TIL you can file for S-Corp status online in most states now
My accountant mentioned it after I complained about paperwork, and I found the form on my state's SOS site in under 10 minutes. Has anyone else switched to S-Corp and seen a big difference in self-employment tax savings?
You said "self-employment tax savings" but thats not quite right. The real benefit with an S-Corp is you can pay yourself a reasonable salary and then take the rest as distributions, which avoids the 15.3% self-employment tax on that extra money. But you still have to pay yourself a salary through payroll and deal with all that quarterly filing. Its not like you just flip a switch and save money automatically. The savings only kick in if your business income is high enough to justify the extra payroll costs and paperwork.
Reasonable salary" is where it falls apart for me. The IRS has no clear definition, so you're basically guessing. My CPA ran the numbers and even with a modest $50k salary plus payroll costs, the savings didn't kick in until I was clearing over $80k net profit. Below that the extra filing fees and payroll tax actually cost me money. It's not a magic bullet for everyone.