I am part of an LLC along with two other partners. One of the partners wants to provide services to a company as a source of additional revenue. I am ok with that but since the compensation for the services is not sufficient we have the option of earning equity as part of our compensation. The problem is the company is an S-Corp and I have been told that an LLC cannot own an S-Corp. If so, what are the best ways to structure such a deal so that all the partners can share the equity earned proportional to their interest in LLC without each having to become individual partners of S-corp.
You're probably going to need some legal help with this. The tax law says the following are eligible S corporation shareholders: U.S. citizens and permanent residents, qualified subchapter S trusts, some voting trusts, testamentary trusts created by a will, grantor trusts, revocable trusts created as part of an estate, and certain exempt organizations.
IANAL but I'd suggest that either (a) despite not wanting to do it this way, you each become shareholders in the S corp (assuming they haven't already reached the 100 shareholder limit) or (b) instead of owning stock you look for a non-equity longer term compensation package which would be payable to the LLC.