Can my corporation lend me money for my personal use?

It is generally okay for your corporation to lend you money for your personal use, but there are two issues to be aware of. First, one of the reasons you incorporated your business was to protect your individual assets from being held liable for corporate obligations. Courts will respect your decision to incorporate, but only if you actually treat your business as a separate entity. So if the corporation lends you money, the loan has to be well documented and made from the corporation’s bank account to your individual account. If you simply commingle funds between yourself and the corporation, without distinguishing the two, then that is a red flag for a court looking to “pierce the corporate veil” and hold you personally liable for the corporation’s debts. Second, the IRS is also interested in shareholder loans. The IRS has a number of factors it examines in determining whether a transaction between a corporation and one of its shareholders should really be treated as a loan or rather as a dividend in disguise. To avoid the adverse tax consequences associated with a would-be loan being treated as a dividend by the IRS, the loan must, among other things, be properly documented and made on market terms, including bearing interest at the applicable Federal rate and being repaid on a regular schedule. We examined the issue of shareholder loans in detail in this series of articles: Loans to Shareholders Must Be Made on Market Terms; Loans to Shareholders: The Importance of Payment Terms; and How the IRS Evaluates Shareholder Loans. For more information on piercing the corporate veil, see Reducing Risk of Alter Ego with Some Simple Things.