What are the operational hassles of an S-Corp LLC?

By Jason Watson (Google+)

This KB article has been superseded. Please see our updated KB article on the operational hassles of an S Corp (sneak peek- there aren’t many).

Very few. All the things you do now to maintain your financial records remain the same. The only additional requirement is to pay the owners a reasonable salary through payroll. Many things go into defining a reasonable salary (training, experience, duties, time involve, etc.). As mentioned before, a good starting point is 40% (if you net profited $50,000, a $20,000 salary would be reasonable). However the IRS also allows for health insurance premiums to count towards reasonable shareholder salary computations.

As a side note, you should pay yourself at least the amount you pay the highest-paid employee. In other words, your admin should make less than you in salary.

In addition, shareholders must be paid a salary before any shareholder distributions are paid out or loans are advanced to shareholders. If the business cannot afford to pay salaries, it is not necessarily required to do so.  There is some gray area involving large depreciation expenses and other non-cash reductions in business income. So, if you have a pile of cash but experience a loss due to large depreciation deductions you might still be required to pay salaries. If you believe your company won’t be profitable, then we suggest deferring the S-Corp election to another tax year.

As far as actually writing paychecks, we offer payroll services. The fees vary from $100 per quarter for quarterly payroll, to $100 per month for bi-weekly payroll.

Lastly, an S-Corp LLC must file a corporate tax return and there are additional financial reporting requirements.  However, if we prepare your tax returns this is our hassle and not yours, and we’ll make it seamless and pain free.