[berettafan]

Here's some rough figures as an example:

Schedule C (sole proprietorship):
Profit: $50,000
Self employment tax: $50k x 15.3% = $7,650.

S Corp
Profit: $50,000
Salary: $25,000
Self employment tax: $25k x 15.3% = $3,825

S corp with same profit before salary of $25k saves you 3800 in SE tax. Income tax is the same in either example. As is the new QBID given certain income assumptions.

I don't mean to suggest $25k is a reasonable comp for this example and really couldn't without knowing the situation. I have some consulting clients that I push to take a much higher % of profit as salary thus changing the math a bit.

Now once you start getting into big figures like say $200k in profit for a consultant things change a bit. You'd probably be taking FICA max for a salary and thus only be saving the 3.9% medicare tax on the difference. At this income level and above we start to see things like retirement saving options (solo K for example) take priority over FICA tax savings and so the decision process is different.

All this is just to illustrate the need for a good CPA and honest assessment of what you expect.