What you pay yourself
Salary against distributions on an S corp, and what the split does to payroll tax, to the 199A deduction, and to what a lender will lend you.
Business owners
Year-round, not just in April
Most owners have an accountant who files the return and nobody who reads it afterwards. We read it, and we handle the decisions that come out of it.
The problem
You pay yourself a number. That number sets your payroll tax, your qualified business income deduction, what you can contribute to a retirement plan, and what a bank thinks you earn. Change it and all four move.
Almost nobody looks at all four at once. Your accountant sees the return. Your insurance agent sees the policy. Nobody sees the whole thing, so the decisions get made one at a time and the interactions get discovered later.
What we look at
Entity structure
Sole proprietor, S corp, partnership. The right answer changes as profit changes. The wrong one costs you every year it stays wrong, and nothing on the return says so.
Cash flow you can actually read
What the business earned, what it owes, and what is genuinely yours to take. Most owners run this from a bank balance and a feeling.
The tax bill, before it arrives
Estimated payments, timing of purchases, and the elections that only work if you make them before year end.
What happens if you stop
Illness, a partner leaving, an offer you did not expect. A buy-sell agreement and a funded plan behind it are what keep any of those from becoming a fire sale.
Book cleanup
We will not file a return from books that do not reconcile. Where yours need work first, we bring them to a standard that would survive an examination. Our <a href="/planning-resources/">deduction checklist</a> is a good place to start.
Through the year
Very little of this happens in April. Estimated payments get checked before they are due rather than after. When you are deciding whether to buy the truck, take on the hire, or move money out of the business, you get a straight answer that week instead of finding out what it cost the following March.
Some of our owner clients we speak to twice a year. Some we speak to most weeks. Both are fine, and we will tell you honestly which one your situation needs.
Common questions
Do you do bookkeeping?
We do book cleanup so a return can be filed from records that reconcile, and we will not file a business return from books that do not. Ongoing monthly bookkeeping runs through a partner firm rather than through us.
Should I be an S corp?
It depends on profit, and the right answer changes as profit changes. The salary and distribution split affects payroll tax, the qualified business income deduction, what you can contribute to a retirement plan, and what a lender will lend you. Those move together.
Do you only work with businesses of a certain size?
No. Sole proprietors filing a Schedule C through to partnerships with payroll. What matters more than size is whether the business and the household finances are being looked at by the same person.
Start with a conversation
Bring last year's return and a rough idea of what you want to be doing in ten years. That is enough to have a useful first conversation, and there is no obligation on either side.