Announcements

Congratulations to Mary-Ann Andrews, a Sage Strategist, for graduating with a Masters Degree in Business Administration from The University of Phoenix!
Sign up for "Golden Tax Secrets" here.
Cheri Hill will be moderating a panel discussion on Saturday, September 11 at C4CUBE's Entrepreneur's Boot Camp. The panel Cheri will moderate will be entitled, "The Marketplace: Early Decision Making --- The Idea/Market." The event will be held at C4Cube located at 300 East Second Street, Suite 1405 and registration is $99.00 ($175.00 at the door) which includes admission, handbooks & meals. This is a two day camp that will be held on both September 11 and September 12. For more information contact Lynne Keller at 775-622-9900 x 104 or email her at lynne.keller@c4cube.com.
Cheri Hill will be hosting a Sage Teleseminar with Linda McLean and the topic of discussion will be, "I'm Confused --- Are You a Mentor-Coach-Consultant." Linda McLean is a certified business and life coach and they will be discussing how you differentiate between the titles, what to look for and when and if it makes sense for you to utilize an outside consultant for your personal/business life. This teleseminar will be held on Wednesday, September 15, from noon - 1pm. .
Sage will be participating in the NCET Entrepreneurship Expo, Nevada's only Business-to-Small Business Expo. This event is FREE, open to the public and will be held on Friday, September 17, 2010 from 10am - 6pm at the Atlantis Casino Resort & Spa in Reno. For more information feel free to contact Emily Somerville at 775-853-4226 or Emily@NCET.org.
BLOG: Ask Cheri Hill

How to Incorporate - S Corporation

All corporations begin as a C corporation, but may elect S status with the IRS. C and S corporations are distinguished by how their income is reported.

Advantages

Combines the limited liability with pass-through tax treatment-allowing business income and loss benefits to flow directly to shareholders, which eliminates the possibility of double taxation on business profits.
Retirement plans aren't just for big businesses; they are available for even a one-person sole proprietorship.
You can set up a tax-advantaged retirement plan for yourself and your employees. There are quite a few retirement plan options.

Disadvantages

Must meet certain eligibility requirements such as
It is a U.S. corporation with no more than 100 shareholders. This eliminates public corporations. (A husband and wife are considered one shareholder if they own their stock jointly.)
All shareholders are individual U.S. citizens or resident aliens.
Corporation has only one “class” of stock. There can’t be any preferred or other types of shares that give special privilege to some shareholders-for example, one class of stock with voting rights and another without.
Cannot own 80% or more of the shares of stock in another corporation.
All shareholders must consent in writing to S corporation status by signing Form 2553, which is filed with the IRS.
No Retained Earnings allowed.
Tax issues when converting from a C corporation to an S.

Tax Implications

Files U.S. Corporation Income Tax Form 1120-S for every year of its operation whether or not it has any income. Typically, the tax year is the calendar year, so the return is due on March 15.
Individual S corporation shareholders report the business’s income (or loss) on their individual tax return.