How an S-Corp Can Reduce Your Self-Employment Taxes
If you're self-employed, you'll usually have to pay higher Social Security and Medicare taxes, collectively known as self-employment taxes, than if you were an employee of a company. One way to help avoid these higher taxes is to organize your business as an S-corporation. The Internal Revenue Service may take a close look at your taxes if you choose this route, as you could end up lowering your overall tax liability while generating the same net income.
Whether you're self-employed or an employee, you'll have to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes to the government. When you work for someone else, you're only responsible for part of these taxes, while your employer pays the balance. However, if you're self-employed, you have to pay both portions of this tax. The combined employee and employer portions of this tax amount traditionally amounted to 15.3 percent, although the rate was dropped to 13.3 percent for tax years 2011 and 2012.
If you organize your business as an S-corporation, you can classify some of your income as salary and some as a distribution. You'll still be liable for self-employment taxes on the salary portion of your income, but you'll just pay ordinary income tax on the distribution portion. Depending on how you divide your income, you could save a substantial amount of self-employment taxes just by converting to an S-corporation.
While an S-corporation may save you in self-employment taxes, it may cost you more than it saves. As with larger corporations, an S-corporation has both start-up and ongoing legal and accounting costs. In some states, S-corporations must also pay additional fees and taxes. For example, in California, an S-corporation must pay tax of 1.5 percent on its income with a minimum annual amount of $800. This tax is not required for sole proprietors.
