U.S Tax

Lena Olson, the 45-year-old founder and president of Olson Corporation (an accrual-basis, calendar-year C corporation), owns 60 percent of the stock and receives a salary of $800,000. Four unrelated shareholders own the rest of the stock equally. The corporation has paid dividends regularly to the shareholders and plans to continue to do so in the future. Lena plans to recommend that the board of directors authorize the payment of a bonus to her and two other employees (all cash-basis, calendar year individuals). The first employee is the vice-president, who is one of the four unrelated shareholders, and receives a salary of $400,000. The other employee is the controller, who is not currently a shareholder in the corporation and receives a salary of $200,000. Lena would like the bonus to equal 75 percent of each recipient’s current salary. Lena believes that the annual salaries are probably a little high when compare to the corporation’s competitors. Lena asks you, as the corporation’s tax advisor, to recommend what the corporation needs to do so that it gets a deduction for the planned bonuses. Lena would prefer that the bonuses be paid next year but deducted by the business this year. Write a letter to Lena that contains your advice and prepare a memo for the tax files