Industries We Serve • Dental Practices

Accounting and payroll built around how a dental practice actually runs.

Equipment purchase timing, S-Corp structuring, and payroll for a mix of hygienists, assistants, and associate dentists, handled by advisors who understand practice economics.

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Industries We Serve

Tax, payroll & bookkeeping built for dental practices

A dental practice runs on equipment financing, insurance reimbursement timing, and a payroll mix of hygienists, assistants, and front-office staff that most general bookkeepers are not set up to handle correctly. Hasco Tax Advisors works with dental practice owners on entity structure, equipment purchase timing, and the specific payroll and bookkeeping rhythm a practice actually runs on.

Dental Practice Tax Issues

The tax questions specific to running a dental practice

Equipment purchases and Section 179

Dental equipment, chairs, imaging systems, sterilization equipment, is expensive, and the timing of a purchase relative to your fiscal year-end has a real tax impact. Section 179 allows most practices to deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment in the year it is placed in service, up to the annual limit, which changes the calculus on whether to buy in December or January.

Entity structure for practice ownership

Most dental practices operate as an S-Corp or, in some states, a Professional Corporation (PC) with an S-Corp election, which allows the owner-dentist to split income between reasonable salary and distributions. Getting the reasonable salary figure right matters more here than in most industries, since dentist compensation benchmarks are well-documented and an unusually low salary is an easy audit flag.

Associate dentists: employee or contractor

Associate dentists working in your practice are almost always employees, not 1099 contractors, given the degree of control a practice typically exercises over scheduling, procedures, and patient assignment. Misclassifying an associate creates real payroll tax exposure if it is ever reviewed.

Insurance reimbursement timing versus revenue recognition

Insurance payments often arrive weeks or months after a procedure is performed, which creates a gap between when revenue is earned and when cash is received. Books that only track cash received, rather than what is actually owed, distort your real practice profitability.

Bookkeeping & Payroll

Books and payroll built around how a practice actually runs

Insurance Receivables Tracking

Insurance claims are tracked from submission to payment, so you see true accounts receivable, not just what has hit the bank account.

Multi-Role Payroll

Payroll processed correctly for a mix of hygienists, dental assistants, front office staff, and associate dentists, each with different pay structures and classifications.

Equipment Depreciation Tracking

Major equipment purchases are tracked and depreciated correctly, coordinated with your CPA on Section 179 timing for the biggest annual tax impact.

Reasonable Salary Benchmarking

Owner-dentist compensation is reviewed against real industry benchmarks, protecting the S-Corp election's tax benefit while staying defensible.

Flat-rate pricing for practice bookkeeping and tax
Pricing is based on practice size and payroll headcount, quoted clearly during your free consultation.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Dental practice tax and bookkeeping, answered directly

Most established practices benefit from an S-Corp or PC-with-S-election structure once profit is consistent, since it allows splitting income into salary and distributions. The savings depend on your specific profit level and the reasonable salary figure for your role, which we review with real numbers before recommending it.
In most cases, yes, through Section 179, which allows immediate expensing of qualifying equipment up to the annual limit rather than depreciating it over several years. Timing the purchase relative to your practice's profitable years matters, since the deduction cannot create a loss.
Almost always employees. The degree of control a practice typically has over an associate's schedule, procedures, and patient assignment meets the IRS test for employee classification. Misclassifying an associate as a 1099 contractor creates real payroll tax exposure.
Insurance claims should be tracked as accounts receivable from the point of service, not recorded as revenue only when payment arrives. This gives you an accurate picture of practice performance instead of a cash-timing distortion.
Yes. Dental practice payroll often mixes hourly staff, salaried staff, and commission or production-based pay for associates. We set up payroll correctly for each classification and keep it running on schedule every cycle.
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