December payroll is when an incomplete compensation file becomes visible. The owner needs more than a year-end number. Duties, hours, prior payroll, distributions, benefits, and the business's sources of receipts should be assembled while payroll can still be coordinated with the bookkeeper and CPA.
Which facts belong in the file?
The IRS compensation page lists training and experience, duties, time and effort, dividend history, payments to other employees, bonus timing, comparable pay, agreements, and formula use. A year-end benchmark should connect those facts to the payroll actually run, rather than starting with a desired distribution split.
Why do health-insurance records matter?
The same IRS page explains that health and accident premiums paid for a shareholder owning more than 2% are generally reported as wages in Box 1 when the stated conditions are met, with different treatment for Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment-tax boxes. The owner should give the actual premium and reimbursement record to the payroll provider and CPA rather than guessing from a prior year.
What does the benchmark settle?
The report shows published wages for the occupations that make up the role and reconciles them with documented hours and business facts. It does not run payroll or amend a return. The CPA and payroll provider decide what entries are needed, when they can be processed, and how federal and state deadlines apply to the specific company.
What can the Reality Contact check provide?
The free read returns the published 25th, median, and 75th percentile wages for one occupation and metro. The $49 memo adds a short rationale for the file. The $149 report decomposes multiple duties, weights documented hours, works the stated approaches, and includes a minutes summary and CSV. An annual reissue is $99. Every wage figure identifies its BLS release and table.
Where does the operator boundary sit?
This is not tax advice. Reality Contact, LLC prepares a benchmark for the taxpayer and CPA. It is not an opinion. We do not file, sign, present anything to an agency, or represent anyone. The CPA decides the salary. The free read returns published wage percentiles for one occupation and metro. It is a real source check and a way for Reality Contact to sample demand for the fuller report. We reply by email with the BLS table and release. The current source check starts with this published record.