Corporations pay tax as a separate person by default. What you describe is a Subchapter S corporation, or an LLC. In general the deductibility of expenses to

Corporations pay tax as a separate person by default. What you describe is a Subchapter S corporation, or an LLC. In general the deductibility of expenses to the corporation is a huge advantage (of a C, S, or LLC), if you're a "professional" with a lot of expenses. OTOH, going from "dollar earned by C corp" to "salary paid by C corp, with both sides of the various withholdings, UI, etc." to "personal income" to "personal income with taxes paid" is MORE of a tax hit than just regular wage income. S/LLC give you the passthrough tax advantage but still have higher filing costs. It only really becomes worthwhile around $20-30k in side income for purely tax reasons. There are plenty of non-tax advantages to incorporating, of course -- some level of asset/liability protection (most debts are firewalled at the corporation as long as you correctly treat corporate assets and liabilities as distinct from your own), the ability to take outside financing or do collaborations with other people, etc. (I am not a lawyer; I am particularly not your lawyer.)