If you own more than one LLC, there's a good chance you pay yourself from whichever account has money in it that week.
We get it. It's fast, and most months nothing bad happens. But over a year it blurs the line between your businesses, makes your books harder to close, and leaves you guessing which company actually supports your life. Here's a simpler way to do it.
This is general information, not tax or legal advice. How you're allowed to pay yourself depends on how each LLC is taxed. Run your plan by your CPA before you change anything.
1.Know how each LLC is taxed
"LLC" describes how the business is organized, not how it's taxed. That second part decides how you get paid.
| Tax setup | How you usually get paid |
|---|---|
| Single-member LLC (default) | Owner's draws. No payroll. |
| Multi-member LLC (partnership) | Draws or guaranteed payments, per your operating agreement |
| LLC taxed as an S corp | A reasonable salary through payroll, plus distributions |
It's common to have a mix. Your agency might be an S corp while your rental LLC is a single-member LLC. That's fine. Just know that each one has its own rules.
2.Pay yourself from each business, not between them
The habit that causes the most cleanup: paying yourself from Business A to cover a personal bill, then moving money from Business B to refill A. Now there's an undocumented loan between two companies, and your CPA gets to sort it out in March.
The rule is simple. Money for you comes out of each business, into your personal account, directly. If one business genuinely needs to lend money to another, write it down as a loan, with a date and an amount.
Every business pays you. No business pays for another one by accident.
3.Use profit, not deposits
A big month of deposits isn't a big month of profit. Before you decide what to take, look at what each business needs to keep:
- Upcoming bills: payroll, rent, software, insurance
- Taxes you'll owe on this income (often 25–30% for owners who pay quarterly)
- A cash cushion. Many owners aim for one to two months of expenses.
What's left after that is what you can safely pay yourself.
4.Put it on a schedule
Pick a day, like the 1st and the 15th, and pay yourself the same way every time. A schedule turns your pay into a real line item instead of a reaction to your bank balance. It also makes slow months obvious early, because you'll notice when a business can't cover its usual amount.
- Consulting LLC (S corp salary)
- $6,000
- Consulting LLC (distribution)
- $2,000
- Rental LLC (owner's draw)
- $1,200
- Online shop LLC (owner's draw)
- $800
- Monthly pay to you
- $10,000
Now you can see which business is funding your life. In this example it's mostly the consulting company. That's useful to know when you're deciding where to spend your time next year.
5.Keep a simple record
For each payment, note the date, the business, the amount and the type (salary, draw or distribution). Your bookkeeper will thank you, and at year-end you'll know exactly what each business paid you.
None of this needs fancy software. It needs a schedule and the discipline to stop pulling from whichever account looks full.
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