Types Of Work That Will Not Qualify For 20% Deduction – Some Devilish Details
TCJA has been hawked as simplifying. There is some truth to that as more people will be able to file 1040-EZ, but that is about it. Section 199A is a massive complication. Simplification would be saying all income is income to which either progressive or flat rates are applied. Having different flavors of income and some ambiguity or a gray area about where particular transactions fall is a fantastic source of complexity. Before the bill we had income that is not recognized at all, capital gains (either subject to NII or not), ordinary income (which might be subject to NII or SE or neither). Now we will have Qualified Business Income that can be subject to NII or SE or neither. That is not making it simple.
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.”
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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.