Can I File Form 8832 and 2553 Together as an LLC?

An LLC electing S corporation tax status almost always files only Form 2553, not both Form 8832 and Form 2553. Under a Treasury regulation known as the deemed election rule, when an eligible LLC files a timely Form 2553, the IRS automatically treats that same filing as an election to be classified as a corporation. Form 8832 becomes unnecessary.¹ There are a few situations where you do need both, and they’re covered below, but for the standard “I want my LLC taxed as an S corp” case, one form does the job.

What Each Form Is For

Form 8832, Entity Classification Election, changes an LLC’s default tax classification. By default, a single-member LLC is a disregarded entity and a multi-member LLC is a partnership.¹ Filing Form 8832 shifts that default to C corporation status. On its own, Form 8832 gets you to C corp treatment and no further.

Form 2553, Election by a Small Business Corporation, is the S corporation election. It takes an entity that already qualifies as a corporation and puts it under Subchapter S, so income, losses, deductions, and credits pass through to shareholders instead of being taxed at the corporate level.

To be eligible for S corp status, the entity must be domestic, have 100 shareholders or fewer (with certain family members counted as one), have only individuals, estates, or qualifying trusts as shareholders (no partnerships, corporations, or nonresident aliens), have a single class of stock (voting differences are fine; economic rights must match), and get unanimous written consent from every shareholder.²

One useful point: changing your federal tax classification does not require a new EIN. The IRS is explicit that an LLC electing corporation or S corporation treatment keeps the EIN it already has.³

Why One Form Usually Covers Both Steps

Treasury Regulation 301.7701-3(c)(1)(v)(C) says that an eligible entity that timely files Form 2553 to elect S corporation status is automatically treated as having elected to be classified as a corporation.⁴ The IRS instructions for Form 2553 state the same thing in plain language: an entity eligible to be treated as a corporation that meets the S corporation requirements “doesn’t need to file Form 8832.”²

The deemed corporate classification takes effect on the same date as the S corporation election and stays in place until the entity affirmatively elects to be classified as something else.⁴ So filing Form 2553 alone is enough to move an LLC from partnership or disregarded-entity treatment straight to S corporation treatment. You don’t stop at C corp along the way, and you don’t file two forms to get there.

When You Actually Need Both Forms

The shortcut has limits. File both forms when one of these applies:

You want C corporation status, not S corporation status. The deemed election only rides on Form 2553. If C corp is the goal, Form 8832 is the only path.
You want C corporation status first and S corporation status later. File Form 8832 for the C corp period, then Form 2553 for the S corp period. The forms are filed separately and cover sequential periods.
Your entity doesn’t meet all S corporation eligibility requirements as of the intended effective date. The deemed corporate election only kicks in when the S corp requirements are satisfied. If something disqualifies the entity, the deemed classification doesn’t apply either.
Your Form 2553 is late, and depending on the circumstances of your late-relief request, a Form 8832 filing may also be required.

The Deadline That Makes the Shortcut Work

The deemed election only applies when Form 2553 is filed on time, so the S corp deadline is what controls. You can file Form 2553 either during the tax year before you want S corp status to begin, or during the first 2 months and 15 days of the target tax year. For a calendar-year LLC, that’s a March 15 deadline.⁵

If you file within that 2½-month window but the entity didn’t meet every S corp requirement for every day before the election was filed, or a pre-election shareholder didn’t consent, the election is bumped to the following tax year.⁵ Newly formed LLCs get caught by this often. An LLC organized in February that wants S corp status for the current year has only weeks to gather signatures and file.

Form 8832 filed on its own is more flexible: the effective date can reach back up to 75 days before filing or forward up to 12 months after. Once Form 8832 is used to make an entity classification election, the entity generally can’t change classification by election again for 60 months, though the IRS can grant an exception by private letter ruling if more than 50% of ownership has changed.⁶

If You Missed the Deadline

Missing the Form 2553 deadline is not fatal. Revenue Procedure 2013-30 provides simplified late-election relief if less than 3 years and 75 days have passed since the intended effective date. To qualify:⁷

The entity intended to be an S corporation and is otherwise eligible.
The only reason it isn’t already an S corporation is the missed deadline.
The entity has reasonable cause for the late filing.
The entity and all shareholders reported income consistently with S corp status for the year the election should have been effective and every year since.

You file the late Form 2553 with a statement explaining the reasonable cause. Importantly for the “one form or two” question: if your LLC also needs a late corporate classification election to take effect on the same date as the intended S corp election, Rev. Proc. 2013-30 covers that too, so a separate Form 8832 filing is not required in most late-relief cases.⁸

For a standalone late Form 8832 election (where no S corp election is being requested), the mechanism is Revenue Procedure 2009-41, which uses a similar 3-years-and-75-days window, and Form 8832 itself has a section for requesting that relief.⁶ If neither revenue procedure fits, the remaining route is a private letter ruling, which is more expensive and slower.⁷

1
Internal Revenue Service. Entities 3 – Frequently Asked Questions
2
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 2553
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Internal Revenue Service. When to Get a New EIN
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eCFR. 26 CFR 301.7701-3 – Classification of Certain Business Entities
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Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 1362 – Election; Revocation; Termination
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Internal Revenue Service. Form 8832 – Entity Classification Election
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Internal Revenue Service. Late Election Relief
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Internal Revenue Service. Rev. Proc. 2013-30 – Relief for Late S Corporation Elections