In the past, the "reasonable salary" requirement wasn't even there, the guideline was something else along the lines of distributions being triple the salary or

In the past, the "reasonable salary" requirement wasn't even there, the guideline was something else along the lines of distributions being triple the salary or less. The IRS came out with the "reasonable salary" thing after that point, which suggests to me that as long as people are paying themselves a reasonable salary, the IRS does not see this as an abuse of any sort. If you want to consider it immoral compared to your own values, go for it, but it's pretty mean to call it a "tax dodge", or fucked up for others to do it. Just for a data point - I had a few years of ignoring distributions, and shopped around last year for different accountants. I talked to five, and every single one of them recommended I shrink my salary to "reasonable" and pay myself more distribution. It is not a shady practice.