are company owners considered employees
Receiving a Salary. Many business owners assume that because they receive a salary, they should pay income tax on that salary as if they were an employee. The IRS does not agree. The owner in such a case is not an employee, and must therefore pay self-employment tax. This means paying additional Social Security and Medicare payments, in the amount of 10.4 percent of your salary for Social Security and 2.9 percent of your salary for Medicare.