How do I know if my company is an S corporation?

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Not unless someone filed Form 2553. Every corporation is a C corporation for federal tax from the day it is formed, and every LLC is a disregarded entity with one owner or a partnership with more. S corporation status is an election, made on Form 2553 and signed by every shareholder, and nothing about forming, naming or registering the company triggers it. If you cannot find a signed Form 2553 and the IRS letter accepting it, you are not an S corporation. The deadline Form 2553 is due no more than 2 months and 15 days after the beginning of the tax year the election is to take effect, or at any time during the tax year before it. For a new company the first tax year starts when it first has shareholders, acquires assets or begins business, so the clock usually starts around formation. The IRS does grant relief for late elections when there is reasonable cause, but that is a request rather than a right. Who cannot elect The IRS requires a domestic corporation with no more than 100 shareholders, all of them individuals, estates or certain trusts, none of them nonresident aliens, and only one class of stock. A venture-backed startup fails on several counts at once: a fund is a partnership, preferred stock is a second class, and a founder abroad is a nonresident alien. That is why companies planning to raise never elect, and why a company that did elect loses the status on the day its first preferred round closes. LLCs can elect too An LLC files the same form and is then taxed as a corporation that has elected S status, while staying an LLC under state law. The usual reason is self-employment tax on an owner's profits, and whether it saves anything is a question for an accountant with your numbers in front of them.

How do I know if my company is an S corporation?

The deadline

Who cannot elect

LLCs can elect too

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