Insights
Notes on the questions that keep coming up
Written for owners and their advisors. Positions are researched to primary authority and cited, so you can check the reasoning rather than take it on faith.
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W-2 or 1099: classifying the clinicians in your practice
Whether an associate clinician is an employee or a contractor is not a choice the practice makes on paper. It follows from who controls the work, and the tax cost of getting it wrong falls on the practice.
Setting a reasonable S corporation salary when you are the clinician
The clinician-owner is two employees in one chair, a provider and a manager. A defensible salary prices both jobs, and a group practice already holds the best comparable in its own payroll.
Quarterly estimated taxes for private practice owners
The penalty is not for owing at filing. It is for paying late during the year, and the safe harbors are written so that a practice with unpredictable income can still avoid it.
Accountable plans: how an S corporation reimburses its owner
An S corporation owner who pays business costs personally usually cannot deduct them. The corporation can reimburse them tax-free instead, but only through a plan that meets three specific requirements.
One remote employee can put you in another state’s tax system
Nexus is three separate tests, not one. The reason remote work catches people is that the cheapest of the three to trigger is the one nobody is watching.
Reasonable compensation: what the standard actually is
The 60/40 rule is folklore. There is no statutory percentage, and the cases that got decided against taxpayers were lost on facts, not on arithmetic.
Why an S corporation distribution can be taxable
A distribution is not tax-free because the company had cash. It is tax-free because you had basis. Those are different questions, and only one of them is on the bank statement.
Missing the S election deadline is usually fixable
The statutory deadline is tight and widely missed. The administrative relief is broad and widely unknown, which is the wrong way round.
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