C corp income questions

[Bob Sackameno]

I have a job where I make good income, I'm in the highest bracket with my regular wages. I'm about to start buying some rental properties and am not excited about the prospect of all of my business earnings being taxed at the highest tax bracket (or paying self-employment tax).

Because of this, and the fact that I'm just getting started so most of the income is going to go back out to the business for quite some years, I'm looking at a C corp so that I can retain the earnings in the business and not be fully taxed on rental income.

My question is regarding how C corps are taxed in regards to income. To make things easy, if I buy a 100% financed property (0% equity) and my expenses are $500/month, and my rent is $600 a month, at the end of the year I have $1200 in income. If I roll this $1200 into an equity payment on the loan for the same property, do I still pay corporate taxes on it? What if I roll it into a down payment on new property, is it still taxed?

What if I build a property and have instant equity. Do I pay taxes on that equity gain or only after I sell it? I guess I'm trying to find out how much I can keep reinvesting in the business without paying corporate taxes and what's considered "income." Ideally I would not distribute any dividends or salary for several years as I would want to continue growing the business and won't really need the money for personal use.