Legal Question in Business Law in California

You bet, and they can do it quickly. It is done by the Franchise Tax board for the Child Support Services. Anything that has your Social Security number attached to it can be attached.

Not sure what Marman is thinking. Your LLC should have its own Taxpayer Identification Number. Not that that means they can't get to the account if you are the sole member of the LLC. They can either seize your shares in the LLC and then take the money as the new owner, or they can force a distribution to you that they then take. But it is not as easy as Marman is saying.

If the LLC's bank account bears your SSN, rather than the LLC's TIN, open a new account and transfer the funds. However, only put the LLC's money in the LLC's account - hiding personal money in the LLC's account could be attacked as fraudulent (although there is some authority to the contrary). You should be keeping very good books as to what is the LLC's, what is yours, and why. You can't just shuttle money back and forth between a business and yourself.

You may have heard that LLCs, like corporations, have a "corporate veil" that can be pierced by creditors if the LLC is treated as the "alter ego" (other self) of the owner or owners. Piercing the veil in a court proceeding will allow creditors of the LLC to tap the owner's assets. Using a court proceeding to reach the LLCs assets for a liability of the owner is "reverse piercing." In most situations, California courts do not allow reverse piercing, but it has been known to happen in Federal tax cases, so don't count on it.

As Mr. McCormick points out, your ownership interest in the LLC (whether it be expressed as "shares," "units," "membership" or whatever) is, however, a personal asset of yours, just like your car, bank account, etc., and a creditor could take that interest from you, thus becoming, in effect, the owner of the LLC. The creditor would then be able to do with the LLC whatever it wished (assuming an appropriate court order) including taking its money.