Once your S-Corp election is in effect, your business files its own annual return, Form 1120-S, separate from your personal Form 1040. This return reports the company’s income, deductions, and credits, and it generates a Schedule K-1 for every shareholder, which then flows through to that person’s individual tax return.
What Goes Into the Return
- Business income and cost of goods sold for the tax year.
- Officer compensation, reported separately from distributions and one of the most common audit flags when it’s missing or unreasonably low.
- Deductible business expenses across every category the company incurred.
- Depreciation schedules and Section 179 elections for equipment or property purchases.
- Balance sheet reconciliation for companies over the reporting threshold set by the IRS.
- A Schedule K-1 for each shareholder, matching their exact ownership percentage.
Deadline
Form 1120-S is due March 15 for calendar-year S-Corps, with a six-month extension available that pushes the deadline to September 15. Filing late without an extension triggers a per-shareholder, per-month penalty that adds up quickly, which is why we track your deadline closely and file the extension automatically whenever we need more time to get the return right.
Why This Return Needs a Cpa, Not Software
The return itself isn’t the hard part. Reconciling officer compensation, distributions, shareholder basis, and loan repayments correctly is where most DIY filings go wrong, and it’s exactly where the IRS looks first if your S-Corp gets a second look. Off-the-shelf software can calculate the numbers you enter, but it won’t catch a basis limitation, a disallowed loss, or a distribution that should have been reported as compensation instead.
We prepare your 1120-S alongside your personal return so both stay consistent with each other, and your K-1 figures match exactly what you report on your Form 1040. That consistency matters if either return ever gets pulled for review, since discrepancies between the two are one of the easier things for the IRS to spot automatically.
What You Can Expect From Us
We keep the process straightforward: gather your year-end books, reconcile any open questions with you directly, prepare the return and K-1s, and walk you through the results before anything gets filed. No surprises, no jargon-heavy summary you have to decode on your own.
Already filing as an S-Corp and need this year’s return handled, or still deciding if the election is right for you? See our S-Corp overview, or call (405) 458-8949.