S Corporation Profits
Information on this page refers to the Nutrition Assistance program Information on this page refers to the Cash Assistance program
This section includes information about income received from S Corporation profits.
Policy
S corporations are corporations that elect to pass corporate income, losses, deductions, and credits through to their shareholders for federal tax purposes. Shareholders of S corporations report the flow-through of income and losses on their personal tax returns and are assessed tax at their individual income tax rates.
To qualify for S corporation status, the corporation has to meet all of the following requirements:
Be a domestic corporation
Have only allowable shareholders (i.e. may be persons, certain trusts, and estates and may not be partnerships, corporations or non-resident alien shareholders)
Have no more than 100 shareholders
Have only one class of stock
Not be an ineligible corporation (i.e. certain financial institutions, insurance companies, and domestic international sales corporations).
S corporations are required to file IRS form 2553 when they elect to be classified as an S corporation. IRS form 1120-S has to be filed to report income, gains, losses, deductions and credits for any tax year when they have elected to be classified as an S corporation. IRS Schedule K-1 form has to be filed to report information regarding income, deductions, credits, and other items that pass through to the corporation’s shareholders. The IRS Schedule K-1 form provides information about the shareholder’s shares of the income from the corporation.
Profits from shares in an S Corporation are countable as unearned income.
Any other income received from an S Corporation is countable and considered earned income.
Countable income is used to determine an income budget. (See Income Budgeting to see how FAA determines the income budget.) FAA needs to know about income that is both countable and not countable to determine whether a budgetary unit’s income is exceeding their expenses. (See Income Eligibility for more information about how FAA uses countable and not countable income.)
Verification
The participant has the primary responsibility for providing verification. (See Participant Responsibilities – Providing Verification for additional policy.)
For NA, all of the following income is required to be verified before eligibility is determined:
Reported on a new application, during the interview of a new application, or changes reported before the eligibility determination of a new application.
Changes after an eligibility determination of a new application (e.g., a renewal application, mid approval contact, etc.) and any of the following apply:
The source of the income has changed.
The income is questionable(g) or unclear(g).
The reported income amount has changed by $51 or more.
The previous verification in the case file is more than 59 calendar days old.
For CA, all income is required to be verified before determining eligibility.
Examples of verification that can be used for S corporation profits include, and are not limited to, any of the following:
Bank records
Statements or collateral contact from the agency or payer providing the income
Court records or court orders
Current check reflecting gross income (Do not copy federal government checks)
Federal or state tax forms when they include all of the following forms:
IRS form 2553
IRS form 1120-S
IRS form Schedule K-1
Insurance policies
Signed statement from the agency or payer providing the income
Participant statement verification can be used when obtaining documented or collateral contact verification may cause harm or undue hardship(g) for the participant or when all of the following occur:
Attempts to obtain the verification from an acceptable source are unsuccessful. This includes documented and collateral contact verification.
The participant’s statement is not questionable(g).
Legal Authorities
last revised 04/29/2024