The Senate has now passed the House version of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) legislation. This new legislation triples the time allotted for PPP loan recipients to spend the funds and still qualify for loan forgiveness.

Read the overview on the House’s PPP bill at the Journal of Accountancy’s website.

If you need help navigating the PPP bill or anything else, we are ready to assist you.

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As you know and have experienced over the last few weeks our lives and business have changed dramatically. You have probably heard that the federal government passed, and the President signed into law, several bills that are designed to assist small businesses.　 One of these bills is the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act. The SBA has also launched the Economic Injury Disaster Loan Assistance (EIDL) program for small business owners. EIDL loans are now available.

These Acts and Programs are designed to assist with funding (cash) for small businesses to allow them to continue to operate and continue to employ their staffs. There are many other parts of the Acts and Programs and will sending you information on those in the near future, but the one we are highlighting today appears to be very time sensitive and should be acted on immediately if you wish to participate.

This is the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), also known as Payback Protection Loans (PPL) which is part of the CARES Act.

The federal government has allocated $349 billion dollars to make loans to small businesses with less than 500 employees to pay their employees during the COVID-19 crisis. The loan amount is the lesser of $10 million or 2.5 times your “average monthly payroll” for the prior 12 months. Per recent guidelines released by the Treasury, the loan is due in 2 years with a fixed interest rate of 1.00% and all payments are deferred for 6 months. Further, the loan may be fully or partially forgiven as discussed below.

The purpose of these loans is to allow small businesses to operate and maintain their payroll if harmed by COVID-19 from February 15, 2020 through June 30, 2020. These loans can be used for allowable payroll costs (including benefits), payments of interest on covered debt obligations, rent on covered rent obligations, and covered utility payments (electric, gas ,water and etc.). Covered expenses must have existed on or before February 15, 2020.

If the loan is used for the allowable payroll and non-payroll costs listed above over the eight week period after receiving the loan, then the loan may be eligible for full or partial forgiveness. The amount forgiven (or partially forgiven) will be reduced if you decrease your full-time employee headcount or if you decrease salaries and wages by more than 25% for any employee who made less than $100,000 annualized in 2019. You have until June 30, 2020 to restore your full-time employment and salary levels for any changes made between February 15, 2020 and April 26, 2020. In addition, recent guidelines released by the Treasury state that not more than 25% of the forgiven amount may be for “non-payroll costs.”

As stated previously, there has been $349 billion dollars allocated to this loan program and it seems it will be loaned on a first come, first served basis. We are not sure if this is this based on when you submit your application with the bank or the time they give your loan to the Small Business Administration (SBA) for approval.

To apply for this loan you should complete the application and submit it to your bank as soon as possible. Your bank will underwrite the loan and then submit it to the SBA for approval. Treasury has provided that small businesses and sole proprietorships can apply for the loans starting April 3, 2020 and independent contractors and self-employed individuals can apply staring April 10, 2020.

Visit the US Department of the Treasury’s website for further guidance.

Please contact us if we may be of assistance to you.

The post Updated: Important Information: Time Sensitive Paycheck Protection Program Loans from Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act or CARES Act first appeared on Burkett Burkett & Burkett Certified Public Accountants, P.A..

Impact of Wayfair

On June 21, 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its widely anticipated decision in Wayfair. The Court held that states may require businesses to collect and remit sales and use taxes even if the business has no in-state physical presence.

The Wayfair decision means that states are now free to subject companies to state taxes based on an “economic” presence within their state. Overnight, remote sellers, licensors of software, and other businesses that provide services or deliver their products to customers from a remote location will have to start complying with state and local taxes.

Left unchecked, these state and local tax obligations, and the corresponding potential liability from tax, interest and penalties, will grow over time. Moreover, neglecting your sales and use tax obligations may result in a lost opportunity to pass the sales and use tax burden to customers as intended by state tax laws.

Wayfair – What Does it Mean?

• Every company that does e-commerce may be affected.
• Wayfair’s economic and virtual contacts with South Dakota, as measured by more than $100,000 of sales or 200 separate sales transactions satisfiedWayfair’s substantial nexus definition.
• Companies that sell tangible personal property or services over the internet – so called remote sellers- may be required to register and collect sales tax.

Questions a Business Should Ask

• Does my company sell goods or services into states where it is not registered or filing sales/use tax returns?
• Does my company ship goods or provide services to customers located in states where we have little or no physical presence?
• What product or service is sold?
• If the product or service is not taxable, is there a registration requirement?
• Has nexus been created in other ways?
• If I have established nexus for pre-Wayfair periods, what mitigation strategies can I take?
• Does my company sell goods or services into states where it is not registered or filing sales/use tax returns?
• Does my company ship goods or provide services to customers located in states where we have little or no physical presence?
• What product or service is sold?
• If the product or service is not taxable, is there a registration requirement?
• Has nexus been created in other ways?
• If I have established nexus for pre-Wayfair periods, what mitigation strategies can I take?

We Can Help

The impacts of the Supreme Court’s Wayfair Decision will play out differently according to state specifics. The following details apply to South Carolina:

Economic Nexus Threshold: $100,000 in gross revenue from the sales of TPP, products transferred electronically, and services delivered into SC in the previous or current calendar year.

Legal Effective Date: 11/1/2018

Administrative Enforcement Date: 11/1/2018

Please contact us to understand your tax implications. We’re here to help.

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Full vs. partial phase-in

When the wage limit is fully phased in, at $415,000 for joint filers and $207,500 for other filers, the QBI deduction generally can’t exceed the greater of the owner’s share of:

• 50% of the amount of W-2 wages paid to employees during the tax year, or
• The sum of 25% of W-2 wages plus 2.5% of the cost of qualified business property (QBP).

When the wage limit applies but isn’t yet fully phased in, the amount of the limit is reduced and the final deduction is calculated as follows:

1. The difference between taxable income and the applicable threshold is divided by $100,000 for joint filers or $50,000 for other filers.
2. The resulting percentage is multiplied by the difference between the gross deduction and the fully wage-limited deduction.
3. The result is subtracted from the gross deduction to determine the final deduction.

Some examples

Let’s say Chris and Leslie have taxable income of $600,000. This includes $300,000 of QBI from Chris’s pass-through business, which pays $100,000 in wages and has $200,000 of QBP. The gross deduction would be $60,000 (20% of $300,000), but the wage limit applies in full because the married couple’s taxable income exceeds the $415,000 top of the phase-in range for joint filers. Computing the deduction is fairly straightforward in this situation.

The first option for the wage limit calculation is $50,000 (50% of $100,000). The second option is $30,000 (25% of $100,000 + 2.5% of $200,000). So the wage limit — and the deduction — is $50,000.

What if Chris and Leslie’s taxable income falls within the phase-in range? The calculation is a bit more complicated. Let’s say their taxable income is $400,000. The full wage limit is still $50,000, but only 85% of the full limit applies:

($400,000 taxable income – $315,000 threshold)/$100,000 = 85%

To calculate the amount of their deduction, the couple must first calculate 85% of the difference between the gross deduction of $60,000 and the fully wage-limited deduction of $50,000:

($60,000 – $50,000) × 85% = $8,500

That amount is subtracted from the $60,000 gross deduction for a final deduction of $51,500.

That’s not all

Be aware that another restriction may apply: For income from “specified service businesses,” the QBI deduction is reduced if an owner’s taxable income falls within the applicable income range and eliminated if income exceeds it. The QBI can be complicated and deserves a personalized review for your individual tax situation.  Please contact us to learn whether your business is a specified service business or if you have other questions about the QBI deduction.  Carpe Diem 2018!

© 2018

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Recent history

Back in December of 2015, Congress passed the PATH Act, which made a multitude of tax breaks permanent. However, there were a few valuable breaks for individuals that it extended only through 2016. The TCJA didn’t address these breaks, but they were retroactively extended through December 31, 2017, by the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018 (BBA), which was signed into law on February 9, 2018.

Now the question is whether Congress will extend them for 2018 and, if so, when. In July, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Kevin Brady (R-TX) released a broad outline of what Tax Reform 2.0 legislation may contain. And he indicated that it probably wouldn’t include the so-called “extenders” but that they would likely be addressed by separate legislation.

Mortgage insurance and loan forgiveness

Under the BBA, through 2017, you could treat qualified mortgage insurance premiums as interest for purposes of the mortgage interest deduction. This was an itemized deduction that phased out for taxpayers with AGI of $100,000 to $110,000.

The BBA likewise extended through 2017 the exclusion from gross income for mortgage loan forgiveness. It also allowed the exclusion to apply to mortgage forgiveness that occurs in 2018 as long as it’s granted pursuant to a written agreement entered into in 2017. So even if this break isn’t extended, you might still be able to benefit from it on your 2018 income tax return.

Tuition and related expenses

Also available through 2017 under the BBA was the above-the-line deduction for qualified tuition and related expenses for higher education. It was capped at $4,000 for taxpayers whose adjusted gross income (AGI) didn’t exceed $65,000 ($130,000 for joint filers) or, for those beyond those amounts, $2,000 for taxpayers whose AGI didn’t exceed $80,000 ($160,000 for joint filers).

You couldn’t take the American Opportunity credit, its cousin the Lifetime Learning credit and the tuition deduction in the same year for the same student. If you were eligible for all three breaks, the American Opportunity credit would typically be the most valuable in terms of tax savings.

But in some situations, the AGI reduction from the tuition deduction might prove more beneficial than taking the Lifetime Learning credit. For example, a lower AGI might help avoid having other tax breaks reduced or eliminated due to AGI-based phaseouts.

Still time . . .

There’s still plenty of time for Congress to extend these breaks for 2018. And, if you qualify and you haven’t filed your 2017 income tax return yet, there’s even still time to take advantage of these breaks on that tax return. The deadline for individual extended 2017 returns is October 15, 2018. Contact us with questions about these breaks and whether you can benefit.

© 2018

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A short history

Years ago, the kiddie tax applied only to children under age 14 — which still provided families with ample opportunity to enjoy significant tax savings from income shifting. In 2006, the tax was expanded to children under age 18. And since 2008, the kiddie tax has generally applied to children under age 19 and to full-time students under age 24 (unless the students provide more than half of their own support from earned income).

What about the kiddie tax rate? Before the TCJA, for children subject to the kiddie tax, any unearned income beyond a certain amount ($2,100 for 2017) was taxed at their parents’ marginal rate (assuming it was higher), rather than their own likely low rate.

A fiercer kiddie tax

The TCJA doesn’t further expand who’s subject to the kiddie tax. But it will effectively increase the kiddie tax rate in many cases.

For 2018–2025, a child’s unearned income beyond the threshold ($2,100 again for 2018) will be taxed according to the tax brackets used for trusts and estates. For ordinary income (such as interest and short-term capital gains), trusts and estates are taxed at the highest marginal rate of 37% once 2018 taxable income exceeds $12,500. In contrast, for a married couple filing jointly, the highest rate doesn’t kick in until their 2018 taxable income tops $600,000.

Similarly, the 15% long-term capital gains rate takes effect at $77,201 for joint filers but at only $2,601 for trusts and estates. And the 20% rate kicks in at $479,001 and $12,701, respectively.

In other words, in many cases, children’s unearned income will be taxed at higher rates than their parents’ income. As a result, income shifting to children subject to the kiddie tax will not only not save tax, but it could actually increase a family’s overall tax liability.

The moral of the story

To avoid inadvertently increasing your family’s taxes, be sure to consider the big, bad kiddie tax before transferring income-producing or highly appreciated assets to a child or grandchild who’s a minor or college student. If you’d like to shift income and you have adult children or grandchildren who’re no longer subject to the kiddie tax but in a lower tax bracket, consider transferring such assets to them.

Please contact us for more information about the kiddie tax — or other TCJA changes that may affect your family.

© 2018

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1. Look at your bracket

Under the TCJA, the top income tax rate is now 37% (down from 39.6%) for taxpayers with taxable income over $500,000 (single and head-of-household filers) or $600,000 (married couples filing jointly). These thresholds are higher than for the top rate in 2017 ($418,400, $444,550 and $470,700, respectively). So the top rate might be less of a concern.

However, singles and heads of households in the middle and upper brackets could be pushed into a higher tax bracket much more quickly this year. For example, for 2017 the threshold for the 33% tax bracket was $191,650 for singles and $212,500 for heads of households. For 2018, the rate for this bracket has been reduced slightly to 32% — but the threshold for the bracket is now only $157,500 for both singles and heads of households.

So a lot more of these filers could find themselves in this bracket. (Fortunately for joint filers, their threshold for this bracket has increased from $233,350 to $315,000.)

If you expect this year’s income to be near the threshold for a higher bracket, consider strategies for reducing your taxable income and staying out of the next bracket. For example, you could take steps to accelerate deductible expenses.

But carefully consider the changes the TCJA has made to deductions. For example, you might no longer benefit from itemizing because of the nearly doubled standard deduction and the reduction or elimination of certain itemized deductions. For 2018, the standard deduction is $12,000 for singles, $18,000 for heads of households and $24,000 for joint filers.

2. Incur medical expenses

One itemized deduction the TCJA has retained and — temporarily — enhanced is the medical expense deduction. If you expect to benefit from itemizing on your 2018 return, take a look at whether you can accelerate deductible medical expenses into this year.

You can deduct only expenses that exceed a floor based on your adjusted gross income (AGI). Under the TCJA, the floor has dropped from 10% of AGI to 7.5%. But it’s scheduled to return to 10% for 2019 and beyond.

Deductible expenses may include:

• Health insurance premiums,
• Long-term care insurance premiums,
• Medical and dental services and prescription drugs, and
• Mileage driven for health care purposes.

You may be able to control the timing of some of these expenses so you can bunch them into 2018 and exceed the floor while it’s only 7.5%.

3. Review your investments

The TCJA didn’t make changes to the long-term capital gains rate, so the top rate remains at 20%. However, that rate now kicks in before the top ordinary-income tax rate. For 2018, the 20% rate applies to taxpayers with taxable income exceeding $425,800 (singles), $452,400 (heads of households), or $479,000 (joint filers).

If you’ve realized, or expect to realize, significant capital gains, consider selling some depreciated investments to generate losses you can use to offset those gains. It may be possible to repurchase those investments, so long as you wait at least 31 days to avoid the “wash sale” rule.

You also may need to plan for the 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT). It can affect taxpayers with modified AGI (MAGI) over $200,000 for singles and heads of households, $250,000 for joint filers. You may be able to lower your tax liability by reducing your MAGI, reducing net investment income or both.

© 2018

The post 3 traditional midyear tax planning strategies for individuals that hold up post-TCJA first appeared on Burkett Burkett & Burkett Certified Public Accountants, P.A..

Donations of time or services aren’t deductible. It doesn’t matter if it’s simple administrative work, such as checking in attendees at a fundraising event, or if it’s work requiring significant experience and expertise that would be much more costly to the charity if it had to pay for it, such as skilled carpentry or legal counsel.

However, you potentially can deduct out-of-pocket costs associated with your volunteer work.

The basic rules

As with any charitable donation, for you to be able to deduct your volunteer expenses, the first requirement is that the organization be a qualified charity. You can use the IRS’s “Tax Exempt Organization Search” tool (formerly “Select Check”) at http://bit.ly/2KXWl5b to find out.

Assuming the charity is qualified, you may be able to deduct out-of-pocket costs that are:

• Unreimbursed,

• Directly connected with the services you’re providing,

• Incurred only because of your charitable work, and

• Not “personal, living or family” expenses.

Supplies, uniforms and transportation

A wide variety of expenses can qualify for the deduction. For example, supplies you use in the activity may be deductible. And the cost of a uniform you must wear during the activity may also be deductible (if it’s required and not something you’d wear when not volunteering).

Transportation costs to and from the volunteer activity generally are deductible, either the actual cost or 14 cents per charitable mile driven. But you have to be the volunteer. If, say, you drive your elderly mother to the nature center where she’s volunteering, you can’t deduct the cost.

You also can’t deduct transportation costs you’d be incurring even if you weren’t volunteering. For example, if you take a commuter train downtown to work, then walk to a nearby volunteer event after work and take the train back home afterwards, you won’t be able to deduct your train fares. But if you take a cab from work to the volunteer event, then you potentially can deduct the cab fare for that leg of your transportation.

Volunteer travel

Transportation costs may also be deductible for out-of-town travel associated with volunteering. This can include air, rail and bus transportation; driving expenses; and taxi or other transportation costs between an airport or train station and wherever you’re staying. Lodging and meal costs also might be deductible.

The key to deductibility is that there is no significant element of personal pleasure, recreation or vacation in the travel. That said, according to the IRS, the deduction for travel expenses won’t be denied simply because you enjoy providing services to the charitable organization. But you must be volunteering in a genuine and substantial sense throughout the trip. If only a small portion of your trip involves volunteer work, your travel expenses generally won’t be deductible.

Keep careful records

The IRS may challenge charitable deductions for out-of-pocket costs, so it’s important to keep careful records. If you have questions about what volunteer expenses are and aren’t deductible, please contact us.

© 2018

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Home sale gain exclusion

The U.S. House of Representatives’ original version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act included a provision tightening the rules for the home sale gain exclusion. Fortunately, that provision didn’t make it into the final version that was signed into law.

As a result, if you’re selling your principal residence, there’s still a good chance you’ll be able to exclude up to $250,000 ($500,000 for joint filers) of gain. Gain that qualifies for exclusion also is excluded from the 3.8% net investment income tax.

To qualify for the exclusion, you must meet certain tests. For example, you generally must own and use the home as your principal residence for at least two years during the five-year period preceding the sale. (Gain allocable to a period of “nonqualified” use generally isn’t excludable.) In addition, you can’t use the exclusion more than once every two years.

More tax considerations

Any gain that doesn’t qualify for the exclusion generally will be taxed at your long-term capital gains rate, as long as you owned the home for at least a year. If you didn’t, the gain will be considered short-term and subject to your ordinary-income rate, which could be more than double your long-term rate.

Here are some additional tax considerations when selling a home:

Tax basis. To support an accurate tax basis, be sure to maintain thorough records, including information on your original cost and subsequent improvements, reduced by any casualty losses and depreciation claimed based on business use.

Losses. A loss on the sale of your principal residence generally isn’t deductible. But if part of your home is rented out or used exclusively for your business, the loss attributable to that portion may be deductible.

Second homes. If you’re selling a second home, be aware that it won’t be eligible for the gain exclusion. But if it qualifies as a rental property, it can be considered a business asset, and you may be able to defer tax on any gains through an installment sale or a Section 1031 exchange. Or you may be able to deduct a loss.

A big investment

Your home is likely one of your biggest investments, so it’s important to consider the tax consequences before selling it. If you’re planning to put your home on the market, we can help you assess the potential tax impact. Contact us to learn more.

© 2018

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 Additionally, please see the guidance from Clarke & Company Benefits, LLC here in this Downloadable PDF on Special Rules for HRAs (DOWNLOAD HERE).  If you have questions or would like our assistance in filing Form 720, please contact us.

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