Head is spinning - S-Corp for taxes? or Just keep doing 1099 for myself?

[Nick Ponte]

Last few years have been making $250k as a Realtor. I fired my last accountant as he made some errors as well as gave poor advice. I hired a new CPA and he told me to create an LLC as my name, open business checking account, and elect to be taxed as an S-Corp. I have a family friend who was just on the phone with his CPA, so he asked him, and he said there is no benefit to S-corp, and that it just doubles the work for the CPA (and their costs), doubles the work for myself, and there really is no benefit to it. I don't know who is right and what I should do.

Additionally, for the foreseeable future any money I make, I need to collect asap as I recently took out a line of credit to build a home (long story), so basically I can't really have any funds sitting in an account for a while. The other CPA (not my new one, friends CPA) stated all funds have to be taken at the end of the year anyways?

[Jeff Nash]

The other respondents provided some good considerations.  The issue of paying an entity versus an individual is an issue in various states.  Texas just changed this rule effective 1/1/2024 to allow agents rather than only brokers to be paid through an entity in consideration of the S-Corp election.  I think you should analyze your situation as I normally suggest if net profit is consistently greater than $40-50k the benefit probably outweighs the cost (additional tax return, payroll, etc).  Everyone’s goals and situation is different so working with someone is important.