One thing to add to all this great advice - make sure your business bank account always maintains enough balance to cover your quarterly estimated tax payments. Since S-Corp profits pass through to your personal return, you'll likely owe estimated taxes throughout the year. I learned this the hard way when I transferred almost everything to my personal account early in the year, then got hit with a big estimated tax bill and had to scramble to move money back to the business account to make the payment. Your tax preparer's 80% suggestion might be accounting for this - keeping that 20% cushion for taxes and unexpected business expenses. Also, if you're making these transfers frequently, consider setting up a more systematic approach. I now do monthly distributions of a set amount, which makes the bookkeeping much cleaner and helps with cash flow planning.

I've been through this exact situation with my S-Corp LLC! Your tax preparer is correct - transferring money from your business account to personal account doesn't create additional tax liability since S-Corp profits already pass through to your personal tax return. You're already paying taxes on those business earnings whether the cash sits in the business account or your personal account. The 80% recommendation is likely about maintaining adequate business reserves for quarterly estimated tax payments (since you'll owe taxes on the pass-through income) and keeping some buffer for unexpected business expenses or opportunities. It's not a tax rule, just good financial planning. One important note: make sure every transfer is properly documented in your books as a "shareholder distribution" rather than just random transfers. Clean documentation is crucial if you're ever audited. Also, keep in mind that you need to maintain "reasonable salary" (which sounds like your tax preparer addressed by putting you on payroll) before taking distributions - this prevents the IRS from reclassifying distributions as wages subject to additional payroll taxes. Since you mentioned minimal business expenses, you might not need to keep as much in the business account as someone with higher overhead, but definitely keep enough for your quarterly tax obligations!

This thread has been incredibly thorough! I wanted to add one more angle that might be relevant for your situation: quarterly estimated tax payments. If either of you has income that isn't subject to withholding (freelance work, investment income, rental property, etc.), getting married can actually help with estimated tax payments since you can base them on your combined income and potentially avoid underpayment penalties more easily. Also, since you mentioned planning to buy a home after the wedding, don't forget about the first-time homebuyer benefits that are better for married couples. You can exclude up to $500,000 in capital gains when you eventually sell (vs $250,000 for singles), and if either of you qualifies as a first-time buyer, you can withdraw up to $10,000 from IRAs penalty-free for the home purchase - and that's $10,000 per person, so potentially $20,000 total as a married couple. One practical tip: regardless of when you decide to get married, consider doing a "practice run" of your taxes both ways using last year's numbers. Most tax software will let you see the comparison without actually filing. This will give you real numbers instead of estimates and help you feel more confident about your decision. The fact that you're thinking about this strategically puts you way ahead of most couples! Whatever timing you choose, you're clearly being thoughtful about the long-term financial implications.

Wow, this thread has been absolutely incredible! As someone who just went through this exact decision process last year, I can confirm that taking the time to analyze all these factors is so worth it. My partner and I had nearly identical incomes to yours ($70k and $69k) and also had student loan considerations. We ended up using a combination of the strategies mentioned here - ran our numbers through tax software for the "practice run" that @c9d0c47c24f4 suggested, used the studentaid.gov calculator for loan payment projections, and created a comprehensive spreadsheet looking at 5-year scenarios. What we discovered was eye-opening: while we'd face about a $1,800/year increase in student loan payments by filing jointly, the combination of tax savings, increased HSA contribution room (we both had individual coverage), and better positioning for our planned home purchase in 2024 made the summer wedding timing worth it. The ability to use both our incomes for mortgage qualification plus the $500k capital gains exclusion for our future home sale sealed the deal. One thing I'd add to all the great advice here: don't forget to factor in any employer benefits that change with marital status! My partner's company offers better health insurance rates for spouses than individual coverage, which saved us $150/month we hadn't initially considered. The long-term wealth building advantages of higher Roth IRA limits and education credits really do add up over time. Sometimes the immediate student loan payment increase feels scary, but when you model it out over decades, the marriage benefits often win by a significant margin. Best of luck with your decision - sounds like you're approaching it exactly the right way!

Has anyone used the "zero out retained earnings" approach with TurboTax for their final S-Corp return? My accountant mentioned this but didn't explain how to actually do it in the software.

I went through this exact same situation when closing my S-Corp earlier this year. The balance sheet errors in TurboTax are usually caused by not properly accounting for where your cash went when you distributed it to yourself. Here's what worked for me: In TurboTax, you need to record that $4,200 as a "Distribution to Shareholders" under the equity section, not as an expense. This creates the proper offsetting entry that balances your books - cash goes down by $4,200, and shareholder equity (retained earnings) also goes down by $4,200. For the disposed assets, since you mentioned they were old equipment, make sure you're removing both the original cost AND the accumulated depreciation from your books. If they were fully depreciated, this should net to zero impact. One thing that caught me off guard - make sure your final balance sheet shows zero equity at year-end if you're completely liquidating. All retained earnings need to be distributed out to shareholders for the books to properly reflect a dissolved corporation. The IRS has specific requirements for S-Corp dissolution, so double-check that you're filing Form 966 in addition to your final 1120-S return. Good luck with the closure!

Welcome to the community! I can definitely help clarify this for you. That negative balance of -$5,849 is actually excellent news - it means the IRS owes YOU that money as your refund! The minus sign indicates a credit on your account, which I know seems backwards but that's just how their system works. The changing "As Of" date is completely normal and happens when the IRS runs routine system maintenance and updates. Since you're getting a refund (not owing money), this date has absolutely no impact on your refund timing - it would only matter if you owed them money and they were calculating interest. Your transcript shows your return was processed on February 24th (that's the 150 code), so you should see your refund hit your account within 1-3 weeks of that date if it hasn't already. All your transaction codes look perfectly normal for Head of Household with dependents and earned income credit. Pro tip: The "Where's My Refund" tool on the IRS website is much more reliable for actual timing than trying to decode all these transcript details. Once you see an 846 code appear on your transcript with a date, that's when you'll know the refund has been officially sent to your bank. Hope this helps ease the confusion - the IRS definitely doesn't make their systems newcomer-friendly! 😊

Welcome to the community! That negative balance is definitely your refund - congrats on getting $5,849 back! The minus sign threw me off when I first started checking transcripts too, but it just means the IRS owes YOU money. The changing "As Of" date is totally normal and nothing to stress about. It's just their computer systems doing routine updates and maintenance. Since you're getting a refund instead of owing money, that date doesn't affect your refund timing at all. Your return was processed on 2/24 (that 150 code), so your refund should hit your account soon if it hasn't already. Everything on your transcript looks completely standard for Head of Household with dependents and EIC. Just keep checking "Where's My Refund" for the most accurate timing - it's way easier to understand than trying to decode all these transcript codes! 😊

A word of caution from someone who's been burned by this before - make sure you understand your company's PTO policies!! At my last job, all unused vacation time automatically paid out at the end of the year, which meant I couldn't actually avoid the tax impact, just delay it. Check if your company has: - Use it or lose it policy - Automatic cash-out at year end - Caps on vacation accrual These can all affect whether the vacation time actually helps reduce your taxes or just delays the inevitable.

This is such a helpful thread! I'm in a similar situation where my company is offering bonus vacation time vs cash, and I was leaning toward the cash initially. But after reading everyone's experiences, I think I'm going to go with the vacation time instead. One thing I want to add - make sure you also consider the timing of when you'd actually use the vacation days. If you're planning to take time off anyway and would be using unpaid leave, then the bonus vacation time is essentially "free money" since you'd get paid for those days off instead of losing income. Also, for anyone worried about the complexity of tax rules, it sounds like there are some good resources mentioned here for getting clear answers. I might check out that AI tax service since I have some other questions about how this interacts with my HSA contributions and 401k limits.