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I stayed out of an LLC for trading for many of the same reasons and just did a sole proprietorship and set up as an "active trader". Keeping all that together on Schedule C's with my small farm allows me a lot more flexibility. Also, I wasn't sure that trading as an LLC, even a "pass through" LLC wouldn't set me up for the much larger fees that professional traders pay (which always seemed weird because I thought they paid less). The main reason I'm responding is something I learned a long time ago that still holds true - there are several things the men in black at the IRS will use as red flags for audits, home office has always been one of those near the top of the list. There are so many deductions available to small businesses (especially if you are a micro business filing on a Sched. C), that I've always avoided the home office deduction. The rules for home office are a catch phrase for we want to audit you. If you put an exercise machine, or maybe park a bicycle in there, anything not related to the business in the same room, gives them an excuse to audit after you've been flagged because of using the deduction. Another thing I learned from a fat old cigar smoking neurosurgeon (great guy, but the fat and cigars and whiskey ultimately killed him) many years ago, don't use a CPA, if you must pay a professional, use a tax attorney. This saved my posterior twice when I had my business. The auditors from the IRS (or any government taxing authority) will likely be very unknowledgeable (is that a word?) freshly minted accountants and part of the expense of facing the audit will be educating them for their new job, no kidding, that is how they train their auditors, on your nickel. With a tax attorney, you come in the door immediately with bigger guns and eliminate all the fakery (yep, they'll lie to you as quick as a cop on an investigation) and game playing and they'll have to put up or shut up. Just my two cents, my company was audited by the IRS and the Texas Comptroller (for sales taxes) at different times. In both cases, the audits cost me less than $5K for the attorney and no penalties.