Some comments on your questions and response:
- Any shareholder / officer wages should be reported on line 12, which is pulled from Form 1125-E. The difference is the IRS wants to see detail of officer wages. Line 13 is just wages of all other employees.
- The IRS does indeed care about reasonable salary for C corporations. Specifically, IRC Section 162(a)(1) states a corporation is allowed a deduction for compensation only if the amount paid is reasonable for services actually rendered. While there is more of a battle in smaller S corporations, the battle with C corporations comes as the C corporations get larger.
- Technically, paying out a bonus towards the end of the year is okay since you indicate that your income is sporadic. This income is deemed to have occurred throughout the year. Many corporations pay out bonuses which are in fact just tax payments to federal and state and these tax payments are deemed to have been remitted prorata through-out the year.
- Paying out dividends in a C corporation is more complicated than just completing a Form 1099-DIV. Dividends are paid out of earnings and profits (E&P) which is not the same as retained earnings on the balance sheet. So in order to pay out dividends, you must first compute your E&P and then update the E&P when paying out any dividends. If you pay out more in dividends than E&P, you will also be required to complete Form 5452.
- The deposit rules tie into your withholding amounts. So if you have not withheld any taxes, there is no deposit requirement. Payroll taxes can be a bit tricky and expensive (payroll tax penalties). It may be in your best interest to involve a payroll service. The benefits will clearly exceed any cost in an area such as this; especially if you do not have regular payroll, but still will have payroll filing responsibilities.
*A reminder that posts in a forum such as this do not constitute tax advice.
Also keep in mind the date of replies, as tax law changes.
