Even if an S Corp has no income, it must file IRS Form 1120S annually to maintain compliance. Filing establishes a tax record, prevents IRS assumptions about tax liability, and avoids penalties. Business expenses can still be deducted, potentially resulting in a loss that carries forward.
The C corporation is the standard (or default) corporation under IRS rules. The S corporation is a corporation that has elected a special tax status with the IRS and therefore has some tax advantages. Both business structures get their names from the parts of the Internal Revenue Code that they are taxed under.
In the U.S., the largest payroll taxes are a 12.4 percent tax to fund Social Security and a 2.9 percent tax to fund Medicare, for a combined rate of 15.3 percent. Half of payroll taxes (7.65 percent) are remitted directly by employers, with the other half withheld from employees' paychecks.
We recommend converting to a C-Corp if a company wants to issue qualified small business stock and plans on selling its business in no less than five years.
One significant drawback, as noted earlier, is the higher overall tax liabilities in comparison with pass-through entities. Additionally, C corps often face more complex and stringent regulatory requirements, including formal documentation, recordkeeping, and compliance costs.
Because of the one-class-of-stock restriction, an S corporation cannot allocate losses or income to specific shareholders. Allocation of income and loss is governed by stock ownership, unlike partnerships or LLCs taxed as partnerships where the allocation can be set in the partnership agreement or operating agreement.