An S-corporation, also known as an S-corp, is a pass-through entity. Corporations set up this way share the income, deductions, profits and losses of a corporation with it's owners. Shareholders are able to file their S- corp taxes at personal income tax rates as they pay taxes on their share of the S-corp's income. This allows S- corps to avoid double taxation on the corporate income.
Typically an S-corporation has employees, in this case the company is responsible for withholding federal income tax, Social Security and Medicare taxes from their paychecks requiring an S-corporation to file an IRS Form 941 each quarter to reports total witholdings.
The standard forms included with S-Corp filing are 1120S and Schedule K-1. If an S-corp has employees, a Form 940, Form 941 or Form 1099 may also be required. S-corps will also need to issue a W-2 to employees and Form 1099-MISC to independent contractors.
To qualify for S-corporation tax filing you must:
- Be a domestic corporation
- Have only allowable shareholder
- May be individuals, certain trusts, and estates
- May not be partnerships, corporations or non-resident alien shareholders
- Have no more than 100 shareholders
- Have only one class of stock
- Not be an ineligible corporation (i.e. certain financial institutions, insurance companies, and domestic international sales corporations).
Planning is the key to successfully and legally reducing your corporation's tax liability. We go beyond tax compliance and proactively recommend tax saving strategies to maximize your after-tax income.
Contact Paramount Tax & Bookkeeping in Plano if you'd like to receive more information about our Plano, Frisco & Richardson S-Corp Tax Prep Services.