Tag: Taxes

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – The Middle Class

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Let’s discuss the impact the new tax law will have on two levels of middle class income. The first example is a school teacher who is single with no children and is making $60,000. In 2017, she will get a standard deduction of $6,350 and a personal exemption of $4,050, so her statutory deductions will total $10,400 and her taxable income will be $49,600. In 2017 her tax liability will be $8,139.

In 2018, if our same teacher makes $60,000, she will get a standard deduction of $12,000 and no personal exemption. Her taxable income will be $48,000 and her tax liability will be $6,500. This is a tax savings of $1,639, or put another way, a savings of 20.1% from 2017 to 2018.

In our second example we have a married couple with two children under age 17. They file jointly and together they make $250,000. They own their home and they have $20,000 in home mortgage interest, $21,000 in real estate tax and sales tax (state and local tax), and $10,000 in charitable contributions. In 2017, their taxable income is $182,800 and their tax liability is $38,069. In 2018, the same family making $250,000 will have taxable income of $210,000 ($250,000 -$20,000 -$10,000 -$10,000). Remember, they only get $10,000 for SALT deductions and personal and dependency exemptions were repealed. Their tax in 2018 will be $34,979. They get a $2,000 child tax credit for each child and the phase-out for joint filers begins at $400,000. This is a tax savings of $3,090 or a savings of 8.1% from 2017 to 2018.

Remember, you can deduct all of your real estate taxes in your business or when related to income-producing property. State and local income taxes are not deductible for a business and only to the extent of $10,000 when combined with all state and local taxes for individuals.

Next week, we will discuss the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and how it affects those taxpayers with income over $500,000.

That is all today. I look forward to visiting with you next week. In the meantime, let me know if you have a question. Feel free to leave a comment on this post or give me a call to get in touch.

Three Exceptions to the Three-Year Statute of Limitations for Tax Assessments & Refund Claims

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Statutes of limitations are provisions of law that require actions to be initiated for prior events within a certain maximum prescribed time period. Therefore, if an action is to be brought or pursued for a prior event, it typically must be initiated before the maximum prescribed time period expires. The purpose of statutes of limitations is to allow for the best evidence that is available to be presented in the pursuit of the action. As time expires, evidence may become lost or unavailable, witnesses may no longer be available, and prosecuting such untimely actions and defending them will become very difficult. Therefore, statutes of limitations are designed to compel action be initiated before evidence becomes unavailable. Failure to initiate such action within this specified maximum prescribed time period is a valid defense and precludes the pursuit of the action.

Statutes of limitations apply for federal income tax matters, as well as other legal matters, civil and criminal. The Internal Revenue Code prescribes specific provisions for when prior tax matters may be pursued by either the IRS or the taxpayer. It depends on whether the IRS is seeking an additional assessment of tax or the taxpayer is seeking a claim for refund. The general rule for imposing additional tax or claiming a refund is three years from the date the tax return is filed or the due date, whichever is later.

As with any rule, there are exceptions.

There are two exceptions from the general rule for IRS assessment of additional tax. The first exception applies to the substantial omission of income. In the case of substantial omission of income, the statute of limitation for the general rule described above is extended to six years. For this exception to apply, substantial omission of income is defined as more than 25% of the gross income is omitted on the tax return. For example, if the taxpayer has $126,000 of gross income and only reports $100,000, then this will trigger the six-year statute of limitation. If the taxpayer had reported $102,000, then the general rule three year statute of limitation would still apply. It is noteworthy to recognize that the six-year statute of limitation applies only to the substantial omission of income and not to other items such as claiming excessive deductions, etc.

The second exception to the general rule for assessments applies to fraud (the willful intent to evade tax) or to tax returns not filed at all. In either of these cases there is no statute of limitations. There is no time limit for the IRS to assess additional tax or initiate a court action. The burden of proof generally remains with the IRS in cases of fraudulent tax returns or tax returns not filed.

The third exception has to do with how long a taxpayer has to claim a refund for the overpayment of tax. A claim for refund must generally be made within three years from the date the tax return was filed or the due date, whichever is later. If no tax return is filed, then the claim for refund must be made within two years from the date the tax was paid. Any tax deducted and withheld from the wages of a taxpayer is treated as paid on April 15. My advice: If you have a refund, then be sure to file within two years of the due date of the return.

Important Update on Corporate Tax Reform

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A new tax plan recently passed through the House, and this week, everyone in Washington is talking about corporate tax reform. I parsed the legislation and have summarized some key points below. The implications for S and C Corporations are especially great.

Tax Reform – Don’t Get Excited Unless You’re a “C Corporation”

Unfortunately that’s true. It appears the only real winners are your regular corporations, or C corporations as they are called. Their rate reduction is expected to go from 35% down to 20%. Individual taxpayers may discover that they, depending on your circumstances, got very little from this version of tax reform. I’m not saying your tax liability won’t go down at all, I’m just saying that the House bill takes away too many deductions and the rates are not significantly different from the rates we now have. There are other changes that make the bill good such as repeal of the AMT, a significant increase in the unified credit (for estates and gifts), and the doubling of the standard deduction, but rate reduction is the true solution to creating jobs.

The House Bill and S Corporations – A Major Tax Increase and More Complication

The House Bill passed last week has a top rate of 25% for S Corporations and other pass-through businesses, but in many cases the real rate is significantly higher. S Corporation shareholders need to pay attention. If you are a professional service firm, the 25% rate doesn’t apply to professional service businesses. Specifically, the bill excludes businesses engaged in “the performance of services in the fields of health, law, engineering, architecture, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, brokerage services, any trade or business where the principal asset of such trade or business is the reputation or skill of one or more of its employees, or investing, trading, or dealing in securities, partnership interests, or commodities.”

What this means is that the top tax rate prescribed in H.R. 1 is the new rate for personal service corporations. For active owners of non-professional services corporations, the bill imposes a separate limitation on the 25% pass-through rate. It would cap the owner’s profit eligible for the 25% rate at 30% of the sum of their wages and profits from the business. The remaining 70% would be subject to the higher personal rates. It gets even more complicated, because H.B. 1 makes S Corporation profits subject to the self-employed payroll tax and your state and local income, sales, and property taxes are not deductible.

Next Week

Next week we will discuss Records Retention and how long you need to keep those old tax records. We will also review H.B. 1 changes to tax credits and other tax items related to paying for college.

Thanks for reading. Wishing you and your family a happy Thanksgiving.

5 Tips for Tax-Smart Charitable Contributions

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The generosity of the American people is never more evident than during a disaster event. Houston has experienced widespread devastation as a result of Hurricane Harvey. In its aftermath, hundreds of relief funds are being set up and promoted to aid those impacted by the storm. You clearly want to help, so how do you ensure that your generous donation will not only benefit those in need but also be tax deductible?

Here are a few things to consider.

1. Verify Tax Exempt Status

Make sure your recipient organization has been granted 501(c)(3) tax exempt status by the Internal Revenue Service. These organizations have been established for charitable purposes and donations to them are tax deductible as allowed by law. They also are required to file annual tax returns reporting their charitable contribution income, their unrelated business taxable income, and their business expenses. These returns are available for public inspection, usually upon request. You can confirm an organization’s exempt status on the IRS website.

2. Get a Receipt

Organizations that are eligible to receive tax deductible donations are required to provide a receipt to donors for any gift of $250 or more. The receipt acknowledges the donation amount, the date of donation, the organization’s tax exempt status, and their tax ID number. You should obtain and keep the receipt as additional support for your tax deductible donation.

3. Be Wary of Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding sites such as GoFundMe or YouCaring are popular ways to raise money for various types of causes on social media. Since crowdfunding websites are open for use by anyone, many of the funding pages are not established by qualified charitable organizations. Before giving through such sites, do your homework to ensure that your support is going to a charitable organization with qualifying tax-exempt status.

4. Appreciated Securities

Consider donating appreciated stocks, bonds, or mutual funds to a charity or a donor advised fund. When you donate appreciated securities held longer than a year, you are able to deduct the fair market value of the security as a charitable contribution. This also avoids the capital gains tax because the security is being donated instead of being sold.

5. Autos and Boats Worth More Than $5,000

In most cases you will need a written appraisal, which will be attached to the return. You will also need a written acknowledgement from the donee organization which will include any proceeds from the disposition of the vehicle by the donee organization. This acknowledgement must also be attached to the return.

In addition, you will need a Form 1098-C, Contributions of Motor Vehicles, Boats, and Airplanes, from the donee organization. Most charities will use the Form 1098-C to fulfill the written acknowledgement requirement. And yes, you will attach the Form 1098-C to your tax return.

If you have additional tax questions, give me a call at (713) 785-8939. I’d love to hear from you.

Three Tax Issues to Watch For in 2017 and Beyond

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Between now and April, I’ll use my blog to periodically answer client questions and spread awareness about some of the biggest tax issues that could affect your 2017 return. Let’s begin with a brief overview of three potential changes with large implications.

Health Care

The individual and employer health insurance mandates remain the law now that the Senate has rejected GOP proposals for a repeal of  Obamacare. The Affordable Care Act remains in force unless and until changed by Congress. Uninsured individuals must pay a penalty tax if they don’t qualify for an exemption. Employers with 50 or more full-time employees but no affordable health plan owe a penalty tax if their employees opt to buy insurance on an exchange and qualify for the premium tax credit. Trump’s executive orders on Obamacare do not change the law, per the IRS. Don’t be surprised to see more exemptions to the individual mandate. There are several now.

Also, keep an eye out for a bipartisan plan with significant changes to Obamacare. A new proposal by the 30 plus members of the House’s Problem Solvers Caucus sets forth solutions intended to help stabilize the individual health insurance market. It includes two tax provisions: First, repeal of the 2.3% tax on medical device sales; second, an easing of the employer mandate so it would only apply to businesses with 500 or more employees, up significantly from the current 50-employee threshold. In addition, the 30 hour per week threshold to qualify as a full time employee would be hiked to 40 hours.  

Identity Theft

The incidence of reported individual tax identity theft is on the decline, but an increase in business tax identity theft is causing concern. This occurs when fraudulent individuals file bogus corporate, payroll, or excise tax returns, Schedule K-1s, and others, using stolen tax ID numbers and claiming false tax refunds. The IRS has flagged 10,000 suspicious business tax returns filed thus far in 2017. To help alleviate the problem, the IRS is asking more from tax return preparers. Beginning next year, tax preparation software will be updated to require additional data, such as the name and Social Security number of the executive signing the return and the company’s payment and filing history. The IRS anticipates that these questions will help it identify suspicious returns. Be ready for this. This would become a requirement by way of an internal IRS administrative ruling.    

Tax Reform

Tax reform is a priority in Congress, and GOP tax writers and their staff are busy working on a proposal to overhaul the federal tax system, which they expect to release after the August recess. In the meantime, those in the know are making the following forecast.

Will the business tax rate be cut to 15%? No. Despite President Trump’s promise to slash the current 35% corporate rate to 15%, this won’t fly with moderate congressional Republicans. There just aren’t enough revenue raisers to offset such a low rate, they argue, especially now that the projected savings from the repeal of Obamacare is no longer in the mix. GOP lawmakers will aim for a 20 to 25% rate in their plan which will also apply to owners of pass-through businesses such as partnerships and S Corporations and self-employed business owners, such as those filing on Schedule C with their personal tax return.


If you have tax questions, I’d love to hear from you. Feel free to call me at (713) 785-8939 or email me at robert@robertstevensoncpa.com – I may even feature your question in a future blog post.

Until next time,
Robert Stevenson, CPA

A By-Product of the Affordable Care Act

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I don’t know if anyone has noticed, but healthcare – and the Affordable Care Act in particular – has been in the news quite a bit lately.

That got me thinking about employer responsibility requirements.

Maybe you’ve already heard about these requirements. Under the ACA, “large” employers with 50 or more full-time or full-time equivalent employees are required to offer healthcare to all of their full-time employees. If they fail to comply, the employer must pay a $2000 penalty per employee.

For most companies, this isn’t too big of a deal. Either you’re a small business and don’t need to worry about this mandate, or you’re large enough that you can afford to offer your employees health insurance. (In fact, the Kaiser Family Foundation reported back in 2013 that more than 9 out of 10 businesses with over 50 full-time or full-time equivalent employees already offered healthcare before the ACA took effect.)

But I have a number of business clients hovering right around 50 full-time employees. They exist in an unfortunate sweet spot – they’re too big to be small, and too small to comfortably afford to offer comprehensive benefits. Some of these businesses can barely make payroll every two weeks as it is – there’s no way they could take on the added expense of paying for health insurance for their employees and their dependents. What’s more, every person they have in their employ is vital. There are no excess employees.

It puts me in an uncomfortable position. I feel a professional obligation to my clients to advise them to get below 50 employees. But even though that’s the best business decision, it’s not a very nice human decision. I don’t want anyone to lose their livelihood. To make matters worse, the first people to go are usually younger or less skilled workers, often on the first rung of the ladder of success. People like my kids. And by losing their jobs, they’ll lose their means of support and could end up living with their parents or depending on social programs.

But if my clients can’t afford to offer health coverage, I can’t in good faith recommend that they suffer the consequences and pay the $2,000-per-employee fine. What’s more, the Affordable Care Act has effectively made tax preparers like me the compliance officers of the federal government. It is the tax preparer who must indicate on the return that the taxpayer did not comply with the law, and it is the tax preparer who will compute the shared responsibility payment.

I guess everyone in Washington is right: Healthcare is hard.

I’d love to hear what you think: Should the employer responsibility requirements stay or should they go?