S Corp Tax StrategiesWhat to bring to your free S corp call
A short list makes the 30 minutes count: a rough profit figure, last year's return, and your payroll reports if you run payroll. If you're missing one of these, come anyway. We'll work from what you have.
If you already run payroll
Bring your payroll register, last year's W-2, and the quarterly Form 941 filings your payroll provider produced. With those, we can see the salary you actually paid and compare it to the money that came out for other reasons.
If you already elected S corp, bring last year's Form 1120-S and your K-1 if you have them. We'll check that the K-1 reached your personal return.
If you haven't run payroll yet
Just tell us on the form. Many owners come to us before payroll starts. Bring a rough idea of what you took out of the business last year, and a sentence about the work you do each week.
That's enough for us to run the S corp math and sketch a salary that fits the work. Setting up payroll comes after you decide.
Helpful, but optional
A recent bank statement, the IRS letter accepting your Form 2553 if you filed one, and a note on who owns what share of the company. If two owners do different work, a sentence for each person helps.
Every receipt from the year can stay home. A closed month, or a plain note that the books are behind, tells us what we need to know.
How the 30 minutes go
First we look at your profit and how you pay yourself now. Then we run the S corp numbers with your figures. Then we talk about timing: whether to elect now, next January, or not yet. If the books and payroll are already in good shape, the call is quick, and that's a good sign. If they need work, we tell you what an engagement would cover.
You run payroll yourself, with a payroll company you choose. If you don't have one yet, choosing one and setting up a separate wage account is part of the work. If you need a signed audit or review, we tell you early what kind of firm does that.
The call is free. If you want help after it, we send a letter with the work and the fee, and the work starts once it's signed.
After you send the note
Someone in the practice reads your note the next working morning and replies. The first question is usually the one on the form: do you pay yourself through payroll yet? Then we set up a time.
You can also skip the form and pick a time now. The call is 30 minutes, and that's enough to know whether an S corp fits.
Tell us what you'll bring
You will be talking to the Steven Palmieri practice.
Say whether you run payroll now and give a rough profit figure.