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August 17, 2022
Question

Can I drive Uber as S Corp owner?

  • August 17, 2022
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views

I was thinking to form a S corp and drive Uber under the business. Can I pay myself a salary and treat rest of the profit from Uber as distribution?

 

Thanks, 

    2 replies

    Employee
    August 17, 2022

    @Bryan46 wrote:

    Can I pay myself a salary and treat rest of the profit from Uber as distribution?


     

    As an employee of your S corporation, you must pay yourself a reasonable salary.

     

    See https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-news/fs-08-25.pdf

    Employee
    August 17, 2022

    From what I have heard, there is not likely to be much left after your salary, uber supposedly pays pretty poorly.

     

    Yes, I think you can do that in principle. It might be cheaper to be a sole prop taxed as an S-corp rather than actually forming an S-corp, depending on your state and the fees involved. However:

     

    A. You have to pay yourself a fair market wage, what drivers usually get paid, which might be more than minimum wage, depending on your state labor laws and the local economy.

     

    B. An S-corp (formally or taxed as) prevents you from deducting operating losses against your other income. For example, if you bought a fancy new car and took depreciation rather than standard mileage, your expenses might give you a tax loss that you could deduct against other income, even though you have positive cash flow.  You can't do that as an S-corp.

     

    I read a tax court case once involving a man who had a small business, and one day his son formed him into an s-corp because he got some incomplete advice on the pros and cons.  It turned out to be very bad for the man so he filed on schedule C instead.  He got audited, fined, took it to court, and lost.  The court said that even if he didn't understand what his son had done, he signed the papers and now he was stuck with the results.  Make sure you know what you are doing. 

    Bryan46Author
    August 17, 2022

    Hi,

     

    Thanks for your response. To be clear, why you cannot take car depreciation and take mileage deduction? Is there any publication explain this? Just out of curiosity.

     

    Thank you,

     

    VolvoGirl
    Employee
    August 17, 2022

    The depreciation includes mileage.  You can't get both.  

    How to depreciate property

    Publication 946 (2021), How To Depreciate Property | Internal Revenue Service

     

    IRS overview of Depreciation

    http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/A-Brief-Overview-of-Depreciation