I have feverishly been reporting about provisions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act and have left my multi-part series on Subchapter S adrift at sea. Accordingly, I want to sneak in one more article in this Subchapter S series before turning my attention back to the Act.
Single-Class-of-Stock Requirement
In accordance with Code § 1361(b)(1)(D), an S corporation may not have greater than one class of stock. The key to only having one class of stock is generally to make sure that all outstanding shares have identical rights to distribution and liquidation proceeds. That concept, however, may be easily said, but it may be difficult to fully grasp, implement and monitor. In this blog post, I aim to synthesize the complexities of this monumental rule of Subchapter S into an understandable set of guidelines.
Larry J. Brant
Editor
Larry J. Brant is a Shareholder and the Chair of the Tax & Benefits practice group at Foster Garvey, a law firm based out of the Pacific Northwest, with offices in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Washington, D.C.; New York, New York, Spokane, Washington; Tulsa, Oklahoma; and Beijing, China. Mr. Brant is licensed to practice in Oregon and Washington. His practice focuses on tax, tax controversy and transactions. Mr. Brant is a past Chair of the Oregon State Bar Taxation Section. He was the long-term Chair of the Oregon Tax Institute, and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Portland Tax Forum. Mr. Brant has served as an adjunct professor, teaching corporate taxation, at Northwestern School of Law, Lewis and Clark College. He is an Expert Contributor to Thomson Reuters Checkpoint Catalyst. Mr. Brant is a Fellow in the American College of Tax Counsel. He publishes articles on numerous income tax issues, including Taxation of S Corporations, Reasonable Compensation, Circular 230, Worker Classification, IRC § 1031 Exchanges, Choice of Entity, Entity Tax Classification, and State and Local Taxation. Mr. Brant is a frequent lecturer at local, regional and national tax and business conferences for CPAs and attorneys. He was the 2015 Recipient of the Oregon State Bar Tax Section Award of Merit.