Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA - Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, FL
Payroll Services That Stay in Sync With Your Books and Taxes
Most payroll services Hollywood FL business owners use run completely separate from their bookkeeping and taxes - one login for payroll, another for the books, and a scramble every quarter to make sure the two actually match. Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA runs payroll the same way we run your accounting: one team, one set of records. We work with whatever payroll platform you're already on, or run it directly ourselves, pricing may vary by setup.You get accurate paychecks, on-time payroll tax filings, and payroll numbers that already tie out to your financial statements, because the same firm is producing both.
Tell us about your Accounting needs.
Schedule a 15-minute call with a CPA.
What's Included in Our Payroll Service
Payroll processing and compliance covers more than cutting checks. Every pay run includes wage calculation, tax withholding, and direct deposit, plus the compliance work that actually protects you if the IRS or Florida Department of Revenue ever asks questions.
That means federal payroll tax deposits made on schedule, quarterly Form 941 filings, annual Form 940 (FUTA) filings, and state reemployment tax reporting to Florida's Department of Revenue. At year-end, we prepare and file W-2s for employees and 1099-NECs for any contractors you paid, and reconcile every payroll run against your books so your financial statements and your payroll records always agree - because they're built by the same team, not two vendors comparing notes after the fact.
Wage calculation, tax withholding, and direct deposit
Federal payroll tax deposits and quarterly Form 941 filings
Annual FUTA (Form 940) and Florida reemployment tax reporting
Year-end W-2 and 1099-NEC preparation and filing
Payroll reconciled against your books every pay period
CPA PAyroll
Why Payroll Should Be Handled by Your CPA, Not a Separate Vendor
Gusto, ADP, and similar platforms are fine at running numbers through payroll on schedule. What they don't do is tell you whether your S-corp salary would survive an IRS reasonable-compensation challenge, or when in December it makes sense to run a bonus instead of a distribution. That's a tax planning call, not a payroll processing one, which is why it belongs with your CPA rather than a separate vendor.
S-Corp
Payroll for S-Corp Owners
If you own an S-corp, payroll isn't optional - the IRS requires shareholder-employees to pay themselves a reasonable salary through payroll before taking any distributions. Skip this, or set the salary too low, and the IRS can reclassify distributions as wages and assess back payroll taxes plus penalties.
There's no fixed percentage or formula for what counts as reasonable. The IRS evaluates it case by case, weighing factors like the duties you actually perform, your training and experience, time devoted to the business, what comparable businesses pay for similar work, and your history of distributions versus salary. Because we handle both your payroll and your tax return, the owner's salary gets set as part of your overall tax planning - not as a number picked in isolation and hoped it holds up.
For the fuller tax-planning side of this - entity structure, distribution timing, year-end compensation review - see our Tax Planning & Preparation page.
Payroll Mistakes
Common Payroll Mistakes Small Businesses Make
Misclassifying workers. Whether someone counts as an employee or an independent contractor comes down to the IRS's behavioral and financial control test, not what the business decides to call the role.
Getting the deposit schedule wrong. Every employer is assigned either a monthly or semiweekly deposit schedule by the IRS, based on a lookback period rather than a set calendar - and missing that deadline by even one day triggers penalties under IRC §6656 that get steeper the later the deposit is.
Paying yourself too little as an S-corp owner. Before taking distributions, S-corp owner-employees are required to pay themselves reasonable compensation. A salary that falls short of that standard tends to draw scrutiny.
Missing the new-hire reporting window. In Florida, new hires need to be reported to the state within 20 days of their start date - a deadline a lot of small businesses simply don't know exists.
Blowing past year-end deadlines. Both W-2s and 1099-NECs are due January 31. Miss it, and the problem usually doesn't surface until an IRS notice shows up months later.
What Changes As You Grow
Small Business Payroll
Payroll complexity doesn't scale in a straight line with employee count.
A business with one to five employees usually just needs accurate processing and on-time tax deposits handled consistently, since the compliance surface is small and predictable.
Once you cross into the 10+ employee range, or start mixing W-2 staff with 1099 contractors, the risk profile changes.
You're now dealing with a wider range of withholding situations, benefits deductions that affect taxable wages, and worker classification calls that carry real penalties if they're wrong.
Businesses with employees working across more than one state add another layer, since state withholding and unemployment insurance rules vary and don't follow a single template.
None of this means small payroll runs are low-stakes; a single missed deposit or misfiled form carries the same penalty exposure whether you have two employees or twenty.
It means the type of oversight payroll needs changes as your team grows, and that's exactly where having a CPA involved, rather than running payroll on autopilot through software alone, starts to matter more.
Experience You Can Verify
Who Prepares Your Return
Your work never leaves our office. A licensed CPA leads each job. A licensed CPA signs each return. No one else does.
Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA
Founder & Managing Partner — Licensed in Florida and Maryland
Arthur Lazarus is a CPA licensed in Florida (License #AC61458) and Maryland (License #13054), with a Master's in Taxation. He is a member of the FICPA, the Fort Lauderdale Chamber of Commerce, and the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Payroll isn't just a task to run every two weeks, it touches your taxes, your compliance, and your bottom line. That's why Arthur S. Lazarus, CPA handles it directly, in person or remotely, instead of routing it through a separate payroll vendor with no view into the rest of your books.
Find out more about Arthur: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthurlazaruscpa/
Who This Is For
Serving Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood & Broward County
We're based in Hollywood, FL, and run payroll for small business clients across Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood and the rest of Broward County. Florida has no state income tax, but employers here still owe state reemployment tax (Florida's version of unemployment insurance) on top of federal payroll tax obligations - one more place a generic national payroll platform can get the local details wrong.
Because payroll is run by the same office that handles your books and taxes, there's no separate vendor to loop in when a local filing question comes up - Broward County reemployment tax registration, multi-location wage reporting, or a new hire's first paycheck all go through one team that already has your full financial picture.
Based in South Florida and serving clients in Fort Lauderdale - Hollywood, Broward County, and all 50 states.
Payroll Services
Frequently Asked Questions
What's included in the payroll service?
Wage calculation, tax withholding, and direct deposit for every pay run, plus federal and Florida payroll tax compliance - quarterly Form 941, annual FUTA (Form 940), state reemployment tax reporting, and year-end W-2 and 1099-NEC filing. See the full breakdown above.
Can you run payroll and file my taxes together?
Yes - that's the core of how we structure this service. The same team that processes your payroll also prepares your books and tax return, so payroll numbers, financial statements, and your tax filing stay consistent instead of needing to be reconciled against each other after the fact.
How do you set the owner's salary for an S-corp?
The IRS requires S-corp owner-employees to pay themselves reasonable compensation through payroll before taking distributions, based on facts and circumstances - duties performed, time devoted, training, and comparable pay for similar work - rather than a fixed percentage. Because we handle your payroll and your tax return together, we set this as part of your overall tax planning. See our Tax Planning & Preparation page for more on entity structure and distribution timing.
What if I only have 1-2 employees?
Small payroll runs are common for the small business clients we work with. The compliance requirements (tax deposits, 941 filings, W-2s) apply the same way regardless of headcount, and a small team is often where bundling payroll with your books saves the most relative to paying for a standalone payroll platform.
Do you handle multi-state payroll?
We primarily serve Florida-based small businesses, including those with a small number of out-of-state remote employees. If you have significant payroll across multiple states, let us know during your quote so we can confirm scope before you sign up.
Get Started Today
Get a Payroll Quote
Headcount, pay frequency, and how many states you're running payroll in all change the price. Tell us the basics in a free consultation and we'll quote it accordingly.
Contact Us
Get in Touch
Office Info
Phone
Address
5184 SOUTHWEST 32ND AVENUE
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA 33312
Hours
Mon–Fri 8am – 6pm
Sat 9am – 2pm
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