IRS Cracks Down on Officer Wages

As a part of this blog, we like to give you a heads-up on some of the things the IRS is focusing on in an attempt to collect taxes.  Recently, the IRS has been targeting business owners through officer wages.  If you own a corporation, the IRS says that each officer is to be paid a “reasonable wage” for services rendered—this is an officer wage.  This wage is to be paid the same way you pay employees—with taxes withheld and a W-2 form issued at the end of the year.

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The biggest problem people are having is determining what a reasonable wage is. So let’s talk about how you figure a reasonable wage.  It can be tricky.  Although the IRS has many charts in its code to monitor different tax situations, there is not an official chart for determining reasonable wages.  This actually makes sense because there are so many different variables involved that it would no doubt be one big, complicated chart.  However, on the U.S. Department of Labor’s website, there is information about many types of jobs and what the average wage is per hour and per year for each.  They even have it broken down by state.  This is a good place to start.  Go to the Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics at www.bls.gov/data and click on “Data Bases and Tables.”  There you can search your type of job by state.  Many states even have this information on their own

Department of Unemployment website.  Another thing you can do is research how much you could earn if you worked doing the same thing for someone else in your area.  If you could earn $20 per hour working for someone else in your city or county, you can use that figure to calculate a reasonable wage.

Because this process is so subjective, here are two things we recommend you do when figuring a reasonable wage.

1. Think about what you do for your company and then research how much you would get paid to do that same thing if you worked for someone else.
2. How much does your company make per year.  It is not reasonable to pay yourself more than your company earns.

The IRS is cracking down on companies that are not paying officer wages.  If you are one of those companies, we suggest you talk to your tax professional and see what would be the best way for you to get compliant.

There are also a lot of other policies you need to make sure you are following correctly.  We have a great CD set that can teach you how to make sure you and your business are being compliant with the IRS.  Visit http://avoidbeingaudited.com/products.html to learn more!

More Changes for the 2010 Tax Year

As we mentioned last week, we recently attended the National IRS Conference at the end of August.  Here is a continuation of some of the changes the IRS is making for the upcoming tax year that may affect you.

1) New Tax Credits for Small Businesses. There will be a hiring incentive credit forhiring employees between 2/3/10 and 1/1/11.  This tax credit will make it so you don’t have to pay your half of the Social Security and Medicare tax in certain cases.  Also, there is a new credit for small businesses that pay part or all of an employee’s health insurance.  Companies will be able to deduct part of this expense.

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2) W-2 vs. Contract Labor. If you are a corporate officer, you will now be required to take some of your pay in the form of a W-2 wage. There are also new, stricter guidelines for who is considered an employee and who is considered a contract laborer.  In some cases, the IRS may require companies to withhold Federal tax for certain individuals on their 1099.

3) Sole Proprietors. The IRS is going to be looking more closely at whether a business is a hobby or a business. The things they will be looking more carefully at are advertising, meals and entertainment, and home offices.

4) New Policies for Tax return Preparers that will affect your taxes:

a) Starting next year we will be required to efile all personal tax returns.  We will no longer charge an additional fee for this service.

b) We are now required to have each client sign a disclosure and consent form.  We can’t start your return until it is signed.  This is not our rule or even an IRS rule – it is actually something Congress has passed.  We will make this form available in the office as well as on our website for your convenience.

Again, none of these new changes are cause for alarm. If you have any questions or concerns about how these things may affect your taxes please give us a call or click here to contact us.