Do-it-yourself Utah S Corporation Kit

As a Utah business owner, you probably know that S corporations can save a business hundreds or thousands of dollars a year in payroll and income taxes. What you may not know is that S corporations are quite easy to set up. You can form one yourself just by filling out three forms listed here. For some additional help, you can purchase and download one of the useful step-by-step guides I have created... But before I provide the buttons you use for that, let me briefly review the processes used for forming an S corporation in Utah.

Form 1: Articles of Organization/Articles of Incorporation

Before you fill out the first form you will need to decide if you want to form a limited liability company or a regular corporation. The LLC or corporation will be the foundation for your S corporation. Fill out an Articles of Organization form to create an LLC, or an Articles of Incorporation form to create a corporation. The Utah Department of Commerce website provides a downloadable version of both of these forms on its website. Submit your completed form and the $70 processing fee to the Divisions of Corporations and Commercial Code in Salt Lake City.

Form 2: SS-4 for EIN Application

The second form you will fill out is a SS-4 form, which is an application for an Employer Identification Number. An Employer Identification Number, or EIN, is like a Social Security Number for businesses. You can download the SS-4 form from the IRS website. You should receive your EIN within a few weeks of sending your completed SS-4 form to the IRS.

Form 3: 2553 for S Corporation Election

The third form you will need to fill out is a 2553 form. This is how you elect to receive S corporation treatment. Download this form from the IRS website, and submit it to the Internal Revenue Service Center in Ogden. Once the IRS receives your submission, they will analyze it to see if your business is eligible to make the election and if you followed correct procedure before you receive S corporation status.

You may feel comfortable completing this process on your own, but if you don't I have more resources available to help you below: two versions of my do-it-yourself S corporation kits. One explains how to form an S corporation using an LLC, and the other explains how to form an S corporation using a regular corporation.

LLC Version of Utah S Corporation Kit

I strongly recommend using an LLC for the base of your S corporation because they are easier than corporations to manage. This kit includes detailed steps to walk you through all three steps of forming an S corporation, and examples of what the completed forms should look like. It also explains the positive and negative effects of forming an LLC in Utah. To further assist the formation of your new business, I added two sample LLC operating agreements which you can use when creating your own operating agreement.

Corporation Version of Utah S Corporation Kit

In some cases a business may benefit more from using a corporation rather than an LLC, and I sell a do-it-yourself kit for businesses in that situation as well. This kit explains the benefits and drawbacks of incorporating in Utah as well as how to balance them. It also provides clear steps that guide you through the entire process of forming an S corporation, as well as examples of completed forms for reference. As a bonus, the kit includes a set of sample corporate bylaws. You or your lawyer may use these bylaws as a template for creating your own bylaws.

 

Additional Information You May Find Useful

If you want additional information about how to maximize the tax savings related to running a business or investment venture, you may also be interested in one of our downloadable e-books (see descriptions below). Each book covers a category of tax planning topics that easily save a business owner significant amounts of income or self-employment taxes (potentially thousands of dollars a year) and is instantly downloadable.

Often the best tax saving tool private companies have? The Section 199A deduction which allows them to avoid taxes on the last 20 percent of their income.

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Using an S corporation for your business? To maximize savings, you need to minimize the salary paid to shareholders. But this decision is tricky.

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Nearly secret, the federal government's employee retention credits provide tremendous payroll tax savings for most small businesses... A new book from our firm explains.

Info here