The harsh reality of our payroll tax system:

Two small business owners operating the same type of business, with the same number of employees and the same labor cost, may pay vastly different sums in payroll taxes.

How can this be?

Not all labor costs are subject to payroll or self-employment taxes. Like most things tax, the rules are "in there somewhere" and it is left to each small business owner to dig them out. Once dug out they have to be carefully fitted to the small business owners particular business situation.

In the course of helping small business owners for more years than I care to remember I have done a lot of tax code prospecting! I have taken the payroll tax nuggets that have come from that prospecting and put them to work helping individual owners cut their payroll tax. Big time.