A lot depends on many factors ... if you are the ONLY employee and you don't subcontract out a lot of the work then I agree taking less than maybe 75% would be risky if you are audited. You can base your salary on what the going salaries in your area are for the same work you do. For instance if you are a plumber and plumbers in your area make $50 an hour then a salary of $2000 a week would be reasonable with the rest as a draw.
The IRS position is that an S-Corporation MUST pay a reasonable compensation to an officer before non-wage distributions may be made. The reason is that they feel that non-wage distributions when no wages are paid is an avoidance of social security taxes. From the IRS website at http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=203100,00.html :
"Reasonable Compensation
S corporations must pay reasonable compensation to a shareholder-employee in return for services that the employee provides to the corporation before non-wage distributions may be made to the shareholder-employee. The amount of reasonable compensation will never exceed the amount received by the shareholder either directly or indirectly.
Distributions and other payments by an S corporation to a corporate officer must be treated as wages to the extent the amounts are reasonable compensation for the service rendered to the corporation.
Several court cases support the authority of the IRS to reclassify other forms of payments to a shareholder-employee as a wage expense and subject to employment taxes."
The page cites Joly vs. Commissioner, 211 F.3d 1269 (6th Cir., 2000) as one judicial finding on the IRS's authority to reclassify distributions to wages subject to employment taxes. Factors to determine reasonable compensation are given in the ruling.
The AICPA has an interesting article on this topic here: http://www.aicpa.org/publications/taxadviser/2011/august/pages/nitti_aug2011.aspx
You also might want to read a lively discussion on the Tax Almanac website here: http://www.taxalmanac.org/index.php/Discussion_Forum_-_Tax_Questions . The substance of the discussion seems to be that taking a reasonable salary is not optional and, if you took distributions with no salary, the distributions should be changed to salary with appropriate employment tax returns being filed (late, if necessary.)
