Right Pay, Right Tax—Smart Compensation for Business Owners.

People often wonder why we offer Reasonable Wage Analysis. What’s the big deal about compensation, right? Why not just stick with a standard salary or take owner distributions and call it a day? But here’s the thing—we started this service because there’s a blind spot we noticed for small business owners, consultants, and solo practitioners, especially related to salary and self-employment taxes.

If you’re like most small business owners, taxes take up a big part of your income. At a tax rate of 25% to 45%, a significant portion of what you make goes straight to taxes. When you think about it, that means you’re devoting 25% to 45% of your workday to covering tax obligations—2 to 4 hours each day spent working just to pay taxes.

That’s where Reasonable Wage Analysis comes in.

We take a close look at your business earnings, wages, and how your income is structured. With our RightPay Analysis, we make sure your compensation is working for you—maximizing today’s earnings and funding future goals, rather than putting all the chips into a system that may not fully return your investment.

Why Reasonable Wage Analysis Matters:

You Wear Many Hats—Compensation Should Reflect That: As a small business owner, you’re not just the CEO; you’re likely the head of marketing, sales, finance, and operations too. RightPay Analysis considers all that you do and helps set up a compensation structure that values your contributions and reflects your role’s complexity.
Optimized Earnings: We’ll help you determine the most tax-advantageous way to structure your compensation. That means keeping more in your pocket now, instead of overpaying into a program that may only partially benefit you down the road.
Smart Social Security Contributions: Don’t get us wrong—contributing to Social Security is essential, but there’s a balance. We help find that “right pay” level that fulfills your tax obligations without tipping the scales too far.
Underpayment Exposure: You may have risk exposure if your compensation does not fall within the IRS guidelines of “reasonable compensation”. This could cost you thousands of dollars if you are audited and it was determined that your compensation was not accurate.

At Ann Still CPA, we believe in keeping your hard-earned income working for you, not just funding a system that may not deliver the full benefit when you need it most. As a small business owner wearing many hats, you deserve a compensation structure that reflects the real value you bring to your business.

If this sounds like something you’d like to explore, let’s talk. Feel free to reach out directly at info@still-cpa.com. We’d love to show you how Reasonable Wage Analysis can make a difference for you today—and down the road.

HOW IT WORKS

1. Sign Engagement Letter

Please reach out to our firm for an engagement letter.

2. Document Submission

Once we receive your signed engagement letter, we’ll send you a secure upload link where you can provide last year’s business tax return and paystub.

3. Initial Review and Payment

We’ll review your documentation to determine if our analysis will produce any tax savings for you.

If our analysis shows a potential for at least $1,000 in tax savings, we’ll send an invoice for $500 and move forward with a full review.
If there’s limited benefit, we’ll simply charge a small review fee of $50 to cover our CPA’s time.

4. Pay Recommendation