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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.
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.
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.”
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.
New York Times Has Trouble Finding Tax Accountants To Discuss Tax Bill
The opening paragraph tells us about the fate of Jonathan Traub Managing Principal, Tax Policy Group at Deloitte. You have to understand something. One of my running jokes lately has been referring to the “failing New York Times”. That is always meant ironically as a reference to our President’s characterization. I love the New York Times and always have since Mr. Moroney required our sophomore class at Xavier High School to read parts of it every Sunday.
Remember the headline – “Tax Bill Is Great for Accountants – Unless They Have Holiday Plans”. The fellow in the lead paragraph – Jonathan Traub – seems like a tremendous guy. One problem, notwithstanding that Mr. Traub works for one of the top accounting firms in the country, he is not an accountant and based on his resume has never been one, nor does he even have the most basic qualifications to be one.
Retroactive Depreciation Changes Encourage Closing Deals Before Year End
Originally published on Forbes.com. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act has radically changed the rules for bonus depreciation at least for a while. Instead of 50%, we will be...
Conference Agreement Splits The Difference Between House And Senate On Commercial Real Estate
I still think the bill is terrible – as a citizen that is. It saves me money and will make for lots of interesting working, but it violates a fundamental principle of income tax simplicity in that it creates a new type of income with a special feature. If we can’t figure out a way to make income not be recognized, we try to have it be capital gain. Failing that we will now struggle to make it qualified business income. It’s going to be fun. Reilly’s Third Law of Tax Practice – Any reasonably complex tax matter involving significant dollars, regardless of whatever else it might be, is a white-collar jobs program.
GOP Tax Bill: Beer, Wine & Whiskey Makers Get A Break
The alcoholic provisions all came from the Senate. I’ve been so absorbed in studying the bill that I have not been able to devote much time to reports of the sausage making. According to this story Justin Kendall in Brewbound gives credit to Senators Roy Blunt and Rob Portman. The thing about the political dynamics of the bill is that any Republican Senator willing to hold his or her breath till turning blue can get a puppy or a case of beer or something to bring them around. So that’s probably the way it went. My theory that Senators saw the House Bill and all decided to go out and get drunk doesn’t hold that much water, but it is entertaining.
One of my best friends from high school tweeted about these provisions that you gotta love that if you are Irish. Ethnic stereotypes are a really bad thing regardless of any statistical basis of this or that group having more than its share of this or that vice or virtue. What is really bad is when the group rather than objecting to a bad characterization embraces it. You will find that most groups who do this satisfy themselves by joking about themselves – but not us. We have to take a religious holiday and dedicate it to binge drinking. That is really bad. So please support Sober St. Patrick’s Day.
How To Enjoy The Tax Cuts And Jobs Act – Part 2
I was really pleased that they left 1031 intact for real estate. Its repeal would create a crisis in the market for net lease commercial real estate, which is fueled by 1031 money. But the fact that they eliminated it for everything else, makes me nervous.