as to why it is not acceptable from Brandon Hall on a BiggerPockets post: To get technical, you will be going up against the Economic Substance   Doctrine which states that a transaction has economic substance if:   (1) the transaction changes in a meaningful way (apart from Federal   income tax effects) the taxpayer’s economic position; and (2) the   taxpayer has a substantial purpose (apart from Federal income tax   effects) for entering into such transaction. By transferring your primary residence into a LLC, you would not be   changing your economic position. Further, you do not have a   substantial purpose for entering into such transaction other than to   simply avoid paying federal income taxes. So it might make sense if multiple people owned the LLC that owned the property you wanted to rent, and there are instances where company X owns holding company Y that owns an office building that company X rents space in. But if you're the sole player in the LLC's then it sounds like a no-go. I would talk to your HMRC tax office they do have guidance on this issue here  http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/working/intro/employed-selfemployed.htm "You don't specify which country you are in, so my answers are more from a best practice view than a legal view.. I don't intend on using it for personal use, but I mean it's just as possible. This is a dangerous proposition.. You shouldn't co-mingle business expenses with personal expenses.  If there is a chance this will happen, then stop, make it so that it won't happen. The big danger is in being able to have traceability between what you are doing for the business, and what you are doing for yourself.  If you are using this as a ""staging"" account for investments, etc., are those investments for yourself?  Or for the business?  Is tax treatment on capital gains and/or dividends the same for personal and business in your jurisdiction?  If you buy a widget, is the widget an expense against business income?  Or is it an out of pocket expense for personal consumption?  The former reduces your taxable income, the latter does not. I don't see the benefit of a real business account because those have features specific to maybe corporations, LLC, and etc. -- nothing beneficial to a sole proprietor who has no reports/employees. The real benefit is that there is a clear delineation between business income/expenses and personal income/expenses. This account can also accept money and hold it from business transactions/sales, and possibly transfer some to the personal account if there's no need for reinvesting said amount/percentage. What you are looking for is a commonly called a current account, because it is used for current expenses.  If you are moving money out of the account to your personal account, that speaks to paying yourself, which has other implications as well. The safest/cleanest way to do this is to: While this may sound like overkill, it is the only way to guarantee that income/expenses are allocated to the correct entity (i.e. you, or your business). From a Canadian standpoint:" The LLC is paying you.  It would only be fraudulent if you were trying to move the money out of the LLC to avoid a liability.  I'm pretty sure the transaction will be taxable income for you personally.  Consider consulting with a CPA to ensure that you're doing the proper record keeping and to get advice on the best way to minimize tax burden while achieving your goals. You can move money in and out of the business at will, just keep track of every transaction. Ideally you'd use an accounting software like QuickBooks or similar. Create a Capital Contributions account and every time you put money into the business checking account record it as a Capital Contribution. Likewise, if you take money out of the business, it comes from your capital accounts. (You can create a separate Capital Distributions account in your accounting software, or just use a single account for contributions and distributions). Money coming in and out of those capital accounts is not taxable because you will pay taxes based on net earnings regardless of whether or not you have distributed any profits. So there's no need to make a loan to the company, which would have tax consequences. To reimburse yourself for purchases already made, submit an expense report to the company. If the company is unfunded right now, you can make a capital contribution to cover current expenses, submit the expense report, and wait until you have some profits before paying out the expense report or making any distributions. Welcome to entrepreneurship.