Member Avoids Personal Liability for LLC's Withheld Taxes
An LLC member ordinarily is not liable for the debts and liabilities of an LLC simply by virtue of being a member. E.g., Wash. Rev. Code § 25.15.125; Or. Rev. Stat. § 63.165. Many states, however, impose personal liability for unpaid taxes on those within a business who have authority for paying taxes withheld from employee wages, or for paying sales taxes collected from customers. If one of those statutes applies, being a member of the LLC will not shield the employee, manager or officer from the statute’s reach.
Kelly Haugen, a 10% member of an Oregon LLC, was assessed liability by the Oregon Department of Revenue for the LLC’s failure to pay Oregon income taxes withheld from employee wages. Haugen v. Dep’t of Revenue, No. TC-MD 100052C, 2011 Ore. Tax LEXIS 187 (Or. T.C. Apr. 26, 2011). The LLC was manager-managed, and Haugen was not the LLC’s manager. Haugen occasionally signed checks for the LLC, and a form filed by the LLC with the state indicated that Haugen was responsible for hiring and firing employees. Id., at *2-3. The Department of Revenue asserted liability against Haugen because of his part ownership of the LLC and because he signed checks for the business. Id. at *6.
Oregon requires employers to withhold and pay Oregon income taxes from wages paid to employees. Or. Rev. Stat. § 316.167. Personal liability for unpaid tax withholdings is imposed on “[a]n officer or employee of a corporation, or a member or employee of a partnership, who as such officer, employee or member is under a duty to perform the acts required of employers by ORS 316.167 ….” Or. Rev. Stat. § 316.162(3)(b).
Finding a paucity of case law on the liability of LLC members, the Haugen court analogized Haugen’s status to that of a corporate officer for the purpose of determining liability. Haugen, 2011 Ore. Tax LEXIS 187, at *6. The court applied prior Oregon case law involving corporate officers, and found that Haugen would be liable if he had the actual authority and control to pay or direct payment of the tax withholdings. Id. at *7. The evidence indicated that Haugen did not have authority to unilaterally sign checks or make important financial decisions – he had authority to sign checks only under the direction of the 90% owner and manager, after obtaining specific consent to sign each check. Also, Haugen did not have general authority as a member, because the LLC was manager-managed, and Haugen was not a manager.
The court concluded that because Haugen “was not in a position to pay the withholdings or direct the payment of the withholdings at the time the duty arose to withhold or pay over the taxes,” he was not an “employer” under Or. Rev. Stat. § 316.162. Haugen, 2011 Ore. Tax LEXIS 187, at *11-12. The court therefore canceled the Department of Revenue’s Notice of Liability against Haugen.
Kelly Haugen escaped liability for the unpaid taxes because of his lack of authority. Had his been a member-managed LLC, or if he had had discretion to sign checks without prior approval, the court presumably would have upheld the tax assessment against him.
Many of the comparable statutes from other states are at least as strict in finding managers and check signers to be personally liable for failure to pay tax withholdings and sales taxes over to the state. The strict approach is not surprising, given that in these cases the business has in effect been a tax collector for the state and (at least in the state’s view) is holding the state’s money. The Haugen case should be a wake-up call for LLC managers and check signers to avoid the temptation of financing the business in troubled times by holding on to tax withholdings or sales taxes.
An LLC's Property Is Not the Members' Property
A recent New York case dealt with one of the most fundamental characteristic of LLCs – the LLC as a legal entity. Sealy v. Clifton, LLC, 890 N.Y.S.2d 598, 2009 N.Y.App. Div. LEXIS 9020 (N.Y.App.Div. 2009). One of two LLC members, each owning a 50% interest, asked the trial court to partition the LLC’s real estate. In a partition action, real estate held by joint tenants or tenants in common is divided into portions so that each co-owner is awarded full, individual ownership of a portion of the real estate. The trial court refused to dismiss the partition action, but the Appellate Division reversed and required dismissal by the trial court.
Under state LLC laws, an LLC is a legal entity, in effect a legal person. An LLC can sue and be sued, own property, enter into contracts, and do many of the things that an individual human being can do. E.g. N.Y. Ltd. Liab. Co. Law §§ 203(d), 202.
Since an LLC is a legal person, the property it owns is the property of the LLC, not of the members. The New York LLC Act is clear: “A membership interest in the limited liability company is personal property. A member has no interest in specific property of the limited liability company.” N.Y. Ltd. Liab. Co. Law § 601. Other state LLC laws have similar provisions.
Relying on Section 601, the Sealy court held that the LLC, not its members, owned the real estate. Because the members were not co-owners of the real estate, the partition action had to be dismissed. Sealy, 2009 N.Y.App. Div. LEXIS 9020, at *1. Prior New York law allowed partition actions to be brought only by co-owners.
Perhaps the reasoning of the Sealy plaintiff was: “I am a part owner of the LLC; the LLC owns the real estate, therefore I am a part owner of the real estate.” In other words, something like “I own the box, ergo I own what’s inside the box.” The analogy is not apt, but perhaps it convinced the trial judge, since he refused to throw out the partition request.
That theory breaks down because an LLC is a legal entity, a legal person. The real estate in Sealy was owned by the LLC, not by the members. The only way a member could reach the real estate would be to cause the dissolution and winding up of the LLC. In that process either the real estate would be liquidated and its proceeds distributed to the members, or the real estate could be divided by the LLC and the individual parcels of the real estate distributed in kind to the members. But the member apparently had not pursued dissolution.
The legal personhood of LLCs, like that of corporations, partnerships and other entities, is a legal doctrine thoroughly woven into our legal, business, financial and political systems. It allows the law to treat LLCs as persons for many purposes – but not all. For example, LLCs cannot marry, adopt children, hold public office, or vote in public elections.
Some constitutional rights apply to legal entities. For example, the U.S. Supreme Court last month invalidated a federal ban on corporate expenditures for public communications intended to affect federal elections. The Court held that the First Amendment’s mandate that “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech” applies to corporations. Citizens United v. Fed. Election Comm’n, 175 L. Ed. 2d 753 (2010). The Court’s opinion saw corporations as entitled to be heard in the political arena, like individuals. This was a controversial five-to-four decision that overruled prior Supreme Court precedent.
The boundaries of the legal doctrine that treats corporations and LLCs as persons will continue to be mapped and delineated. And as in Citizens United, the boundary may shift from time to time.
