Here Are Some Items to Consider Regarding taking a salary:
- You need to wait until the company is generating an income to justify your reasonable salary before receiving any compensation
- Once the company is generating income to justify your salary, it would be acceptable receive a "bonus" provided that your total compensation is reasonable for the work performed (i.e. what the company would have to pay someone else to perform the same work)
- You may certainly receive uneven/irregular compensation provided that your total compensation is reasonable
- What is important from a 401k perspective is that any w-2 compensation that you receive is not unreasonably high (i.e., no more than what the company would have to pay someone else to do all of the things that you do). To that end it would prudent to document your functions and any market research that you have showing how much it would cost to hire someone to perform those same functions (e.g. online salary info, etc.).