Paid myself less than I made from my LLC, self-employment taxes are way too high

[nitrox17]

I have a single-member LLC. I made $250k last year with $100k in expenses. I only paid myself $60k in salary; however, in TurboTax it's showing I have to pay taxes on the entire $150k difference instead of the 60. Where can I enter that discrepancy so that I only pay self-employment taxes on the 60k? I am using the TurboTax self-employed package.

Thanks,

[SweetieJean]

Is it an S Corp?

[nitrox17]

Yes

[re2boys]

Did you prepare the Form 1120S tax return for the S-corp first?

[nitrox17]

No, apparently that's only available in the TurboTax Business and I did the online TurboTax Self-Employeed (which I already paid for). Do I need to start over in TurboTax Business?

[SweetieJean]

The S-corporation must pay its shareholder-employees reasonable compensation for the services the shareholder-employees actually provide to the corporation

[nitrox17]

@SweetieJean Yes, I looked into "reasonable compensation" and paid myself a fair salary for the business. I just cannot find where to account for this in TurboTax. Thank you,

[TomYoung]

That "fair salary" has to be reported to you on a W-2 and you should be receiving paychecks with taxes withheld, paid to you by the S-Corp.  Are you?  I expect that's not the case, I expect you reported the full $150K on Schedule C so, ergo, it's all considered self employment income.  

And yes, you need to first prepare Form 1120S, which will create a Schedule K-1, which you will enter in your own Form 1040.

If you are the sole employee of the Sub-S corp the IRS's default position is that "you" should be receiving a salary of $100K.  You might want to go to a local tax expert to get set up properly.

[SweetieJean]

<a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/s-corporations">https://www.irs.gov/bu...>

[Opus 17 · Accepted solution]

You must prepare a corporate tax return first.  As part of that corporate tax return you must issue a W-2 to yourself as employee and pay reasonable compensation.  Then the remaining profits will be taxed without SE tax.

Since Turbotax business is only available for PC, you will either need to buy a cheap PC for the business, or borrow a PC, or use one of the software solutions for installing a virtual PC on your Mac.

After you have the W-2 and the K-1, start your personal tax return over from scratch.  (It should not have a schedule C unless you also have another unincorporated small business.)