$75,000 net profit
$3,037
estimated annual difference
Today$15,495
As an S Corp$12,458
- Salary basis
- Internal screening assumption
- Annual admin cost
- $1,500
Same business. Same profit. Different Tax Bill.
See in 60 seconds whether an S Corp election fits, and what it would change.
See how your work, hours, experience, and published government wage data become the lowest salary your completed facts can support. If an S Corp fits, we prepare Form 2553 and the signed EA memorandum that explains the number.
Free readiness screen · About 60 seconds · Get your result by email
If the facts do not support an S Corp, we tell you before filing.
Why your salary needs proofSee why the salary is not a guess
2:27Captions are on. See the problem, the proof, and the next step.
- Licensed EA Review
- Secure Online Intake
- Clear Filing Next Steps
- Filed right, or we fix it
- Circular 230 compliant
- PTIN and EFIN on file
- Published BLS wage data
- Serving all 50 states
- Licensed EA Review
- Secure Online Intake
- Clear Filing Next Steps
- Filed right, or we fix it
- Circular 230 compliant
- PTIN and EFIN on file
- Published BLS wage data
- Serving all 50 states
Same profit. Here is what changes.
An LLC pays self employment tax on all of its profit. An S Corp pays payroll tax on a reasonable salary, and the rest passes through as distributions. Both still pay income tax.
Whether that helps depends on the salary your facts support and the cost of running payroll. The 60 second check and the calculator below put your numbers on it.
As an LLC today
All of the profit. Self employment tax applies to it, then income tax.
As an S Corp
Salary. Payroll tax applies.
Distributions. No self employment tax.
Included from $495
One decision file. Four clear answers.
Starting from $495, every package includes Form 2553 preparation, a written reasonable compensation memorandum, and email confirmation tracking.
Readiness and savings analysis
See the modeled benefit after payroll and filing costs before deciding.
Form 2553 preparation
Prepared for your business and reviewed before filing.
Lowest supportable salary analysis
Documents the lowest compensation your facts can support and tells you when the facts require more.
Signed EA memorandum
A written record of the wage sources, adjustments, and professional conclusion.
More than a Form 2553 filing service.
A form only service can help submit the election. ScorpConvert also helps you understand the decision, documents the salary position that follows it, and gives you a clearer record of what was prepared and why.
Form only filing
The form is the main deliverable
- Form preparation and submission support
- You decide whether the election fits your tax picture
- You still need a supportable salary position after the election
ScorpConvert
The decision and documentation come with it
- A readiness screen and personalized savings estimate
- Form 2553 prepared and reviewed by a licensed Enrolled Agent
- A written reasonable compensation memorandum with source support
- Email confirmation tracking and clear next steps
Ready to file Form 2553?
Review the packages and start with the level of documentation that fits your business. If you are still deciding, take the free readiness screen first.
Read the complete Form 2553 guideWill an S CorpActually Benefit You?
Test the tax math before you commit. Compare the result, understand the salary assumption, and see whether the projected benefit still holds after payroll and filing costs. If the facts support moving forward, we document the lowest compensation your documented facts support.
If the readiness review says an S Corp is not a good fit, we tell you before filing. The recommendation comes before the paperwork.
Starting at$495Form 2553 preparation, filing support, and documented compensation guidance
Live Savings Calculator
2026 Tax Law2026 planning calculation using IRS brackets, §199A QBI, FICA, Add'l Medicare & state assumptions
Use only net business profit subject to self-employment tax. Do not include capital gains, proprietary securities trading gains, investment income, or other income not subject to self-employment tax.
$30K$750K
Your estimate should reflect your business, not a generic example.
Adjust the inputs above, then see your 2026 planning estimate. No email needed.
2026 planning projection. It assumes active participation, no non-owner W-2 wages, no qualified-property basis, and excludes FUTA and SUTA. Actual savings can differ or reverse.
Methodology: Compares total federal + state + payroll tax burden as sole-prop vs S Corp using 2026 IRC §1361 / §1401 / §199A rules, SSA wage base $184,500, and an industry screening benchmark for salary. State income tax uses the simplified state lookup table. The IRS reasonable-compensation standard depends on duties, time, experience, location, comparable pay, and the source of company receipts. Estimates only.
What S Corp savings can look like in 2026
These are reproducible planning scenarios from the same calculator used on this page. Each one assumes a single filer in Texas, no other wages, an other-service business, active participation, and annual payroll and filing costs already included.
$120,000 net profit
$6,963
estimated annual difference
Today$28,462
As an S Corp$21,499
- Salary basis
- Internal screening assumption
- Annual admin cost
- $1,500
$250,000 net profit
$11,824
estimated annual difference
Today$66,360
As an S Corp$54,536
- Salary basis
- Internal screening assumption
- Annual admin cost
- $1,500
These examples are not a guaranteed result. A different salary, state, filing status, spouse income, employee payroll, QBI limitation, or other tax fact can change the amount or reverse the result. Your fit review and reasonable compensation analysis use your documented facts.Review the complete assumptions and mathReady to file? See what is included
From intake to IRS confirmation, in four steps.
No spreadsheets. No accounting jargon. Just a clear, fast path to S Corp status.
- 1
Complete 5-min intake
Tell us about your business. We auto-check eligibility.
- 2
We prepare your docs
Form 2553, the compensation memorandum for your package, and state packet, done for you.
- 3
Sign electronically
Review and e-sign in minutes. No printer required.
- 4
We file & track
Faxed to the right IRS service center. We watch for your CP261.
Built for the way you earn.
The S Corp decision looks different for commission income, project income, and owner delivered services. Start with the page written for yours.
Mello RC Elite Memo™
The risk is not choosing a low salary.
It is choosing one you cannot explain.
The question behind the number
How much should I actually pay myself?
You do not need to know the salary before you buy. A number that is too high may reduce part of the tax advantage. A number that is too low may be difficult to support. We replace that uncertainty with a documented compensation range, the lowest point your completed facts can support, and a planning target you can use with confidence.
Know the range. Know the lowest supportable point. Know why.
Salary answer included with your paid analysis.
The IRS can reclassify shareholder distributions as wages when compensation does not reflect the services performed. That can create employment tax, interest, and possible penalty exposure. A low salary is valuable only when the facts support it and the reasoning already exists in your file.
Your Mello RC Memo™ connects your duties, time, experience, location, wage evidence, staffing, capital, and revenue sources to the lowest compensation your facts support. When someone asks why you chose that salary, your file already has an answer prepared and signed by an Enrolled Agent.
Your title alone does not decide the number. We identify the work you actually perform, match those duties to appropriate occupational evidence, and document the business role your time and facts support. How you position yourself in the company can matter when it reflects reality, but the title cannot outrun the work you actually do.
If your current salary is too low, we will tell you. If the documented facts support a lower number, the memorandum explains the lower boundary and the planning target in plain language.
A real compensation case
What happened
An experienced CPA paid himself a $24,000 annual salary while taking much larger distributions. The court accepted $91,044 as the annual value of his services.
Why it happened
His salary did not match his experience, work, and the value of the services producing the firm's income. The court upheld a $67,044 wage understatement for each of the two years at issue. The $67,044 was wages, not tax owed.
How the memo helps
A defensible memo documents the reason for the salary before a challenge. It connects duties, time, experience, location, and market wage evidence so the number can be explained from the file.
The risk is not choosing a low salary. It is choosing one you cannot explain. Neither that amount nor the $91,044 compensation figure is a rule or target for other owners. Your salary must be supported by your own facts.
A longer term planning decision
The Section 199A QBI deduction is now permanent.
The One Big Beautiful Bill Act replaced the deduction's sunset. Eligible owners can continue to claim up to 20 percent of qualified business income, subject to the income, business type, wage, property, and taxable income limits.
Reasonable compensation is excluded from QBI, while W-2 wages paid by the business can affect the limitation for higher income owners. That is why salary and QBI planning should be modeled together. An S Corp election does not automatically create or increase the deduction.
Three packages. Three memoranda.
Every package files your election and every package now ships a written reasonable compensation memorandum, prepared and signed by a licensed Enrolled Agent. What changes between them is how much of the reasoning is written down for someone else to check: 7 pages, 12 to 13 pages, or 26.
7 pages
Basic
12 to 13 pages
Standard
26 pages
Premium
Start 2027 as an S Corp. Form 2553 for a January 1, 2027 start can be filed now. The deadline is March 15, 2027, and filing early leaves time to set up payroll.
Most popular
Form 2553 + 12 to 13 Page Signed Memorandum
Standard
$895flat fee
The memorandum most owners should be holding
Your memorandum
12 to 13 pages
Basic tells you the number and shows you where it came from. Standard proves it on your own facts and tells you what it costs to run.
- Everything in Basic, and your memorandum grows to 12 to 13 pages
- State S corporation election filing
- The nine factor reasonable compensation analysis, run on the facts we collect from you, factor by factor, each one carrying a plain statement of what your file holds and what weight that carries
- The employment tax consequence of the recommended figure, measured against what your corporation is paying you right now, in whichever direction it runs, with what is left to distribute in a table that adds up
- Your figure drawn on the published wage range for your occupation in your own state, so you can see where it sits between the percentiles and why
- A time and effort section built only from what you told us, including the part of the week that is ownership rather than work
- The section 199A classification of your business, with the published threshold figures for the year
- The retirement plan contribution limits for the year and what the recommended salary actually supports
- An authorities list, so a reader can see what the memorandum stands on
- Late election relief (Rev. Proc. 2013-30)
- CP261 acceptance monitoring
Most elections completed within 5 business days
True of all three packages
Published wage data. Nothing else.
Every wage figure in your memorandum comes from one place: the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics program, May 2025 estimates, published under news release USDL-26-0725. That includes the published percentiles for your occupation in your own state. No private salary product, no subscription survey, no number we modelled ourselves.
Where the Bureau does not publish a figure for your state, the memorandum uses the published national figure and says so on its face. You can open the same table we did and see the same number.
True of all three packages
Every fact says where it came from.
Each fact in the document carries its source, and a fact we did not collect is printed as not obtained rather than quietly assumed. That discipline is unusual, and it is the whole reason the document holds up. A reader can test every line, and when the memorandum does make a claim, there is a source sitting next to it.
A document that is precise about what it knows is the one that gets believed on everything else it says.
Who prepares and signs your filing
ScorpConvert Team
Every election is prepared and signed by a licensed Enrolled Agent, admitted to practice before the IRS and working under Circular 230.
Your Form 2553 and your reasonable compensation work are prepared and signed by a credentialed professional, not generated by software and left for you to defend. You will see the preparer named and signed on the documents themselves. If your numbers do not support an election yet, we will tell you that instead of selling you one.
Standalone product
Mello RC Elite Memo™ (Standalone)
The full 26 page memorandum on its own, without the election filing. A written narrative on every factor applied to your own facts, an authority table with every case checked against a commercial citator and the date of that check printed on the page, an independent investor analysis, limitations and assumptions stated in full, and a signed Enrolled Agent opinion. Delivered by a licensed EA in 5 business days with the contemporaneous documentation your corporate record should have alongside it.
$497flat fee, 5 business day delivery
- Circular 230 Practice Standards
- Secure Online Intake
- EA Prepared and Reviewed
- Mello RC Elite Memo™ included (Premium)
- Fit reviewed before filing
The Premium difference
The Mello RC Elite Memo™
Anyone can file a Form 2553. The question that comes later is how you arrived at your salary. Most owners have a number and nothing that explains it, and a number on its own explains nothing.
Basic gives you 7 pages. Standard gives you 12 to 13. Premium gives you 26, and those 26 pages are written the way a professional writes for another professional to read. Someone picking it up cold can follow the reasoning, check every source, and see that the salary was decided in writing before it was paid.
- A written narrative on every factor, applied to your own facts
- An authority table, every case checked against a commercial citator, with the date of that check on the page
- An independent investor analysis and the contemporaneous documentation your corporate record should have
- Limitations and assumptions stated in full, under a signed Enrolled Agent opinion
Reasonable Compensation Memorandum
Prepared for the file, before anyone asks.
- Length
- 26 pages
- Wage source
- Bureau of Labor Statistics
- Delivery
- 5 business days
Signed by an Enrolled Agent
The ScorpConvert Promise
Filed correctly, or we make it right.
We stand behind every election we file. If we make an error on your Form 2553, we fix it and cover the cost to correct it. Your filing is prepared and reviewed by a licensed professional under Circular 230 practice standards, with the scope and next steps stated clearly.
Don't wait on the IRS clock
Late election relief may still be available
The normal calendar year S Corp election deadline is generally March 15. If it was missed, Rev. Proc. 2013-30 may provide relief when the entity meets the requirements, intended S Corp treatment, acted consistently, and can establish reasonable cause. We review the facts before representing that the relief path applies.
Already converted, or here for something else?
If this also applies to you.
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- Best for
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Tax advisory review
Quarterly planning, PTET, QSBS, depreciation timing, holdco structures. Built for high earners and exit-bound owners.
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The 5 questions every S Corp owner asks.
Quick answers to the questions that come up on every intake call. Need more depth? Each one links to a long-form guide.
Still have a question? .
Yes, but timing matters. A current-year election generally requires Form 2553 to be filed within 2 months and 15 days after the start of your tax year (March 15 for calendar-year filers). If you miss that window we can still file under Rev. Proc. 2013-30 late-election relief, which lets you elect retroactively up to 3 years and 75 days after the intended effective date provided you have reasonable cause and have been operating consistently with an S corp.
Rev. Proc. 2013-30 may provide late-election relief when the entity meets the timing and eligibility requirements, intended S Corp treatment, acted consistently with that intent, and can establish reasonable cause. We review the facts and available relief path before representing that the procedure applies.
Yes. An S corp is a federal tax election, not a legal entity. Your LLC stays an LLC at the state level (same Articles of Organization, same Operating Agreement, same EIN). What changes is how the IRS taxes the entity: instead of Schedule C / partnership treatment, the LLC files Form 1120-S and issues a K-1 to each owner. You keep all the legal protection of the LLC plus the SE tax savings of the S corp.
You do not need to know the number before you purchase the analysis. The IRS does not publish one minimum salary or a fixed percentage that works for every owner. We evaluate your duties, time, experience, location, revenue sources, and published Bureau of Labor Statistics wage data. Then we document the supported compensation range, the lowest point your completed facts can support, and a practical planning target in a written memorandum. The free calculator estimates potential tax impact, but it does not reveal your salary answer.
Some do, most don't. About a dozen states (including CA, NY, NJ, OH, MA, PA, IL, AR, WI) require a separate state-level S-election filed alongside or after the federal Form 2553. Our Standard and Premium tiers identify your state's requirement during intake and prepare / file the state form automatically. A handful of states (TX, TN, NH) impose entity-level taxes that change the math, which we'll flag before you pay.
We file. You see the numbers first.
Start with a free readiness screen and planning estimate. Your final recommendation depends on your business facts.
If the facts do not support an S Corp, we tell you before filing.