C Corporation Payroll and Tax compliances list

C Corporation : This is a business entity structure that is taxed separately from its owners/shareholders. They are also subject to separate corporate income tax .

A C Corporation is owned by its shareholders. There is double taxation of profits under this type of entity structure. Corporation is first taxed at the entity level according to the corporate income tax rates. Subsequently, taxed again at shareholder level if  there are any dividends distributed. For this reason,  S corporations have gained lot of popularity as business structure.

The benefits of C Corporation include limited liability and it is a very popular structure if you have investors or if you have any international/foreign investors. In addition, there are lesser restrictions on # of shareholders.  The C Corporations offer several options of issuing different “classes” of stocks to different shareholders. They can be further classified as common or preferred stock. Most Fortune 500 companies are structured as C Corporations.

Below is a quick summary of compliance requirements for C Corporations. It is important to note that you may be required to file zero tax report if it has been determined that there is no activity in your corporation. Otherwise, this may result in unnecessary penalties and interest.

Federal Payroll and income  tax reports

1. 941 : Social security and medicare tax report for employers.
2. 940: Annual federal unemployment tax reports
3. 1120 -W : Estimated taxes for corporations.
4. 1120- Annual income tax assessment for Corporations.
5. W2s- This is required to be distributed end of the year to employees
6. 1099- This is the 1099 Contractor report to be distributed to the contractors

State compliances : Each state has a different set of compliance requirement, therefore check with your tax professional to ensure you do not miss any important deadlines.

Other IRS links and publications. Check out this link that has business tax compliance checklist