How to Pay Yourself as an Interior Designer
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We recently polled our DTS Files members and asked them to vote on the blog topics they wanted us to cover this month. The clear winner?
How to pay yourself as an interior designer.
This is a question we get all the time, and for good reason. Many designers aren’t paying themselves regularly, or they wait to see what’s “left over” at the end of the month (or year 😭) before cutting themselves a check. Not ideal.
If you want to show up as a real business owner (and feel confident doing it), paying yourself consistently and knowing how much to pay yourself is a big part of getting the back end of your business set up correctly.
Before you can answer the question of what to pay yourself, you first have to know if you’re filing taxes as an S-Corp, or whether you should be filing that way..
Generally, we see interior designers file as an S-Corp once they’ve hit about $100k in annual revenue. This means they are still an LLC, but now they are filing taxes as an S-Corp. S-Corp is a tax classification, not a legal classification.
📅Quick timing note: Most designers make the switch to filing designation effective January 1 of a new year, because it keeps the bookkeeping clean and payroll simple. So if you’re reading this in late 2025, this is most likely a January 2026 move for you. That said, check with your CPA. Sometimes, they can file your S-Corp election retroactively for the current year (with the right paperwork and explanation).
The timing on this is very clear-cut: once you file as an S-Corp, you’ll pay yourself a salary.
So here’s what this looks like as the business owner, before and after:
(Note: EE=employee, ER=employer. The numbers below are for illustration purposes only.)
*You will receive the 50k as an annual salary, and taxes will be taken out of that, just as if you were an employee working at a corporate job. So, you’ll have taxes taken out and remitted to the IRS and your state, at the rate corresponding to your tax bracket.
This is a discussion you’ll want to have with your CPA or tax attorney to make sure you’re:
Moving to an S-Corp filing designation at the appropriate time to reduce tax liability (always the goal!) and
Meeting IRS requirements for paying yourself a reasonable salary.
You can see in the table above that in the S-Corp example, you pay less in taxes and “take home” more money. Every business owner’s dream!!
How do you figure out the number to pay yourself as an interior designer?
You want to minimize tax liability while staying compliant.
The IRS requires that your salary be “reasonable”, meaning in line with what someone else in your role would earn. The IRS does not want you to pay yourself exorbitantly OR pay yourself way below what is reasonable.
In even more layman’s terms: what is the “reasonable amount” that you would have to pay someone else to do your job.
Here’s what I did and who helped me:
I talked to my CPA (who is also a tax attorney). He gave me advice, set up my S-Corp, and recommended I hire a local HR consultant to do a “Reasonable Comp Audit”. This is what I would show the IRS in the event I got audited and my salary came into question.
We had previously hired an HR consultant inside our membership, The Studio, to teach designers how to figure out pay for team members. I followed the same process she taught us for myself:
I wrote a job description for everything I do in my business as an operations consultant. (Yes, I looked at job descriptions on Indeed for operations consultants to make sure I didn’t miss anything.)
I checked the Bureau of Labor Statistics to see what the salary range was for my role.
Following the HR consultant’s advice, I looked up the pay range for the hardest parts of my job and used that as the top end of my salary range.
I also looked at my local market, because Chicago salaries are very different from small-town rural areas.
Finally, I found a local HR consultant in Illinois to do a Reasonable Comp Audit of my job description and salary. Once she reviewed it, I filed her document in my Google Drive, just in case I ever need it.
Then, I set up payroll in Gusto. Now I get paid like a normal employee. Every two weeks, a paycheck is direct deposited into my personal bank account. My company pays employer taxes, and I pay employee taxes through each paycheck. *Note, that’s an affiliate link and I may receive a commission if you sign up for Gusto through it. I only recommend software I use and love.
My tax attorney told me it doesn’t matter how often I pay myself, but I prefer structure, so I do every other Friday. Gusto doesn’t charge extra for that cadence, and it makes raises and bonuses easy to process.
What I see most interior designers do
When interior designers first file as an S-Corp, I typically see salaries in the range of $40,000–$75,000. That number should always be finalized with your CPA, tax attorney, or HR professional.
You might wonder: shouldn’t I just make my salary as high as possible to reduce taxes?
Not necessarily.
Here’s why:
The higher your salary, the more your company pays in FICA taxes.
You’ll also pay more taxes out of your paycheck as the employee.
And, your business can write off expenses, you personally cannot reduce your taxable salary with business expenses.
So there’s a balance. The IRS doesn’t want you to take an artificially low salary, but you also don’t want to overpay taxes by setting it too high.
If you’re not filing as an S-Corp yet (or don’t make enough to have a set salary)
I think it’s extremely important to regularly pay yourself no matter your business structure.
Since starting my company, and before I filed as an S-Corp and began paying myself a regular salary as described above, , I followed the Profit First method: I wrote myself a check first, then paid other expenses. This was based on the company's monthly earnings, which varied from month to month.
Yes, the money you pay yourself isn’t an “expense” (until you’re an S-Corp), so it will be taxed as earnings (your regular tax bracket rate + self employment tax) but it’s still important.
Something shifts when you start paying yourself consistently. Even if you’re working from your kitchen table, a paycheck makes it feel real and legitimate.
Disclaimer: This post is for educational and informational purposes only. It reflects my personal experience and is not intended as financial, tax, or legal advice. Every business is unique, and tax laws vary by state. Please consult with a qualified CPA, tax attorney, or HR professional (or if you’re like me, ALL THREE!) before making decisions about how to pay yourself or structure your business.
