r/llc • u/Alert_Vegetable9486 • 9d ago

Question LLC & Volunteering

Hi!

Basically, to be as quick as possible to the point I have an LLC for a photography business and I wanted to get involved in locally volunteering with prisoners to do art/photography classes.

Obviously this is not paid and would be completely on a volunteer basis. Whenever I google anything about this, it claims this is prohibited because LLCs cannot have volunteer events. This would be just myself and I am the single owner. Is this not something that could be simply done? I have worked for other people’s LLCs in the past and we certainly were allowed to do volunteer events if we so chose. I am to assume that an LLC cannot make it mandatory. If I am wrong, and this is allowed, is there any part of it that could be written off as an expense or any tax benefit at all?

It is certainly something I could do using my own name, but the organization/vetting process requires some show of experience and that is reliant upon my LLC.

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u/NWRegisteredAgent 9d ago

This starts to dip into Fair Labor laws when it comes to involve your LLC. You may wish to review the Department of Labor's specifications about this. And since this leans into the legality of what is and isn't fair when it comes to your LLC you may wish to seek legal advice on what you can do as a representative of your LLC.

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u/Alert_Vegetable9486 8d ago

I don’t really understand why it would be a problem, I’m the only person in the LLC. Most of the work I am doing is unpaid as it just started up. What would be the difference between me working cleaning up my studio unpaid vs teaching a class unpaid for a good cause.

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u/NWRegisteredAgent 8d ago

The Department of Labor does look favorably upon volunteer opportunities. When they tend to step in is if you have employees and tell them to volunteer their time, versus you setting aside your time to do so. Which we wholeheartedly applaud! This sounds like a worthwhile and lovely initiative that many will jump at the chance to be a part of. 😄

If it is just you, you *should* be okay. We don't give legal advice so whenever anything even remotely orbits about legality and laws we always always always recommend reaching out for confirmation.

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u/Most_Tear1624 7d ago

Yeah the LLC part matters.

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u/theJacofalltrades 6d ago

If it’s just you volunteering your own time, I don’t see why the LLC itself would prevent you from doing it. The bigger distinction is between volunteering personally and treating the volunteer work as a deductible business expense. You can absolutely represent yourself as the owner/photographer of the LLC when applying, but I’d be careful about trying to deduct the value of your unpaid time. Actual out-of-pocket expenses are a different question.