Christine Walizer, Author at The S Corporation Association

S Corporations and Payroll Taxes, Again

The release of Newt Gingrich’s tax return has returned the issue of payroll taxes and S corporations to the public’s attention. This issue first came to prominence during the 2004 election cycle, when Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards was accused of using an S corporation to avoid paying Medicare taxes on some of his income as a lawyer.

Now it appears Newt Gingrich may be using a similar structure. USA Today has an excellent report on the issue. Here are a couple excerpts:

Gingrich’s tax return shows his S Corporation, Gingrich Holdings, accounted for the bulk of his $3,142,066 adjusted gross …

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admin2019-02-01T20:21:28+00:00February 1, 2012|

Presidential Candidates and Their Tax Returns

So, we now have the tax returns for President Obama, Governor Romney, and Speaker Gingrich. Did anybody notice that the S corporation owner is the one with the highest effective tax rate?

Seriously, of the three, Newt Gingrich paid the highest effective tax (32 percent), followed by President Obama at 26 percent and then by Governor Romney at 14 percent. Given that the Wall Street Journal is reporting that S corporations pay no tax at all, that result might come as a surprise to their readers.

On the other hand, readers of the more authoritative S-Corp Washington Wire understand that of the …

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admin2019-02-01T20:21:29+00:00January 30, 2012|

Wall Street Journal Misleads its Readers

Two weeks ago, the Wall Street Journal ran a front-page piece entitled, “More Firms Enjoy Tax-Free Status.” While you could argue the story itself was less biased than the headline, its overall bent leaves the very strong impression that S corporations and other pass through businesses pay no taxes. The subsequent interview of the author on WSJ Live is even worse:

Author: The vast majority of US businesses essentially don’t have to pay any tax. They are organized as what are called pass-throughs, meaning that there’s no tax paid by the enterprise; instead the tax is paid by the owners …

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admin2019-02-01T20:21:29+00:00January 24, 2012|

New Year, Similar Outlook

It’s a new year but the outlook for tax policy remains remarkably unchanged. The list of possible to-do items Congress might take on this year is pretty much the same and includes:

Extension of the Payroll Tax Holiday;
Extension of the Tax Extenders package that expired at the end of last year;
Extension of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that expire at the end of 2012; and
Tax reform.

You might view this list chronologically. If Congress were to take up each of these separately, the Payroll Tax Holiday is sure to be first, whereas any tax reform effort, while highly unlikely, is sure …

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admin2019-02-01T20:24:43+00:00January 23, 2012|

A Word From Our Chairman

Dear S-Corp Member:

Happy New Year! I am writing to thank you for your continued support of the S Corporation Association and the important work we do in defense of the S Corp community. As the incoming Chairman of the Association, I have lots of plans for 2012 that I want to share with you.

First, 2011 was a tough year for the stock and labor markets, but it was a productive year for the Association. …

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admin2019-02-01T20:24:44+00:00January 20, 2012|