The best way to pay yourself is as an employee, that is deductable as an expense and reduces your business income.  Anyone who didn't do that was not able to claim the payments made to owners during the PPP application process. Also, the IRS expects that as an owner/manager you would pay yourself a reasonable salary - what $$$ is reasonable is moot. For small businesses that plan on offering health benefits the best solution is a PEO - you can go with a small PEO like Justworks or a bigger one like Trinet or Sequoia. You can greatly lower the benefits costs to your company and employees by going through a PEO, they help you hire across the US, follow all the rules, file all of the taxes and issue W2s and can even offer HR consulting assistance.  I would use a PEO until you get past 50 staff, then you can consider going with a basic payroll service like Paychex or ADP and buying health benefits through a broker.  A PEO offers everything in one seamless package, so I love using them.