Thanks for replying, and for these resources! Weirdly, my accountant is the one who recommended getting a service vs him doing it. And I actually DO live in Washington, @SeattleCPA.... so you would recommend DIYing?
If you operate in Washington state and you are only employee, you can probably avoid state payroll tax returns like unemployment (aka "Employment Security Department") and workers compensation (aka "Labor and Industries").
If this is the case--and it probably is--there's a payroll "hack" you can use. Here it is:
1. At the end of each quarter, file a 941 with IRS that says, basically, the first $10,000 I paid last quarter? Yeah, that was Gunderson's payroll. At this wages level, you'll owe $1530 of SS and MC taxes. But you can remit an amount that "small" with the 941 return.
2. Repeat this for the other three quarters of the year. At year end, this will mean you've paid Gunderson the shareholder-employee $40K in wages and paid all the SS and MC he and the S corp owe on this money.
3. Get the CPA who does your 1120S tax return to do your W-2/W-2 and 940 FUTA return in January. These returns will also show corp paid $40K in wages. The 940 FUTA tax return will require an additional small payment.
The only two rubs with this approach... you won't be able to pay much income tax. (You can't remit more than $2500 with a 941 return.) So you'll need to make estimated tax payments for the income taxes that Gunderson the employee and Gunderson the shareholder owe... Further, that $2500 limit, means you can't show more than about $16000 a quarter in payroll. But this whole approach can save you $500 -$1000 a year in payroll service fees.
This slightly out of date (older forms) blog post gives more detail:
https://evergreensmallbusiness.com/quick-and-dirty-payroll-for-one-person-s-corps/We've got an ebook that describes this system and slightly more complicated scenarios:
https://evergreensmallbusiness.com/ebooks/five-minute-payroll-ebook/
