State law creates the legal person: sole proprietorship, partnership, LLC, corporation, nonprofit corporation, trust. That is who can own property, sign a contract, and appear on a Secretary of State record.
Federal tax classification is a separate choice (or default) for how that person reports income: disregarded, partnership, S corporation, C corporation, tax-exempt, grantor trust, and so on.
A single-member LLC is usually disregarded for federal income tax. The same LLC can later elect S-corp treatment. The LLC does not become a different state entity when that election is accepted.
Creytix Tax always stores both fields. Pages that describe S-corp are labeled tax-classification-only so they are never listed as a formation type next to LLC and C-corp.
Sources
- Limited Liability Company (LLC) — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-20
- S corporations — Internal Revenue Service, retrieved 2026-08-20