Most “hire your child” strategies rely on payroll. A cleaner alternative can be a one time project payment that shifts income to a lower bracket without payroll taxes, if structured and documented correctly.
A spouse employee 105 HRA can be supportable without W-2 wages in some cases, but zero wages plus large benefits can look unusual. Adding wages improves optics but triggers payroll compliance and penalty exposure.
If the contract, license, and 1099 all point to you personally, a management fee or ACH routing does not turn the income into S corporation revenue. The IRS typically follows one question: who earned the income.
