My understanding is that if multiple businesses share common ownership, then the benefits offered to the owners and staff need to be consistant across the board. Otherwise, everyone who owns a business with employees would set up a separate entity, be the only employee in that entity, and offer great benefits through that entity.

So if you have employees in your corporation, you probably can't exclude them from any retirement plan that you set up for your Schedule C.

The retirement plan rules are very complicated, as well as very specific, so I recommend that you run this question by the retirement specialist who is helping you set up your Solo 401k.

Zip Code: aschwartz@mdtaxes.com