S-Corporation Officer Reasonable Salary

IRS launches in February 2010 random employment tax audits. The goal of this Employment Tax National Research Project, the first in 25 years, is to figure out where the IRS can get the most money through audits. One key issue is S-Corporation owner / officer / shareholder reasonable compensation / salary / wages. The IRS loses huge amounts of money when S-Corporation owners take unreasonably low salaries, mainly due to loss of the 6.2% Social Security portion of the FICA tax. Social Security tax applies to the first $106,800 of salary but does not apply to S-corporation distributions / dividends.