K-1 Income/Guaranteed Payments

[JAY21]

A CPA is insisting that the one of the partners in a husband/wife partnership share of k-1 income on line 14a, which is less than the Guaranteed Payments shown near the top of the k-1 statement (forget the line item) should NOT be used for the pension calcs and further should not be split between compensation and contribution. Essentially he seems to be saying that the guaranteed payments would be treat like unto w-2 wages for a corporation in that they are not reduced or split by virtue of the contribution made on behalf of the owner. I did not have that understanding, but I learn new things from time to time, and would appreciate any others' opinion on this. thanks in advance.

[Bird]

I agree with you. The question I put to the an accountant where I can't quite figure out what to use is "what are you paying self-employment taxes on?" That's my starting point for plan contributions (and would be reduced by half of SE tax and the contributions to ultimately determine "compensation").