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Most Recent Posts

Senate Snuck A Tax Break For Subsidy Farmers Into Tax Cuts And Jobs Act

But where is the break for subsidy farmers?  In adding 461(l), the Act suspends 461(j).  Section 469(j) was a hoop that is between at-risk and passive activities, that I ignored in my original analysis.  I could say that I ignored it, because it is not generally applicable, but that would be lying.  I ignored it because it was not something I knew about.  Not a lot of amber waves of grain in Central Massachusetts. Anyway if you are getting any of a variety of agricultural subsidies that our hardy self-reliant farmers might get and like old Calhoun there still manage to lose money farming, 461(j) limits your loss and kicks it into the next year in a manner similar to 469.

The threshold is the greater of $300,000 or the aggregate net farming profits in the last five years.  Under 461(j), Calhoun in both of the scenarios above would have $700,000 of his farm loss suspended.  So being subject to 461(l) is a somewhat better deal for the salaried Calhoun and a home run for the one with the dealerships.

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20% Deduction – Let The Games Begin

You probably think that this fantastic blog is the result of my individual skill and its success is tied into my great reputation (My twitter followers grew by the scores in the last couple of weeks).  Well you are wrong.  I have a fantastic research service and this really cool three screen computer setup.  And my partner in business and life makes sure I eat a healthy diet and is always asking me questions that spark my creativity.  With those resources, just about anybody could have a tax blog as good as this one.  That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

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Top Tax Concerns Of My Readers In 2017

In selecting what I write about I have three criteria – practical advice, humor and matter for reflection. The latter catch-all category represents the ways in which taxation intersects other important issues.  There is probably some topic that does not have some sort of a tax angle to it, but I can’t think of one.  The other principle is that generally, I don’t write about something unless I have something to add or have adopted that issue as something I follow regularly.

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Earnings Havoc Unleashed By Tax Act

Earnings Havoc Unleashed By Tax Act

One of the biggest changes was about how changes in “enacted rate” are accounted for.  A significant part of the computation of the provision for income taxes concerns deferred tax assets and liabilities.  Very simply if you write something off or recognize income at a different point in time in figuring your reported earnings than you do in figuring your taxable income,  you will end up setting up an asset or liability to recognize tax benefits that you will be taking later or took sooner – deferred tax assets (DTA) or deferred tax liablities (DTL).  As timing difference reverse DTA are amortized making for higher income tax expense in later years compared to what is on the return and DTL are relieved making for lower income tax expense.

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Tax Bill For Dummies

So I thought I would take up the challenge and see if I could explain the over thousand pages Joint Committee report  in a way that would tell a regular person what they are interested in in a way that they can understand with reasonable accuracy.

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How Much Owner Salary Should S Corp Pay To Maximize Qualified Income Deduction?

Take somebody who has about 70% of the math ability of an engineer or actuary, 80% of the verbal reading comprehension ability of a lawyer, 60% of the leadership ability of an Army officer and maybe 70% of the charisma of a top producing life insurance salesman and you have the makings of a pretty good CPA.  An above-average share of humility is required, which is why some of those other professions might not do so well as CPAs.

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Types Of Work That Will Not Qualify For 20% Deduction – Some Devilish Details

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.

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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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Tax Free Housing Benefits For Clergy Will Be Safe For The Present

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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