Deductions

The IRS released final regulations on 199A. The Kiplinger Tax Letter said it best: “Final regulations provide limited guidance, but IRS gives a safe harbor.”

In this post we will discuss the safe harbor as it relates to “trade or business” with special emphasis on application with rental properties. The safe harbor doesn’t apply to all taxpayers and the trade or business designation is still possible without meeting the safe harbor parameters.

The final regulations run 248 pages. I will follow this post with a detailed post on 199A tiers with several decision trees. Due to the length and complexity of the regulations we are forced to remain focused on one aspect of 199A. Taxpayers with a sole proprietorship, partnership, S corporation or investment property may wish to seek the services of a competent tax professional until more clarification is reached through more regulations or from the Tax Court.

Links are provided at the end of this post to the entire 248 pages of regulations released and Notice 2019-07 (only 10 pages!) dealing with the trade or business safe harbor for real estate issues for your further research.

Tax professionals all have stories of clients who wanted to cheat on their taxes. It might be tempting to nudge the line a bit to the left to keep a client happy and collect a fee. But you need to think long and hard before you make your decision.

If you prepare your own return you can avoid all the pesky demands of tax professionals to file an accurate tax return. Just as a tax professionals face serious penalties, so does the taxpayer. If you talk a tax professional into an unreasonable position on your tax return you will be penalized a lot faster than the tax professional. Tax preparers are really just entering data. She may not be aware of the malfeasance. That leaves you blowing in the wind. And a cold wind it is.

Recent tax law changes have gutted many itemized deductions. State and local taxes are limited starting with tax year 2018. What many people are forgetting is that certain miscellaneous deductions and job expenses are also no longer deductible.

Schedule A has suffered many changes. Miscellaneous deductions, subject to 2%, are eliminated. Common deductions in this area include tax preparation fees, safe deposit box fee, legal expenses to protect income, certain job related expenses and unreimbursed employee business expenses.

Google has a neat feature called Alerts. This feature allows you to get a daily update on any topic you desire. The setup process is so simple even an accountant like me can do it without a problem. Once set up Google scans the internet, news and social media for mentions of your selected topic/s.

I follow a few topics which rarely get an update. I also have an alert of my tax practice: Tax Prep & Accounting Services, Inc.

The name of my practice is generic for a reason. I wanted something simple like General Mills or General Electric or General Motors. While most accounting firms want to spray paint their names across the logo, I wanted a name a buyer would feel comfortable purchasing without changing the name. You see, I was thinking about my exit before I even opened the doors.

Today I have a very special guest I would like you to meet: George M. Cohan. George has been a regular fixture of my practice from nearly the first day. But he has one serious problem; he hates keeping business records.

There is a very good reason why Cohan doesn’t keep good records of his business expenses. He is a very famous Broadway actor. He also likes to enjoy his fame.

Well, the IRS came knocking and since most of his receipts were missing the expenses were disallowed. Cohan might be lax when it comes to keeping business records, but he can fight like a pit bull in the hot sun after a pair of double espressos. Our good friend was headed to court.

The IRS felt they had it in the bag. Unfortunately, the IRS had an education coming. The 2nd Circuit US Court of Appeals settled the case in our good friend’s favor. The court said when receipts are absent it would be impossible to get a perfectly accurate number. However, the court continued, allowing nothing is inconsistent when it is obvious there were expenses.

This court ruling happened March 3, 1930 and my office has never been the same.

There is an old Looney Tunes cartoon where Daffy Duck is portraying Sherlock Holmes. Daffy is seated at a desk stacked with papers vigorously working the calculator. Porky Pig, portraying Watson, walks in and asks, “Whatever are you doing, Holmes.” “Deducting, my dear Watson. Deducting,” came the frantic reply.

Deductions come in a variety of flavors. We are all familiar with deductions matched with an expense. Donations to charity are deductible on Schedule A. Business owners deduct marketing expenses dollar for dollar.

There is another elusive deduction taxpayers only dream about: the non-cash deduction. The appeal of the non-cash deduction is the large write-off without a matching real world expense. Capitalizing on non-cash deductions can supercharge your retirement or debt reduction plans. The list of non-cash deductions is long. We will explore several ways you can reduce your taxes without spending a penny or taking a deduction significantly higher than the actual expense and stay out of jail in the process.