On Fri, Feb 28, 2014 at 9:45 PM, C. Hatton Humphrey wrote: > Need to get some feedback on a concept that a friend of mine is > considering. He's a graphic designer working for a company right now > and is considering switching to contract work. Someone suggested that it > would make more sense tax-wise to form a S-Corp, pay himself as a W2 > employee and then claim the rest as corporate dividends >
My company is an S-Corp and there are certain tax advantages to being an S. The company can give dividends, but there are limits to that. And dividends are still taxed, just at a slightly lower rate. The biggest advantage usually given to incorporate though, is protecting your personal assets. The concept of a corporate shield means that if his company is sued they cannot come after his personal property. In practice this is sometimes overcome if the business owner was not careful enough keeping his business and personal assets separate. This is called "piercing the corporate shield". There are also advantages to being a Sole Proprietor. I know people who remain Sole Proprietors because they think that the corporate shield is too easy to pierce and there is far less paperwork. An LLC also usually has less paperwork then an S Corp, but it's organizationally different and the tax rules are a bit different too. There are many blog posts and websites describing the details if he Googles a bit. Ultimately though, after doing some research on his own he should find and talk to 1) a good lawyer and 2) a good CPA. Also helpful to consider when starting out: - Separate business checking account - Separate business AMEX (make it a rewards card) - Standard Client Contracts / Agreements - Standard Subcontractor Agreement (hiring one or being one) - Business Insurance -Cameron -- Cameron Childress -- p: 678.637.5072 im: cameroncf facebook <http://www.facebook.com/cameroncf> | twitter<http://twitter.com/cameronc> | google+ <https://profiles.google.com/u/0/117829379451708140985> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:369527 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
