BobKamman
Level 15

@dkh  Partnerships are so 19th Century.  Your partner is driving to the bank to make a deposit, a tire blows out causing an accident that kills a neurosurgeon.  You get sued personally for $1 million.  That's when you find out you should have used on LLC.  Your profit is $200K one year and you max out on Social Security and pay Medicare tax on all of it.  The next year you have a $100K loss, don't get any money back and don't earn any Social Security quarters.  That's when you find out you should have elected to be taxed as an S corporation.  

One of two things happens with partnerships.  Either they make money, and the partners argue about how the profits are split.  Or they lose money, and the partners argue about who makes up the losses.  Well, OK, it doesn't happen every time, it's sort of like marriages that don't always end in divorce.  (Just 50% of the time these days, right?)  Those disputes can happen with corporations and with employer/employee or independent contractor arrangements also, but generally they're easier to avoid, and to settle when they happen.  

Family partnerships?  What if they're worth enough to worry about estate taxes?  How to gift percentage interests to the next generation?  I don't know of anyone trying to do that without a corporation these days.