Federal Taxes Weekly Alert, 03/16/2006, Volume 52, No. 11
This Practice Alert (excerpted from a more extensive article in the December 2005 issue of Practical Tax Strategies Practical Tax Strategies ¶ 12200509 ) explains how S corporations and their shareholder-employees can save on employment taxes by characterizing more distributions as dividends rather than as compensation for services, the government's iniatives in this area, and how to help prevent a challenge from IRS.
Owner/employees. Owners of a closely held C corporation can enjoy a significant benefit from paying a shareholder/employee as much as possible in the form of salary (rather than dividends) in order to minimize the double tax. This strategy, however, is not applicable to a limited liability company (LLC) or an S corporation because these entities generally do not pay an entity-level income tax. To the contrary, an S corporation shareholder/officer benefits from having distributions classified as dividends. This is because a salary, unlike a dividend, is subject to federal employment taxes (i.e., FICA and FUTA).
Classifying a distribution as a dividend can also be beneficial for a shareholder/officer of an S corporation who retires before “normal” retirement age (i.e., 65 years and six months in 2005). Dividends, unlike salary for services rendered, do not reduce an individual's Social Security benefits.
Historical perspective. IRS first addressed the issue of dividends versus salaries received by shareholder/employees of an S corporation in '74. In Rev Rul 74-44, 1974-1 CB 287 , it concluded that dividends received by the two sole shareholders of an S corporation were, in fact, “wages” for services rendered for which the corporation was liable for FICA and FUTA as well as the withholding of income tax.
In the 1980s, two district courts concluded that an officer of an S corporation was an employee for employment tax purposes. Both decisions were appealed to the Seventh and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal, which affirmed the lower courts' decisions.
Nu-Look Design, Inc. The two cases discussed above both involved S corporations that provided professional services (i.e., legal and accountancy) to the firm's clients. In 2003, IRS in Nu-Look Design, Inc., 93 AFTR 2d 2004-608 , 356 F3d 290 , 2004-1 USTC 50138 (CA-3, 2004), again looked at payments from an S corporation to its sole shareholder/officer. Again, the issue to be resolved was whether the payments should be classified as dividends or wages for services rendered. This time, however, the S corporation did not provide professional services but rather was in the home improvement business.
Contention regarding S corporation shareholders. Citing Code Sec. 1366 and Code Sec. 6037(c) , Nu-Look argued that S corporation shareholders should not be deemed employees. The Tax Court we rejected any suggestion that Nu-Look's passing through of its net income to its sole shareholder/officer precludes the finding of an employer-employee relationship.
In conclusion, the Tax Court found that Nu-Look's sole shareholder/officer performed “more than minor services for Nu-Look and that he had received remuneration for those services.” As a result, the court held that he was an employee of Nu-Look under Code Sec. 3121(d) ; therefore, it was liable for employment taxes for '96, '97, and '98. The Third Circuit affirmed.
IRS guidance. In a memorandum dated July 5, 2002 and entitled “The Internal Revenue Service Does Not Always Address Subchapter S Corporation Officer Compensation During Examinations,” IRS outlined four recommendations designed to remedy this issue. Two of these recommendations are summarized below:
An example of the latter recommendation has already surfaced. IRS is now including additional information (some might say a “warning”) on acceptance of the S corporation election on Form 2553. The following notice was dated Jan. 10, 2005: Notice of Acceptance as an S-Corporation:
Tax practitioners and Subchapter S shareholders need to be aware that Rev Rul 77-44 states that the IRS will re-characterize small business corporation dividends paid to shareholders as salary when such dividends are paid to the shareholders in lieu of reasonable compensation for services.
Recent Treasury statement On Aug. 5, 2005, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration presented a report before the Senate Finance Committee regarding IRS's administration of certain employment tax laws. The report found that employment tax inequities exist between sole proprietorships and single-shareholder S corporations.
Specific conclusions of the report include the following:
Conclusion. S corporations and their shareholder/employees have an employment tax incentive to distribute corporate earnings as dividends rather than as compensation to the shareholder employees. As IRS releases and court decisions indicate, however, IRS may scrutinize how an S corporation classifies its distributions, revise the classifications, and assess additional tax accordingly. With proper planning, however, an S corporation's compensation policy has a better chance of lowering its ultimate out-of-pocket employment tax costs.
Planning tip. The following actions could help in preventing the IRS from declaring that dividends distributed by an S corporation to a shareholder/employee should be treated as compensation and subject to withholding and employment taxes: