I am self-employed and my business has two distinct parts:
- Engineering and Design - which makes $50k income / year
- Manufacturing and Sales - which makes $150k income / year
I am currently running both of these lumped together as a sole proprietorship, doing business under my name. I spend approximately 25 hours per week in each of these, for a total of 50 hours per week.
However, I am considering splitting these two into the following:
- Engineering and Design -- as a sole proprietorship (or single member LLC)
- Manufacturing and Sales -- as an S Corporation (single share holder)
The advantages I see here are numerous:
- Although 100% of my income from #1 would be subject to SE (self-employment) taxes, only my salary would be subject to SE taxes in #2.
- Since I am spending half my time in #1, and half my time in #2, the reasonable salary for #2 for a full-time salaried employee is 100k, however, since I am half-time, my reasonable salary is $50k. Therefore, $100k would be paid to me as distributions, avoiding some SE taxes.
- My wife helps me with #1, and I would hire her as a W2 employee under #1, allowing me to also offer her a Section 105 Plan, which would cover her family's (i.e. her and me) health insurance premiums and health expenses, as a deductible business expense. I do not have this benefit under an S-Corporation.
Any thoughts or feedback on this approach? Any other recommendations?
Basically, my goal is:
- Minimize my tax liability (especially when it comes to SE taxes), while still being under the "reasonable salary" range.
- Maximize business deductions, such as health insurance premiums and medical expenses, etc, which both reduces SE taxes as well as reduces the total taxable profit.
How can I best meet these two goals? Is my approach a good one?