Tax Reform Changes Affecting Partnerships and LLCs and Their Owners
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) includes several changes that affect partnerships and their partners, and LLCs that are treated as partnerships for tax purposes and their members. Most of the changes are good news. Here are five highlights:

  1. Technical Termination Rule Repealed (Good)

Under prior law, a partnership or an LLC treated as a partnership for tax purposes was considered terminated for federal income tax purposes if, within a 12-month period, there was a sale or exchange of 50 percent or more of the partnership’s or LLC’s capital and profits interests. Fortunately, the TCJA repealed the technical termination rule, effective for partnership or LLC tax years beginning in 2018 and beyond. This is a permanent change.

  1. Lower Tax Rates for Individual Partners and LLC Members (Good)

For 2018 through 2025, the TCJA retains seven tax rate brackets for ordinary income and net short-term capital gains recognized by individual taxpayers, including income and gains passed through to individual partners and LLC members. Six of the rates are lower than before. In 2026, the rates and brackets that were in place for 2017 are scheduled to return, but skeptics doubt that will happen.

  1. Unchanged Rates for Long-Term Gains and Qualified Dividends (Not Good)

The TCJA retains the 0, 15, and 20 percent tax rates on long-term capital gains and qualified dividends recognized by individual taxpayers, including gains and dividends passed through to individual partners and LLC members. After 2018, these brackets will be indexed for inflation.

  1. New Pass-Through Business Deduction (Good)

For tax years beginning in 2018-2025, the TCJA establishes a new deduction based on your share of qualified business income (QBI) passed through from a partnership or LLC. The deduction generally equals 20 percent of QBI, subject to restrictions that can apply at higher income levels.

  1. New Limits on Deducting Business Losses (Not Good)

For 2018-2025, the TCJA made two changes to the rules for deducting an individual taxpayer’s business losses. Unfortunately, the changes are not in your favor.

For tax years beginning in 2018-2025, you cannot deduct an excess business loss in the current year. An excess business loss means the amount of a loss in excess of $250,000, or $500,000 if you are a married joint-filer. The excess business loss is carried over to the following tax year, and you can then deduct it under new rules for deducting net operating loss (NOL) carryforwards, explained below.

Key Point: This new loss disallowance rule applies after applying the passive activity loss (PAL) rules. So if the PAL rules disallow your business loss, you don’t get to use the new loss disallowance rule.

For NOLs arising in tax years beginning in 2018 and beyond, the TCJA stipulates that you generally cannot use an NOL carryover to shelter more than 80 percent of taxable income in the carryover year. Under prior law, you could generally use an NOL carryover to shelter up to 100 percent of your taxable income in the carryover year.

Another TCJA change stipulates that NOLs arising in tax years ending after 2017 generally cannot be carried back to an earlier tax year. You can carry such losses forward only. But you can carry them forward indefinitely. Under prior law, you could carry an NOL forward for no more than 20 years.

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The purpose of this post is to get the IRS to owe you money.

Of course, the IRS is not likely to cut you a check for this money (although in the right circumstances, that will happen), but you’ll realize the cash when you pay less in taxes.
Here are seven powerful business tax deduction strategies that you can easily understand and implement before the end of 2020.

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#taxplanning #CPA #businessaccountant

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You have time before December 31 to take steps that will help you fund the retirement you desire.
Take a few minutes to review the four retirement plan tax-reduction strategies in this article.
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Do you need more 2020 tax deductions?

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Health Savings Accounts: The Ultimate Retirement Account

Health Savings Accounts: The Ultimate Retirement Account Looking to save for retirement? The first account you should open and fund is not an IRA (regular or Roth) or 401(k). If you qualify, your first retirement account should be a Health Savings Account (HSA). Don’t...

Is a Property Fix-up and Sale an Investor or a Dealer Property?

Is a Property Fix-up and Sale an Investor or a Dealer Property? Background I’m an independent computer consultant who nets $100,000 from my proprietorship. I bought a house in March 2019, fixed it up, and sold it in April 2020 at a net profit of $85,000. I bought...
Want to know more?  Have some tax questions of your own?  Get in touch with us and we’ll guide you thru the tax and accounting process.

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Tax Reform Cuts Business Tax Deductions for Charity Golf Outings

Tax Reform Cuts Business Tax Deductions for Charity Golf Outings You likely know that the recent reform did away with business tax deductions for prospect and client golf. But did you know that charity golf is gone too? Buried in tax reform is the elimination of the...

Tax Implications of Investing in Precious Metal Assets

These days, some IRA owners and investors may be worried about being overexposed to equities. That could be you.
But the safest fixed income investments (CDs, Treasuries, and money-market funds) are still paying microscopic interest rates.
For example, when this was written, the 10-year Treasury was yielding about 1.92 percent. Ugh!
Meanwhile, the pandemic might or might not be coming to an end, the economy might or might not be okay, and inflation might or might not be controlled. Who knows?
In this uncertain environment, investing some of your IRA money in gold or other precious metals such as silver and platinum may be worth considering. Ditto for holding some precious metal assets in taxable form. This article explains the federal income tax implications. Here goes.

Tax Reform Destroyed State and Local Tax Deductions—Fight Back

Tax Reform Destroyed State and Local Tax Deductions—Fight Back Tax reform put the screws to your state and local income tax deductions, capping them at $10,000. Many states disliked that and have been putting together workarounds. But now the IRS is creating...

Tax Reform and Rental Real Estate Deductions

DECEMBER, 2017 Tax Reform and Rental Real Estate Deductions Two scary words in tax reform are “fairness” and “simplification.” In most cases, this combination raises your taxes and makes the law more complex.  As you likely know, tax reform is in the air again, and it...

How to Reimburse Medicare When You Have Fewer Than 20 Employees

How to Reimburse Medicare When You Have Fewer Than 20 Employees The Affordable Care Act’s $100-a-day penalty for improper medical reimbursements likely has your attention. And it should. But you can find many reimbursements that are allowed without penalty, including...

How to Deduct Assisted Living and Nursing Home Bills

How to Deduct Assisted Living and Nursing Home Bills” Watch your wallet: the median cost in 2018 for an assisted living facility was $48,000 and over $100,000 for nursing home care. If you could deduct these expenses, you’d substantially reduce your income tax...

Health Savings Accounts: The Ultimate Retirement Account

Health Savings Accounts: The Ultimate Retirement Account Looking to save for retirement? The first account you should open and fund is not an IRA (regular or Roth) or 401(k). If you qualify, your first retirement account should be a Health Savings Account (HSA). Don’t...

Congress Reinstates Expired Tax Provisions

The big five tax breaks that most likely impact your
Form 1040

New Stimulus Law Grants Eight Tax Breaks for 1040 Filers

New Stimulus Law Grants Eight Tax Breaks for 1040 Filers  The new, massive stimulus bill enacted into law on December 27, 2020, contains eight new tax breaks designed to help the non-business taxpayer. None of these tax breaks are earthshaking by themselves, but...

2021 Last Min – Year End Retirement Deductions

2021 Last-Minute Year-End Retirement Deductions
The clock continues to tick. Your retirement is one year closer.
You have time before December 31 to take steps that will help you fund the retirement you desire.
Take a few minutes to review the four retirement plan tax-reduction strategies in this article.
You might find several thousand dollars (and maybe much more) in your pocket by taking the actions in this article. But you’ll need to act now to get the cash.

Avoid the 1099 Prepaid-Rent Mismatch

Avoid the 1099 Prepaid-Rent Mismatch Two questions:Did you prepay your 2019 rent so that you have a big 2018 tax deduction?How do you identify in your accounting records the monies you put on your IRS Form 1099-MISC for the business rent payments to your landlord? For...

Solo 401(k) Could Be Your Best Retirement Plan Option

Solo 401(k) Could Be YourBest Retirement Plan Option Have you procrastinated about setting up a tax-advantaged retirement plan for your small business? If the answer is yes, you are not alone. Still, this is not a good situation. You are paying income taxes that could...

TCJA Tax Reform Sticks It to Business Start-Ups That Lose Money

TCJA Tax Reform Sticks It to Business Start-Ups That Lose Money The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) tax reform added an amazing limit on larger business losses that can attack you where it hurts—right in your cash flow. And this new law works in some unusual ways that...

How to Deduct Your Legal Fees after Tax Reform

How to Deduct Your Legal Fees after Tax Reform The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), known as tax reform, made it more difficult for you to deduct your legal fees. The new tax reform law suspended (killed is a better word) your legal fees as 2 percent miscellaneous...

Eight Changes in the SECURE Act You Need to Know

Eight Changes in the SECURE Act You Need to Know As has become usual practice, Congress passed some meaningful tax legislation as it recessed for the holidays. In one of the new meaningful laws, enacted on December 20, you will find the Setting Every Community Up for...

Take Money Out of Your IRA at Any Age Penalty-Free

Take Money Out of Your IRA at Any Age Penalty-Free You probably think you can’t take money out of your IRAs before age 59 1/2 unless you meet a narrow exception to the unpleasant 10 percent penalty on early distributions. But that’s not true. We have a variety of...

Be Alert to the TCJA Tax Reform Attack on IRA Recharacterizations

Be Alert to the TCJA Tax Reform Attack on IRA Recharacterizations When you convert your existing traditional IRA into a Roth IRA and then reverse the transaction by switching the account back to traditional IRA status, the reversal is called a recharacterization in...

Does Your Rental Qualify for a 199A Deduction?

Does Your Rental Qualify for a 199A Deduction? The IRS, in its new proposed Section 199A regulations, defines when a rental property qualifies for the 20 percent tax deduction under new tax code Section 199A. One part of the good news on this clarification is that it...

Drive Time Increases Odds of Deducting Rental Property Losses

Drive Time Increases Odds of Deducting Rental Property Losses Your rental properties provide tax shelter when you can deduct your losses against your other income. One step to deducting the losses is to pass the tax code’s 750-hour test. And one step to finding the...

When the Second Office in the Home Is a Principal Place of Business

When the Second Office in the Home Is a Principal Place of Business When possible, you want to claim that your office in your home qualifies as a principal place of business because this classification gives you the home-office deduction, and eliminates commuting from...

Tax Code Offset Game

2020 Last-Minute Year-End Tax Strategies for Tax Code OffsetWhen you take advantage of the tax code’s offset game, your stock market portfolio can represent a little gold mine of opportunities to reduce your 2020 income taxes.  The tax code contains the basic rules...

Know These Tax Rules If Your Average Rental Is Seven Days or Less

If you own a condominium, cottage, cabin, lake or beach home, ski lodge, or similar property that you rent for an “average” rental period of seven days or less for the year, you have a property with unique tax attributes.

Hiring Your Children to Work on Your Rental Properties

Hiring Your Children to Work on Your Rental Properties Have you considered hiring your children to work on your rental properties? If so, were you concerned when you did not see a line item for wages on Schedule E of your Form 1040? Don’t let that bother you. The IRS...

What are My Self-Employed Tax Obligations?

What are My Self-Employed Tax Obligations? As a self-employed individual, generally you are required to file an annual return and pay estimated tax quarterly. Self-employed individuals generally must pay self-employment tax (SE tax) as well as income tax. SE tax is a...

Improvement Property Update

Improvement Property Update Qualified improvement property is any improvement to the interior portion of a building that is nonresidential real property (think office buildings and shopping centers) if you place the improvement in service after the date you place the...

Will Renting Your Home Destroy Your $250,000 Exclusion?

Will Renting Your Home Destroy Your $250,000 Exclusion? The days when you could convert your rental property or vacation home to a principal residence and then use the full $250,000/$500,000 home-sale exclusion to avoid taxes are gone. Here’s how the $250,000/$500,000...

Tax Reform Provides New 20% Deduction

The new 2018 Section 199A tax deduction that you can claim on your IRS Form 1040 is a big deal. There are many rules (all new, of course), but your odds as a business owner of benefiting from this new deduction are excellent.

Avoid This S Corporation Health Insurance Deduction Mistake

If you own more than 2 percent of an S corporation, you have to do three things to claim a deduction for your health insurance:
You Must…

Tax Reform Expands Your Section 179 Deduction Privilege

Tax Reform Expands Your Section 179 Deduction Privilege The new and improved Section 179 deduction gives you more ways to take advantage of immediate tax deductions. It’s somewhat like having a flexible tax shelter in your back pocket for when you need it (and also...

Tax Reform Update on Business Meals with Clients and Prospects

Tax Reform Update on Business Meals with Clients and Prospects Here’s the updated strategy:  Deduct your client and business meals as if tax reform never took place. Wow. Is this aggressive? Not if the IRS comes out with regulations that follow a model set by the...

Answers to Common Section 199A Questions

Answers to Common Section 199A Questions For most small businesses and the self-employed, the 20 percent tax deduction from new tax code Section 199A is the most valuable deduction to come out of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.The Section 199A tax deduction is complicated,...

“Deduct 100 Percent of Your Business Meals under New Rules”

Deduct 100 Percent of Your Business Meals under New RulesNow, thanks to a new law enacted December 27, 2020, new IRS regulations, and a new IRS notice (yep, all three are new), you have fresh opportunities for writing off 100 percent of your business meals. For 2021...

Last Minute Year End Deductions for Married or Divorced people – Tax Strategies – Kiddie Tax

Last Minute Year End Deductions for Married or Divorced people – Tax Strategies – Kiddie Tax –
If you are thinking of getting married or divorced, you need to consider December 31, 2020, in your tax planning.

Here’s another planning question: Do you give money to family or friends (other than your children, who are subject to the kiddie tax)? If so, you need to consider the zero-taxes planning strategy.
#taxplanning #CPA #businessaccountant

Changes to Net Operating Losses After Tax Reform

Changes to Net Operating Losses After Tax Reform Tax reform made many good changes in the tax law for the small-business owner. But the changes to the net operating loss (NOL) deduction rules are not in the good-changes category. They are designed to hurt you and put...

Buying a new Electric Vehicle? Know this tax info..

Buying an Electric Vehicle? Know These Tax Law ChangesAre you thinking of buying an electric vehicle or a plug-in hybrid?   And are you looking to benefit from the $7,500 tax credit? If so, you have much to consider—thanks to the newly enacted Inflation Reduction...

IRS Says TCJA Allows Client and Prospect Business Meal Deductions

IRS Says TCJA Allows Client and Prospect Business Meal Deductions In Notice 2018-76, the IRS states that client and prospect business meals continue as tax deductions under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This is very good news indeed. Under this new IRS guidance, you may...

Tax Reform Destroys Entertainment Deductions for Businesses

Tax Reform Destroys Entertainment Deductions for Businesses First, lawmakers reduced the directly related and associated entertainment deductions to 80 percent with the 1986 Tax Reform Act. Later, in 1993, they reduced that 80 percent to 50 percent.   And now, with...

Your Personal Home Is Not Your Tax Home

Your Personal Home Is Not Your Tax Home The fact that your personal home is not your tax home is one income tax issue. Here’s another: Business travel is different from business transportation. Your tax deductions, tax strategies, and tax records hinge on the...

Phaseout for New 20% Deduction

  Phase-out for New 20% Deduction If your pass-through business is an in-favor business and it qualifies for tax reform’s new 20 percent tax deduction on qualified business income, you benefit at all times, including being above, below, or in the expanded wage...

Starting a New Business? Get Up to $100,000 in Tax-Free Money

Starting a New Business? Get Up to $100,000 in Tax-Free MoneyYou likely already know that the employee retention credit (ERC) is a good deal—if you qualify.  Now, thanks to the recently enacted American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA), you can qualify for up to...

Reduce Self-Employment Taxes by Renting from Your Spouse

Reduce Self-Employment Taxes by Renting from Your Spouse As a sole proprietor, you know that the 15.3 percent self-employment tax can eat up your profits in a nhurry.  You may be able to use a simple strategy to ease this tax burden. If you own an office building or...

Backdoor Roth IRA Opportunities Still Available After TCJA

TCJA Tax Reform Sticks It to Business Start-Ups That Lose Money Good news. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) didnot harm the backdoor Roth strategy. As you likely know, the Roth IRA is a terrific wayto grow your wealth with a minimum tax downsidebecause you pay the...

Terminating Your S Corporation Election

Terminating Your S Corporation ElectionTax reform may have you thinking of changing your S corporation to a C corporation, partnership, or sole proprietorship. With such a switch, you need to consider: How do I terminate the S corporation election correctly? What are...

Home Office with More Than One Business

Home Office with More Than One Business The office-in-the-home deduction produces good to excellent tax savings by turning personal house expenses into business deductions. Additionally, it enables you to deduct big vehicle expenses by eliminating nondeductible...

Avoiding the Kiddie Tax after Tax Reform

Avoiding the Kiddie Tax after Tax Reform If your family has trouble with the kiddie tax, you face some new wrinkles for tax years 2018 through 2025 thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) tax reform. This is one of the many areas where tax planning can pay off. For...

Tax Reform Creates Taxes on Employee Fringe Benefit for Bicycles

Tax Reform Creates Taxes on Employee Fringe Benefit for Bicycles Tax reform created taxes on the employee fringe benefit for bicycles. You could (and can) deduct your costs for reimbursing employees for their qualified bicycle transportation costs. But tax reform now...

Tax Issues of Converting Your Residence into a Rental Property

Tax Issues of Converting Your Residence into a Rental Property The simple maneuver of converting your personal residence to a rental property brings with it many tax rules, mostly good when you know how they work. The first question that arises when you convert a...

Avoid Being an IRS Target When Your Business Loses Money

Avoid Being an IRS Target When Your Business Loses Money If you operate what you think is a business, but that business loses money, it may not be a business at all under the tax code. Such a money-losing activity can look like a tax shelter to the IRS, and that...

2020 Year-End Tax Strategies for Marriage, Kids, and Family

2020 Last-Minute Year-End Tax Strategies for Marriage, Kids, and FamilyIf you have children under the age of 18 and you file your business tax return as a proprietorship or partnership, you can find big savings in the work your children do for your business. And if...

Help Employees Cover Medical Expenses with a QSEHRA

Help Employees Cover Medical Expenses with a QSEHRA If you are a small employer (fewer than 50 employees), you should consider the qualified small-employer health reimbursement account (QSEHRA) as a good way to help your employees with their medical expenses. If the...

Can the IRS Require Odometer Readings with the Mileage Rate?

Do you claim your business miles at the IRS optional rate? If so, imagine you are now being audited by the IRS for your business mileage. The IRS has requested odometer readings for your vehicle. You might wonder if the IRS can do this…

Last Minute 2020 Biz Deductions

The purpose of this post is to get the IRS to owe you money.

Of course, the IRS is not likely to cut you a check for this money (although in the right circumstances, that will happen), but you’ll realize the cash when you pay less in taxes.
Here are seven powerful business tax deduction strategies that you can easily understand and implement before the end of 2020.

Tax Implications of Goodwill

Tax Implications of Goodwill Here’s a primer to help you avoid confusion about goodwill: As the seller, you have self-created goodwill when the total sales price of your business exceeds the fair market value of its assets, both tangible and intangible. You have...

How Cost Segregation Can Turn Your Rental into a Cash Cow

How Cost Segregation Can Turn Your Rental into a Cash Cow Cost segregation breaks your real property into its components, some of which you can depreciate much faster than the typical 27.5 years for a residential rental or 39 years for nonresidential real estate....

Use Your Business to Maximize Charitable Donations

…for the purposes of tax savings, some forms of giving are much more beneficial to you than are others