Client Alert
S Corporation Shareholder-Employee Reasonable Compensation
The S corporation is a powerful tool for small business owners to manage their business efficiently and reduce payroll taxes on owner’s profits. The primary benefit small business owners get, when organized as an S corporation, is the opportunity to avoid payroll taxes on distributions after paying reasonable compensation. A reasonable wage/salary is a must for shareholder-employee/s. However, the shareholder-employee soon discovers that the lower her wage is, the lower the payroll taxes. Why not pay no wage? Or only a token wage? Of course, the IRS knows those tricks and requires the company to pay “reasonable compensation” to shareholder-employees so they’ll submit proper payroll taxes. The IRS can adjust wages to reflect reasonable compensation. Family members of the shareholder must also receive reasonable compensation for services rendered. In this article we will begin by debunking urban legends surrounding S corporation reasonable compensation followed by calculating a reasonable compensation package before finishing with a strategy.
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Electronic Commerce Creates Confusing Sales Tax Obligations
Any company engaged in e-commerce, i.e., selling online, knows that the ability to reach buyers and customers remotely can juice the bottom line. State and local tax jurisdictions around the country know that, too, especially the bottom line of their sales tax coffers. Now every state with a statewide sales tax has a threshold past which remote sellers must collect and remit state sales tax. Failure to do so can incur big penalties, or worse, and there’s a lot to know based on where and what you sell online.
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Small Mistakes With Huge Costs for Your Client’s Tax Returns
We’ve all been there. A client walks into your office and, somewhere in the conversation, you realize that a seemingly minor oversight, a missed deadline, a form nobody filed, an election nobody mentioned, has spiraled into a five- or six-figure tax problem. In my years of practice, some of the most expensive mistakes I’ve seen weren’t the result of aggressive planning gone wrong. They were small, quiet errors. The kind that happens when a deadline slips, an election isn’t made, or a form gets overlooked entirely. The tax code is unforgiving in these situations, and the IRS has little sympathy for “I didn’t know.” This article walks through some of the most common, and most costly, small mistakes that can devastate your client’s tax situation, along with practical guidance for avoiding them.
When Debts Go Bad: The Challenges of Deducting Delinquent Debts
It is painful when you finally realize that the money you expected to be repaid is never coming back. The tiny silver lining in that cloud might be the tax benefit of “writing off” the debt. Unfortunately, that silver lining may well be eclipsed by an even bigger cloud. Writing bad debt off is not that easy, and there’s probably no silver lining to that cloud. Ironically, you might find that the mistakes that caused you to be holding a bad debt might be what prevents you from getting a usable deduction.
Building a Partnership the Right Way: Tax Strategies From Day One
Setting up a partnership is a lot like getting married. It’s exciting, full of promise, and if you do it right, it can be incredibly rewarding. Do it wrong, and you’re setting yourself up for years of headaches and potentially significant financial loss. The decisions you make at the formation stage of your partnership will impact your tax situation for years to come, and in some cases, these decisions can be difficult or costly to undo later. In this article, we’ll explore the critical steps in setting up a partnership and the tax implications of various contribution strategies. You’ll learn how to establish a foundation that maximizes tax advantages from day one.
