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For S-Corp Owners

Every S-corp owner needs a number they can defend.

Reasonable compensation is the salary the IRS expects you to pay yourself. Get a report that shows exactly where your number came from. Takes about 15 minutes.

Create Report
WageProof reasonable compensation results showing $83,379 salary with task breakdown and donut charts
BLS.gov
Federal wage data
7,000+
Job titles
400+
Metro areas
~15 min
To complete

If the IRS audits your salary, can you show where the number came from?

S-corp owners set their own salary. The IRS requires it to reflect what someone doing the same work would earn on the open market. If they think it's too low, they reclassify your distributions as wages and you owe back payroll taxes, penalties, and interest.

The risk is increasing. The IRS now uses AI to flag returns where the salary looks too low relative to what the owner took out of the business. $45 billion in new enforcement funding means more cases get reviewed. S-corp owner salaries are an explicit enforcement priority.

S-corp reasonable compensation in 2026: what you need to know →

This has happened.

Watson v. United States

Federal appeals court, 2012

An S-corp owner paid himself $24,000 while taking over $200,000 in distributions. The court said his real salary should have been $91,044 and he owed back taxes on the difference.

Radtke v. United States

Federal appeals court, 1990

A business owner paid himself $0 salary and took everything as distributions. The court reclassified all of it as wages. He owed payroll taxes on every dollar.

We calculate a defensible salary for you.

You don't need to figure this out yourself. Describe your role and how you spend your time. We match each task to federal wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and calculate a salary you can document and defend. The methodology follows the IRS Reasonable Compensation Job Aid. Every number traces to a public source your CPA can verify.

Cost Approach Detail
Report showing task-by-task salary breakdown: Office Clerk $15,480, Customer Service Rep $5,022, Sales Rep $15,530

How it works

  1. Step 1

    Describe your role

    Select the tasks you actually perform, from bookkeeping to sales to managing employees. Rate your experience at each one.

  2. Step 2

    We price each task

    Each task is matched to BLS wage data for your metro area and experience level. The math is documented and every number is traceable.

  3. Step 3

    Download your report

    Get a PDF with source citations, methodology documentation, and a salary resolution template. Share it with your CPA or file it with your corporate records.

What's in the report

  • A breakdown of what you actually do.

    The IRS looks at the nature and scope of your work. The report breaks your role into individual tasks and prices each one using federal wage data for your metro area and experience level.

  • Verifiable data behind every number.

    Job category, data year, geographic area, and experience level for every figure. An IRS auditor can check every number against the same public source.

  • A documented methodology.

    How the calculation works, how your experience level affects the number, and why your geographic area was selected. The IRS expects to see the reasoning, not just a number.

  • Sample salary resolution language.

    Template corporate minutes language documenting that the salary was reviewed and approved based on market data. Customize it for your company and file it with your records.

See a sample report →View pricing →

Find out what your salary should be.

Pick your tasks. Rate your experience. Get a report that shows its work.

$199 per report.

Start Your Report

Takes about 15 minutes. See a sample report first