Schedule C: Fill & Download for Free

An alternative to a SEP IRA is an individual 401k. The advantage to the I401K is that one can defer salary as well as make profit sharing contributions whereas the SEP IRA only allows the "employer" to make profit-sharing contributions.As an independent consultant (self-employed), you are both the "employer" and "employee" thus having an individual 401k provides you more flexibility if you don't have enough net Schedule C income to make the maximum contribution.You *could* contribute up to $49K into the individual 401k if you have enough net schedule C income (actually same as the SEP IRA). Another nice option with an individual 401k is the Roth individual 401k...again, more flexibility. With the Roth individual 401k, you as the "employee" can defer $16,500 into the Roth individual 401k and any profit-sharing contribution is put into the regular 401k (pre-tax bucket).You have several options in terms of your previous employers 401k. You could leave it there (several pros and cons), roll it over into an IRA rollover, roll it over into an individual 401k, or take the cash (although most probably won't recommend this option as it has severe tax consequences). Most people I've worked with rollover their old 401k plan money into an IRA rollover as this usually provides the most investment options versus leaving it at the old employer.If you are self-employed and plan to rollover this money into an individual 401k, beware of the $250,000 reporting requirement. If your individual 401k plan has assets over $250,000, you'll need to file a Form 5500 with the IRS (see your tax advisor).Bottom line, as a self-employed individual, you have several avenues to save for retirement. As Adam mentioned above, see your financial advisor or tax preparer for direction.

As John Greathouse noted, in a Series Seed round made up of Accredited Investors, you are not legally required to provide a prospectus or any specific disclosure schedules. As a matter of fact, I actually can't recall (at least recently) seeing a Disclosure Schedule in any of the [many] deals that I have done.Where these schedules and lists do appear, however, is in the due diligence requests from serious investors, which they will undertake prior to the closing. Depending on the size of the round and the size and professionalism of the investors (and the budget of their lawyers) the requested information may range from practically nothing more than a business plan and a slide deck (for an informal seed round), all the way up to a voluminous amount of material for a later stage venture round from a top tier fund.The closing documents will then generally include a representations and warranties clause, in which you swear on a stack of bibles (backed up by some severe economic penalties) that everything you've previously told your investors is actually true...particularly such teeny little issues as "we own all our code" and "we are operating perfectly legally".But if you want an idea as to how far the disclosure issue can go, Entrepreneur Magazine has posted a sample Due Diligence checklist (http://www.entrepreneur.com/formnet/form/774) that includes the following items (but be sure to check out their link for their terms of use and attribution):"Due Diligence" Investigation Check ListCORPORATE MATTERSa. Articles of Incorporation and by-laws of the Company and Seller.b. Corporate minute books and stock transfer records of the Company.c. Federal and state tax returns and related reports of the Company including:i. income tax returns,ii. audit reports of taxing authorities including descriptions of any open issues,iii. real estate tax bills and payment records,iv. personal property tax bills and payment records,v. franchise, license, capital stock, doing business, and similar tax reports, andvi. any other material documents.d. Agreements and arrangements between the Company and Seller or any affiliate of the Company or Seller, including:i. stock subscription agreements,ii. loan, line of credit or other financing arrangements,iii. tax sharing agreements or arrangements,iv. overhead allocation agreements or arrangements,v. management services or personnel loan agreements or arrangements,vi. guarantees or keep-well arrangements for the benefit of creditors or other third parties, andvii. any others.e. Shareholder agreements relating to stock of the Company or stock owned by the Company.f. Documents imposing restrictions or conditions on stock transfer or merger, including any arrangements granting rights of first refusal or other preferential purchase rights.g. Third-party or governmental consent or authorizations required for merger or acquisition.FINANCIAL MATTERSa. Financial statements, including:i. audited financial statements for all periods beginning on or after ^, 19^, consisting, in each case, of at least a balance sheet and income statement,ii. interim monthly unaudited financial statements for periods after the latest audited statements, andiii. working papers relating to the foregoing.b. Bank accounts and depositary arrangements.c. Credit agreements and credit instruments including loan agreements, notes, debentures and bonds, and files relating thereto.d. Performance and financial bonds.e. Letters of credit.f. Instruments or arrangements creating liens, encumbrances, mortgages, or other charges (including mechanics and materialmens' liens) on any real or personal property of the Company, including property held indirectly through joint ventures, partnerships, subsidiaries or otherwise.g. Receivables analysis including aging, turnover and bad debt experience.MANAGEMENT AND OPERATIONSa. Internal management reports and memoranda.b. Policy and procedures manuals including those concerning personnel policy, internal controls and legal and regulatory compliance.c. Budgets, financial projections, business plans and capital expenditure plans.d. Contracts and arrangements for supplies or services, including the following which were entered into or under which work was done during the past ^ years:i. contracts for the sale or purchase of real estate,ii. contracts for the purchase or sale of materials, equipment or other personal property or fixtures,iii. contracts or other arrangements for legal, accounting, consulting, brokerage, banking or other services, andiv. construction and engineering contracts or subcontracts.e. Proprietary information and documents, including:i. patents and patent applications,ii. copyrights,iii. trademarks, service marks, logos and trade or assumed names,iv. nonpatentable proprietary know-how,v. federal and state filings relating to any of the foregoing,vi. licensing agreements relating to any of the foregoing (whether the Company is a licensor or licensee), andvii. confidentiality agreements relating to any of the foregoing.f. Partnership or joint venture agreements to which the Company is a party and any other arrangements with third parties concerning the management or operation of properties, facilities or investments of the Company.g. Reports to management, board of directors or shareholders prepared by outside consultants, engineers or analysts.h. Closing documentation and related files for each prior sale of Company stock and each material asset purchase or sale by the Company during the past ^ years.i. Leases, deeds and related instruments, including without limitation, office premises leases, equipment or vehicle leases, and any such instruments held indirectly through joint ventures, partnerships, subsidiaries or otherwise.j. Agreements or arrangements granting rights of first refusal or other preferential purchase rights to any property of the Company.k. Other material agreements or arrangements.EMPLOYEE MATTERSa. Corporate policies concerning hiring, compensation, advancement and termination.b. Labor contracts together with a list of all labor unions that have represented or attempted to represent employees of the Company during the past ^ years.c. Agreements with individual employees, including:i. executive employment agreements,ii. bonus, profit-sharing and similar arrangements,iii. postemployment agreements including "salary continuation" and "golden parachute" arrangements, andiv. covenants not to compete by present or former employees.d. Names of any officers or key employees who have left the Company during the past years.e. Each of the following which the Company maintains or contributes to, together with filings with the Internal Revenue Service, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Labor, including without limitation Forms 5500 and 5310, summary plan descriptions, summary annual reports, IRS determination letters (for qualified plans), and PBGC reportable events:i. Union-sponsored multiemployer plans,ii. Defined benefit plans,iii. Defined contribution plans including:1. money purchase pension plans,2. profit-sharing plans,3. stock bonus plans,4. employee stock ownership plans, and5. savings or thrift plans,iv. Health and welfare plans, including:1. medical, surgical, hospital or other health care plans or insurance programs including HMOs,2. dental plans,3. short-term disability or sick pay plans or arrangements,4. long-term disability insurance or uninsured arrangements,5. group term or other life or accident insurance,6. unemployment or vacation benefit plans, and7. other welfare plans,v. Nonqualified deferred compensation arrangements including:1. director or officer deferred fee plans,2. excess benefit plans (providing benefits in excess of internal revenue code limitations for qualified plans), and3. severance pay plans,vi. Incentive or bonus plans including:1. stock option plans,2. stock bonus plans,3. stock purchase plans, and4. cash bonus or incentive plans.INSURANCEa. Insurance policies including those covering:i. fire,ii. liability,iii. casualty,iv. life,v. title,vi. workers' compensation,vii. directors' and officers' liability, andviii. any other insured events or matters.b. Claim and loss histories, correspondence with insurance carriers and names of all insurance representatives relating to the foregoing.REAL ESTATE AND EQUIPMENT AND OTHER PERSONAL PROPERTYa. List of real estate (with legal descriptions), equipment and other personal property owned, leased or in the process of being acquired or sold by the Company, with the cost and book value of each item.b. Real estate, equipment and other personal property leases and conditional sale agreements.c. Information relating to title on all property listed in the items above, including motor vehicle title documents.d. Appraisals of real estate, personal property and equipment.GOVERNMENTAL REGULATIONa. Licenses, permits, filings or authorizations obtained from, made with or required by any governmental entity.b. Correspondence with any governmental regulatory authority.c. Accident or injury reports to federal, state, local and foreign governmental entities.LITIGATION AND CLAIMSa. Pending or threatened litigation, regulatory investigations, governmental actions, arbitrations, or notices of violation or possible violation, including proceedings in which the Company is a plaintiff or claimant, and the names and addresses of legal counsel advising or representing the Company in each matter.b. Files and records relating to the foregoing including opinions and evaluations.

Oy Vey.Generally, an existing C-Corp and/or an existing LLC can each have a qualified retirement plan (QRP); even sole proprietors can have qualified plans. More than one plan can exist at a time, so long as administration and contributions are coordinated.Due to the way you worded the question, however, I don’t know if you have both. I also don’t know if it is a group plan or solo plan about which you’re inquiring.If you have a C-Corp and an LLC, you may be subject to Control Group rules, where the plan for one company has to be based on the details of both companies combined, even if each has its own plan. This is primarily related to ‘covered’ & ‘participating’ employee issues. If you have both companies, but are not subject to Control Group rules, then you may wish to establish only one QRP to avoid extra administration and potential cost unless you cannot contribute as much as you would like.---(However, a Defined Benefit Plan (DB) (vs. a Defined Contribution Plan (DC)), may be able to resolve that issue since it allows the most generous contributions. But it’s the most expensive & labor intensive of the choices discussed here, so unless you want to be able to contribute a ton of money, it may not be worth itA DB plan calculates contributions on the future benefit you hope to receive; a DC plan calculates contributions based on a percentage of compensation. A 401(k) is a form of DC plan where the employees make most, or all, of their own contributions.‘Keogh plans’ are also DC plans, but they cannot be used for a corporation; I don’t know know if they can be used for an LLC, but they very well might. Keoghs are similar in some ways to SEP IRAs, but they cannot be used by a C-Corp; I’m not sure if they can be used by an LLC, but they, too, might. Neither Keoghs, nor SEP IRAs have as many benefits as a solo 401(k), as opposed to a group 401(k), but they can be simpler, less expensive, and generally allow more generous contributions to a retirement account than a Traditional IRA or Roth IRA.)---For any employee (e.g. you), there are still maximum annual contributions allowed between all plans combined. Multiple tests must be employed to calculate your maximum combined contribution.QRPs will generally allow much larger contributions, than will IRAs. In addition, they may allow the ability to borrow, the ability to control the money/investments, and even finance the sale of the company (i.e. ESOP).Group plans may require the employer to contribute for the employees, and have more potential liability for the trustee than solo plans in areas such as ‘discrimination’, underfunded liabilities, the range of investment choices, and default investment choices.Self-Directed generally means that the custodian (they who have custody of the investments - preferably with ins - FDIC, SIPC, Lloyds, etc. ) of the plan (QRP or IRA), gives the participant a wide range of investment choices that the custodian has little or no interest in (e.g. a trust company that does not sponsor investments vs. a mutual fund company custodian that only offers mutual funds from their own company, or an insurance company that offers their own annuities).A custodian who is related to proprietary investments usually makes it much less expensive for the participant, but has limited investment choices, whereas, maybe, a trust company who offers a wide platform of investment options, earns its money through multiple fees (e.g. establishment fee, annual fees, inactivity fees, buy/sell fees, holding fees, transfer in/out fees, termination fees, Form 5500 preparation - when the plan gets bigger, etc.). These fees can range from free (for solo plans), to hundreds of dollars per year, to multi-thousands of dollars per year for TPAs (Third Party Administrators), or small group plans in need of administrative services. Nevertheless, you have much more discretion, and they may be quite affordable. Group plans can have their fees paid by the sponsor (i.e. employer,) and/or the employee. The fees can be tax-deductible if paid from a source other than the retirement account.Solo QRPs usually can include a spouse; IRAs are always solo (even if a spousal IRA). QRPs are governed by a different set of federal regulations & Internal Revenue Codes than are IRAs; they give more rights to a spouse regarding, both, distribution options for retirement or rollovers, and beneficiary designations. Also, in divorce, albeit a state proceeding, they require a QDRO (Qualified Domestic Relations Order) issued by the court to administratively divide up the account. (Although IRAs do not necessarily require this, they are often obtained to satisfy scared trustees/administrators/custodians/etc.) QDROs must be obtained at the time of divorce - NOT after! This means staying on top of the attorney or court.Typically, in a solo plan (QRP or IRA), the sole participant is both the trustee and the administrator; in fact the custodian will generally refuse those roles due to liability. This provides flexibility.In a group QRP, however, a Third Party Administrator (TPA) is often utilized due to the complexity and amount of work (e.g. plan design, enrollment, contributions & payroll deduction, participant reporting, IRS reporting (e.g. Form 5500 when required, maybe Form 5498), Dept. of Labor discrimination testing, calculating contributions in the case of DB plan, vesting & redistribution of unvested amounts upon separation from service, loans, accounting, etc.).Often, the custodian (e.g. bank, trust company, brokerage/investment house, insurance company) has a TPA for you, for a fee, especially if you use their pre-approved IRS prototype plan document. Sometimes you choose a benefits company stocked with actuaries & administrators especially if you are custom-designing a plan.Custom-designed plans are more appropriate when there are ‘key employees’ and/or ‘highly compensated employees’ (HCE) - specific terms, and you wish benefits to enure to them. This has to do with human values such as paternalism (e.g. rank & file wealth accumulation), at one of the spectrum, or greed (e.g. using techniques such as social security integration or excluding those with collective bargaining agreements (e.g. union employees)), at the other. In between, however, for a smaller company, may be the ability to fund a retirement account with company shares that eventually allow an exit (sale) for the owners, at the price they dictate, by selling to the employees who may have a vested interest (pride of ownership - not a vested retirement account). This type of QRP is an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan).If a 401(k) plan document allows loans, loans, by law (the plan document can be more restrictive) are up to 50% of the account value, up to a maximum of $50,000. There are also rules for the amount of interest that must be charged, and how the maximum five year repayment schedule is to work, in addition to how many loans may be granted simultaneously. Unpaid loan balances, at the time a participant separates from service, are considered distributions, which are taxable, and possibly penalized, so plan ahead if leaving the company, nearing retirement or plan termination is imminent! Loans should be able to be paid ahead of schedule.The 401(k) plan document may also allow for in-service distributions. This means the ability to withdraw money prior to normal retirement age while still participating in the plan (earliest normal retirement date is age 55 versus 59 for IRAs). If distributed outright (versus rolling over into another retirement account), it will probably cause taxation, and possibly early withdrawal penalties resulting in as much as 50% of the distributed amount. But this could be helpful if you are rolling funds over, tax free, into another retirement plan that allows investing in something unavailable at the existing custodian such as real estate or gold.Don’t forget that, along with a Traditional 401(k), you can have a Roth 401(k)... If you learn about them and decide that you want one, you may wish to establish it at the same time as the Traditional 401(k) just to get the paperwork out of the way. But check the cost, and if you don’t fund it, the custodian may close the participant account due to inactivity. Roth 401(k)s are particularly good when you can & want to contribute an amount to your Traditional 401(k) that is above the tax-deductible limit .When QRPs are no longer active (e.g. current contributions have ceased, you have a solo and you’re retiring), they must be rolled over, usually into an IRA - assuming you have not exhausted it through distributions. If not, the IRS can retroactively disqualify the plan. So when the plan is no longer being used, it should be formally terminated.If you want to go it alone, you might start by talking with your tax preparer/accountant, then researching custodians for prototype plan documents that possess the components & options you want, and then by researching their investment choices, fees, and service/help (e.g. participation rules, Top Heavy Rules, Super Top Heavy Rules, employEE contribution limits & deadlines, employER contribution limits & deadlines).If you don’t want to go it alone, independent financial professionals often have the best survey of, and access to a variety of the parties involved in structuring and implementing a retirement plan. This includes needs & values analysis, plan attributes, plan design, the best way to obtain a plan document, the best custodian for investment choice/service/cost, enrollment, servicing, and investment choices and asset allocation/investment selection. This professional may be an investment advisor, securities broker, or insurance agent. Different investment products such as stocks, mutual funds, and annuities are the most popular investment choices, but others may be available such as REITs, BDCs, other Direct Participation Programs, actual real estate or gold bullion. The cost of an on-going advisor or broker may pay for itself by reducing/eliminating the other costs, or simply the lack of stress, and peace of mind, not to mention profitability, whether measured by the account value or lower employee costs/higher performance value.It’s a shame when the benefits attorneys, tax attorneys, and criminal attorneys have to get involved to represent you before the Internal Revenue Service or the Department of Labor; there’s stress, costs, fines and imprisonment.Do it right.Disclaimer: This response does not constitute financial, tax, or legal advice, and I assume no responsibility for actions taken as a result of my answer.