S corporation shareholder-employees: Are your salaries high enough?

Description

Abstract: Because S corporation shareholder-employees aren’t subject to self-employment taxes on their share of the corporation’s income, minimizing their salaries and maximizing income distributed to them in the form of dividends can save significant payroll taxes. But the IRS casts a wary eye on such salaries. This short article explains what to do to keep salaries reasonable; otherwise, the IRS may recharacterize a portion of dividends as wages and present the company with a bill for unpaid payroll taxes, interest and penalties.