Ask a CPA

Kiara, both of you will file Single for 2023 since you did not get married until January 4, 2024.

Jeanne M Adams, CPA

Firestone, CO 80504

Casey,  Only one parent is entitled to claim their dependents.  Since you have a court agreement giving him the dependents and the child tax credit, these are his to claim.  Your tax returns should reflect single with no dependents.

Jeanne Adams CPA

Firestone, CO 80504

At the end of each year, all S corporation profits are allocated to the corporation's shareholders. Even if you and your fellow shareholders choose to leave some or all of the profits in the corporation, taking nothing as distributions or salaries, you will still be required to pay tax on those profits. In technical lingo, an S corporation is not permitted to have any retained earnings. This is different from a regular corporation, which can retain—and pay taxes on—its earnings.

However, S corporation shareholders may be able to deduct 20% of their business income with the pass-through deduction established under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 

Earn tax-free income.

Maximize deductions.

Maximize tax credits.

Contributing to a retirement account – 401k or IRA.

Opening a health savings account.

Contributing to employer-sponsored plans.

Profiting from investment losses.

Check for flexible spending accounts at work.

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https://www.syriaccpa.com/

Bryan, greetings from a Texas CPA.

I would be happy to have you come aboard as a tax client.

Technically, the shareholder of an S corporation should be on payroll, receiving a reasonable compensation, from day one. However, what you read, that the IRS MIGHT give you a pass for the first year, is correct. So, yes, you’ll probably be alright for year 1. Of course, that is partly contingent on whether they see that you’re following the rules in subsequent years.

If you filed the S election and made it retroactive back to 2020, then 2020 was year 1, even if it was not a complete year. In this case, 2021 would be year 2 for you. So, yes, you are a whole year late in doing payroll. Being this late, the best we can do now is damage control, to mitigate the problem.

If you are interested in having a phone call to discuss issue, I can probably take your call between 7:00 AM and 9:00 AM this morning (Tuesday, January 11, 2022). Otherwise, the rest of my day is booked at the moment (although I would be available this evening after 7:00 PM). I’d be available again tomorrow (on Wednesday), after 5 PM (as I already have meetings scheduled for tomorrow). My hourly rate for purely consulting is $200.00 per hour. During the call, we can discuss your questions and possible solutions. My direct number is (210) 413-4019. I don’t round up on time. I’m more interested in helping individuals like you and bringing them on as continuing clients than charging for consulting.

You can find my CPA firm (Adam Dickreiter, CPA, PLLC) by doing a Google search. I am located in San Antonio. If you’re not in San Antonio or the surrounding area, that’s not an issue, as we can still interact from a distance.

Hello Katie,

In order to answer your question properly, it is important to know the tax structure of your business; is it a corporation, Single-member LLC or sole proprietor.

Since we can only deduct the portion of your home that is used exclusively and regularly for business (the rule of thumb for the percentage to be in the range of 5-20%), I would advise you to pay for the expenses out of your personal accounts, then record the deductible portion on a monthly basis on a separate sheet. At the end of the year or on a monthly basis, provide an employee reimbursement report to your company for payment.

In general, the deductible portion of the mortgage, real estate taxes, utilities, and insurance need to be booked as "due to shareholder". Once it has been paid by cutting a check or transferring the money out of your business account to your personal account, you will need to reverse the entry by getting rid of your account "due to shareholder" and reducing your cash balance.

Hope my answer helped.

Hello Scott,

Unfortunately, the value of time or service is not tax-deductible, but any expenses that incur due to the pro bono work that are directly related to the charity are tax-deductible.

Hello Frederic,

You can withdraw your Roth contribution anytime with no penalty. However, the portion of the interest earned or growth will need to remain in the account for 5 years prior to the withdrawal in order to avoid the early penalty of 10% for the federal. Please be aware that some states impose an early withdrawal penalty as well. Assuming you are over 59 1/2 years, you won't need to be concerned about the penalty on the portion of the growth as long as it stays in your account for 5 years. There is an interesting fact that the 5 year period starts counting down with the first account opening. All subsequent Roth money contributed will be part of the original contribution.

Technically you cant combine years like that. As a practical matter though, the $8000 of revenue probably results in a much lower number for taxable income after accounting for expenses so if the income is immaterial for that year, adding it to 2020 might not be a real problem. Also keep in mind if there were an audit, showing the income, even though its in the wrong period could help with negating any sort of under reporting penalty.

Of course you really should consider amending 2019 to report everything in the correct year, but if you decide not to do that, be sure everything from here on out is reported in the correct period. Combining revenue is not proper.

Yes the backdoor IRA strategy will work for you. One note of caution is that there is potential this strategy will be limited if the version of the Build Back Better Act that is about to go to the Senate for a vote passes. Consider making the move soon as some of those provisions will take effect Jan of 2022.

Additionally note that there is a possibility of the side door Roth if your plan at work allows non deductible 401k Contributions. Reach out if you want to discuss further