Tax Bill’s Effect On Reported Earnings – How Big A Deal?
When people talk about GAAP not being important, it is really discouraging. Even though many if not most of my 600,000 brothers and sisters no longer concern ourselves with GAAP, it was at the core of our basic training and a big part of the dramatic process of passing the CPA exam, a long struggle for some. As it happens I passed the whole thing on the first try and have a certificate on my wall to prove it. Not bragging. Just saying. Well, actually bragging, but so what?
If GAAP doesn’t mean anything then my profession is a vast white collar jobs program to employ college graduates who are almost smart enough to be engineers, but not quite.
Mr. Hilbert gave me some comfort on why deferred taxes are real and should be taken seriously. They represent “future tax consequences of things that have already happened.”
Tax Free Housing Benefits For Clergy Will Be Safe For The Present
Tax news of interest to clergy has been drowned out by coverage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. Last week on December 13, Judge Barbara Crabb issued her promised ruling on how her earlier decision that Code Section 107(2) – the parsonage exclusion – will be implemented. The ruling is not surprising, but clergy may be relieved that their cherished tax break is safe – probably for a couple of years , particularly since a Congress desperate for revenue raisers to pay for massive tax cuts for the job creators along with some crumbs for the working class did not even threaten to touch parsonage.
The House did threaten a different housing exclusion. Code Section 119 allows the exclusion of housing provided for the convenience of the employer. The House bill proposed a $50,000 cap on that exclusion. I don’t know if it is a coincidence but that is in the ballpark of the housing allowance that those serving in the military get to exclude (It varies by region and rank – more by region. You can check it out here). That would also seem to be a reasonable cap for “ministers of the gospel” particularly given what the inspiration for the predominant religion in this country had to say on the subject of housing.
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Over and over again courts have said that there is nothing sinister in so arranging one’s affairs as to keep taxes as low as possible. Everybody does so, rich or poor; and all do right, for nobody owes any public duty to pay more than the law demands: taxes are enforced exactions, not voluntary contributions. To demand more in the name of morals is mere cant.