An IRS notice belongs with the CPA, EA, or attorney who will handle it. A compensation benchmark can organize the factual file, but it cannot answer the agency, negotiate, or appear for the taxpayer. The representative needs a traceable record of services, comparable pay, payroll, and distributions.
What authority does the IRS describe?
The IRS S-corporation page says the agency may reclassify payments from non-wage distributions to wages when they compensate shareholder services. It cites court decisions and explains that the source of gross receipts matters, including services performed directly by the shareholder and administrative work supporting other employees or assets.
Which documents should be reconciled?
Collect the notice, response date, job description, calendar or time record, payroll registers, W-2, distributions, general ledger, compensation agreements, and the BLS tables used. The report should show each duty and hour allocation and should label every assumption. Missing records should be identified rather than filled with invented precision.
Who communicates with the IRS?
Practice before the IRS includes presentation to the agency. Reality Contact does not write or send the notice response, sign a filing, join a call, or represent the taxpayer. The benchmark is delivered to the taxpayer and chosen professional. That representative decides what evidence is relevant and what position to present.
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.