The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was passed by Congress in a hurry late last year, and the IRS and tax preparers have been working to digest some of the more thorny issues created by the tax overhaul. Here are the latest answers to some of the most common questions:
1. Is home equity interest still deductible?
The short answer is: Not unless you’ve used the money to buy, build or substantially improve your home.
Before the TCJA, homeowners were able to take out a home equity loan and spend it on things other than their residence, such as to pay off credit card debt or to finance large consumer purchases. Under the old tax code, they could deduct interest on up to $100,000 of such home equity debt.
The TCJA effectively writes the concept of home equity indebtedness out of the tax code. Now you can only deduct interest on “acquisition indebtedness,” meaning a loan secured by a qualified residence that is used to buy, build or substantially improve it. If you have taken out a home equity loan before 2018 and used it for any other purpose, interest on it is no longer deductible.
2. I’m a small business owner. How do I use the new 20 percent qualified business expense deduction?
Short answer: It’s complicated and you should get help.
Certain small businesses structured as sole proprietors, S corporations and partnerships can deduct up to 20 percent of their qualified business income. But that percentage can be reduced after your taxable income reaches $157,500 (or $315,000 as a married couple filing jointly).
The amount of the reduction depends partly on the amount of wages paid and property acquired by your business during the year. Another complicating factor is that certain service industries including health, law, consulting, athletics, financial services and accounting are treated slightly differently.
The IRS is expected to issue more clarification on how these rules are applied, such as when your business is a mix of one of those service industries and some other kind of business.
3. What are the new rules about dependents and caregiving?
There are a few things that have changed regarding dependents and caregiving:
Deductions. Standard deductions are nearly doubled to $12,000 for single filers and $24,000 for married joint filers. The code still says dependents can claim a standard deduction limited to the greater of $1,050 or $350 plus unearned income.
Kiddie Tax. Unearned income of children under age 19 (or 24 for full-time students) above a threshold of $2,100 is now taxed at a special rate for estates and trusts, rather than the parents’ top tax rate.
Family credit. If you have dependents who aren’t children under age 17 (and thus eligible for the Child Tax Credit), you can now claim $500 for each qualified dependent member of your household for whom you provide more than half of their financial support.
Medical expenses. You can now deduct medical expenses higher than 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income. You can claim this for medical expenses you pay for a relative even if they aren’t a dependent (i.e., they live outside your household) as long as you provide more than half of their financial support.
Stay tuned for more guidance from the IRS on the new tax laws, and reach out if you’d like to set up a tax planning consultation for your 2018 tax year.
If you’re a business owner, one of the first questions to ask yourself is whether you should incorporate or not.
The biggest advantage of incorporating is that it limits your legal liability. Your responsibility for debts and other liabilities incurred by a corporation is generally limited to the assets of the business. Your personal assets are not usually at risk, although there can be exceptions to this general rule. The trade off is that there is a cost to incorporate and, in some cases, tax consequences.
So, should you incorporate or not?
Truth be told, you might not need to incorporate. Depending on the size and type of your business, liability may not be an issue or can be covered by insurance. If so, you could join millions of other business owners and operate as an unincorporated sole proprietor.
If you do decide to incorporate, you’ll face a choice of corporate forms. All offer limitation of your liability, but there are differences in tax and other issues. Take a look at the options:
C corporations. The traditional form of corporation is the C corporation. This type of corporation has the most flexibility in structuring ownership and benefits. Most large companies operate in this form. The biggest drawback is double taxation. First the corporation pays tax on its profits; then the profits are taxed again as they’re paid to individual shareholders as dividends.
S corporations and LLCs. These forms of corporations avoid this double taxation. Both are called “pass-through” entities because there’s no taxation at the corporate level. Instead, profits or losses are passed through to the shareholders and reported on their individual tax returns. S corporations have some ownership limitations. There can only be one class of stock and there can’t be more than 100 shareholders who are U.S. citizens or U.S. residents according to tax law. State registered LLCs have become a popular choice for many businesses. They offer more flexible ownership rules than S corporations, as well as certain tax advantages.
Whether you’re already in business or just starting out, choosing the right form of business is important. Even established businesses change from one form to another during their lifetime.
Call our office (and your attorney) for guidance in selecting the form that is best for your business.
Most Americans get a tax refund every year, with the average check weighing in at $2,895 last year. Even though it’s really money that they earned, many people are tempted to treat it like a windfall and splurge. If you can resist that temptation, here are some of the best ways to put your tax refund to good use:
Pay off debt. If you have debt, part of your tax refund could be used to reduce or eliminate it. Paying off high-interest credit card or auto loan debt means freeing up the money you had been paying in interest for other uses. And making extra payments on your mortgage can put more money in your pocket over the long haul.
Save for retirement. Saving for retirement allows the power of compound interest to work for you. Consider depositing some of your refund check into a traditional or Roth IRA. You can contribute a total of $5,500 every year, plus an extra $1,000 if you are at least 50 years old.
Save for a home. Home ownership can be a source of wealth and stability for many people. If you dream of owning a home, consider adding your refund to a down payment fund.
Invest in yourself. Sometimes the best investment isn’t financial, it’s personal. A course of study or conference that improves your skills or knowledge could be the best use of your money.
Give to charity. Giving your tax refund to a charity helps others and gives you a deduction for your next tax return.
Don’t give to scammers! Scammers are using a new tactic to separate people from their tax refunds. First, they file fraudulent refunds on behalf of their victims. Then, after a refund check arrives at the taxpayer’s address, they impersonate an IRS agent over the phone and demand to be sent the refund because it was sent in error. Remember, real IRS agents will never call over the phone and demand immediate payment for any reason.
If you use some of your refund for one of the ideas here, you can also feel good about setting a little aside for yourself to have some fun!
The tax law changes in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed at the end of December 2017, enacted some of the most sweeping changes taxpayers have seen in 30 years. Here are a few big changes to come out of the new act — and what you can do about it.
The medical expense deduction threshold was lowered to 7.5 percent.
The tax reform bill retroactively lowers the threshold to deduct medical expenses in 2017 to 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income. The previous threshold was 10 percent. This new 7.5 percent threshold remains in place for 2018, but reverts back to 10 percent in the following years.
What this means: You may want to consider using the medical expense deduction this year. If there are any qualified medical expenses you can make (drug purchases, medical equipment, etc.) to push you over the new, lower threshold, consider doing so in 2018.
The healthcare individual mandate penalty stays in place until 2019.
The shared responsibility penalty (also known as the individual mandate) in the Affordable Care Act is effectively repealed by the tax reform legislation, but not right away. The penalty is set to zero in 2019, but remains in place for 2018.
What this means:You still need to retain your Forms 1095 this year in order to provide evidence of your healthcare coverage. Without proof of coverage, you may have to pay the higher of $695 or 2.5 percent of your income. Unless there are further changes coming, 2018 may be the last year you’ll need to worry about the individual mandate penalty.
More changes to consider for 2018 tax planning
We’re experiencing some of most significant tax law changes since the 1980s. There will be a lot of things to consider for tax planning this year. Here are some of the most significant:
Reduced income tax rates
Doubled standard deductions
Suspension of personal exemptions
New limits on itemized deductions, including:
Combined state and local income, property and sales tax deduction limited to $10,000
Casualty losses limited to federally declared disaster areas
Elimination of miscellaneous deductions subject to the 2 percent of adjusted gross income threshold
Boosts to:
The child tax credit ($2,000 in 2018)
A new $500 family tax credit
529 education savings plan expansion for K-12 private school education
The estate tax exemption (doubled)
Stay tuned
There will surely be more details on the tax reform changes and how they are implemented by the IRS in the weeks to come. In the meantime, contact us if you have urgent questions regarding your situation.
You’re probably getting ready to go through last year’s tax records and prepare for this year. But what should you keep and what can you throw away? Here are some things to keep in mind as you sort through your tax records.
Chances are you’re a little confused about what to keep and what to throw when it comes to tax and financial records. No worries. It’s time to sort through what you’ve got and keep only the important stuff. Here’s what to keep in mind:
Keep records that directly support income and expense items on your tax return. For income, this includes W-2s, 1099s and K-1s. Also keep records of any other income you might have received from other sources. It’s also a good idea to save your bank statements and investment statements from brokers.
The IRS can audit you within three years after you file your return. But in cases where income is underreported, they can audit for up to six years. To be safe, keep your tax records for seven years.
Retain certain records even longer. These include records relating to your house purchase and any improvements you make. Also keep records of investment purchases, dividends reinvested and any major gifts you make or receive.
Hold on to copies. Keep copies of all your tax returns and W-2s in case you ever need to prove your earnings for Social Security purposes.
There are many provisions in the tax reform bill passed in late 2017 designed to benefit small business owners. New capital expense rules are one of them. Also, There are a variety of new tax tools affecting how small businesses account for deducting the cost of capital purchases under the new tax law. Here’s what you need to know:
Tool #1: Section 179 deduction
The new law increases the amount of business property purchases that you can expense each year under Section 179 to $1 million (from $500,000 previously). Normally, spending on business property (machines, computers, vehicles, software, office equipment, etc.) is capitalized and depreciated so that the tax benefit is spread out slowly over several years. Section 179 allows you to get the tax break immediately in the year the property is placed into service.
Tips:
There is an eligibility phaseout for Section 179 that ensures it’s only used by small businesses, but that was also raised to $2.5 million (from $2 million) by the new law. If you spend more than $2.5 million on business property in total during the year, your ability to use the $1 million Section 179 deduction is reduced dollar-for-dollar above that amount.
Section 179 deductions can be used on both new and used equipment.
You can now use Section 179 on property used to furnish lodging or in connection with furnishing lodging (such as rental real estate). It also includes improvements to nonresidential real estate assets such as roofs, heating and air conditioning, and alarm systems.
Tool #2: Bonus depreciation
Bonus depreciation limits (also known as first-year bonus depreciation) are also improved under the new law, but for a limited time. Bonus depreciation is similar to Section 179 and allows you to immediately expense capital purchases rather than depreciating them over several years. Under the new law, first-year bonus depreciation increases to 100 percent of the qualified asset purchase price for the next five tax years (starting in 2018) and can now be applied to the expense of purchasing used property as well as new.
Tips:
Bonus depreciation is typically used on short-lived capital investments (with a 20-year or less useful life) such as machinery, equipment and software.
Bonus depreciation had been only for purchases of new equipment, but can now be applied to used equipment as long as you place it into service at your business during the tax year.
The allowable bonus depreciation starts to decline after 2022. It falls to 80 percent in 2023, 60 percent in 2024, 40 percent in 2025 and 20 percent in 2026.
Remember, though tax reform and these new capital expense rules give you expanded tools to accelerate depreciation, it may not benefit you to use them in every case. Sometimes it’s better to use the standard capitalization and depreciation tax treatment. These tax benefits do not change the amount a capital purchase can be expensed – only the timing. Calculating whether your business will benefit from these revamped expensing tools can get complicated, so give us a call if you need assistance.
Additional Note: Hawkinson Muchnick & Associates strives to provide small businesses with the information they need to optimize their tax situation and financial planning by publishing helpful articles such as this to social media. Please help us make this contribution by liking us on Facebook, as well as following us on Twitter and LinkedIn. Thank you!!
