Lena is the sole shareholder and president of Gold Corporation, which is a C Corporation. She feels that she can justify paying herself a $50,000 bonus this year because of her excellent performance for the company. However, rather than a bonus, she considers having Gold pay her a $50,000 dividend. She believes this would be preferable because it will be taxed at only 15% as a “qualified dividend” instead of being taxed at her marginal income tax rate of 35% as a bonus. Assuming that Gold Corporation is in the 21% federal tax bracket, how much federal income tax could Lena save by taking the bonus? Given that Lena owns 100% of Gold Corporation you should analyze this decision from both the corporation and individual tax perspectives (an “integrated” analysis). You can ignore any state or social security tax considerations. Reminder: dividends paid by a C Corporation are nondeductible for federal income tax purposes.
Lena is the sole shareholder and president of Gold Corporation, which is a C Corporation. She feels that she can justify paying herself a $50,000 bonus this year because of her excellent performance for the company. However, rather than a bonus, she considers having Gold pay her a $50,000 dividend. She believes this would be preferable because it will be taxed at only 15% as a “qualified dividend” instead of being taxed at her marginal income tax rate of 35% as a bonus. Assuming that Gold Corporation is in the 21% federal tax bracket, how much federal income tax could Lena save by taking the bonus?
Given that Lena owns 100% of Gold Corporation you should analyze this decision from both the corporation and individual tax perspectives (an “integrated” analysis). You can ignore any state or social security tax considerations. Reminder: dividends paid by a C Corporation are nondeductible for federal income tax purposes.
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