By Paul S. Hamann & Jack Salewski, CPA, CGMA
“The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.” Albert Einstein
Use time to your advantage! Here’s how one RCReports subscriber brought every S Corp he worked with into Reasonable Compensation compliance in three easy steps. (Full disclosure: The steps below assume you have an RCReports account.)
By Paul S. Hamann & Jack Salewski, CPA, CGMA
We regularly emphasize how important it is to have your S Corp clients who perform services for their S Corp research and document their Reasonable Compensation as a strategy for warding off an IRS Reasonable Compensation challenge.
But what about protecting the shareholders who don’t perform services, especially if they’re listed as an officer of the corporation.
By Jack Salewski, CPA, CGMA & Paul S. Hamann
There are numerous issues when a business owner is a shareholder in more than one S Corp. Does the shareholder have to complete a reasonable compensation assessment (RCA) for each corporation, or will one assessment do? Does each corporation need to pay wages? What happens if the owner is above the Social Security maximum?
By Paul S. Hamann & Jack Salewski, CPA, CGMA
There are more answers than you think. Certainly, you want to research and document your S Corp client’s reasonable compensation figure or help them choose the best entity for their situation. But even more importantly – it builds a closer relationship with your client, enhancing your ability to become a trusted advisor, the person your clients turn to first – because you know them best.
By Richard Pasquantonio, CPA/CFF, CFE, CDFA (Guest Author)
S corporation (S Corp) taxation is a popular election for many business owners who originally decide to form an association (corporation) or limited liability company (LLC). Some major advantages of S corp status are:
By Paul S. Hamann & Jack Salewski, CPA, CGMA
The modern era for Reasonable Compensation for S Corps started in 2005 with a study of S Corporation Reporting Compliance. This study spawned numerous reports that changed and shaped the way IRS examiners address non-compliance on the issues of Reasonable Compensation. This change can be seen in the differences between Pre-2005 court cases and Post-2005 court cases.
By Jack Salewski, CPA, CGMA & Paul S. Hamann
We thought it was a myth that a tax preparer would be assessed a penalty when their clients did not pay themselves Reasonable Compensation for the services they provided their S Corp. Then a CPA from California sought us out to run Reasonable Compensation Reports for all his S Corp clients after he was hit with a $5,000 preparer penalty. Surely the facts, in this case, must have been very egregious, we thought, but we were wrong. This CPA had actually been working with his client for years to bring his compensation in line. They were actually getting very close when the IRS challenged his client’s compensation figure and whacked him with the huge penalty.
By Paul S. Hamann & Jack Salewski, CPA, CGMA
Maybe instead of a ‘Safe Harbor,’ we should look for ‘Any Port in a Storm’. The IRS and Court Guidelines for determining Reasonable Compensation for an S Corp are anything but smooth sailing. We are often asked if there are any guarantees that the IRS will accept a Reasonable Compensation figure. The short answer is NO. Why? Because calculating a Reasonable Compensation figure is not included in any of the thousands of pages of IRS Code or Regulations. Therefore we are left to look at how the Tax Courts interpret Reasonable Compensation in S Corp cases.
By Paul S. Hamann& Jack Salewski, CPA, CGMA
A small business owner I know jokes that his business card should read “President and Janitor” (and everything in between). So, when my friend tries to determine his reasonable compensation figure (at his accountant’s request), should he be compensated as President? Janitor? Or somewhere in between? Where in between?
By Paul S. Hamann
The wrong answer goes something like this: I guessed; I split my distribution 50/50, or any other answer that involves a WAG. In other words, any answer that does not have supporting information will probably have little creditability with the IRS. So if there are wrong answers how come there aren’t right answers? The easiest way to think about this puzzle is to stop thinking “I need a right answer” and start thinking “I need a credible answer.”
