IRS

The IRS is true to their word when they said they’d issue regulations on the Qualified Business Income Deduction, otherwise known as QBI, by the end of summer. In the past week proposed regulations were published, coming in at 184 pages. Remember these are “proposed” regulations. Final regulations come after guys like me pick it apart. Most of what you see probably survives so it is a good time to start the planning process.

Accountants who wanted to get a jump-start advising clients on ways to maximize the deduction are in for a rude surprise. Most schemes are out. At the end of this post I will outline what can be done to maximize the deduction.

The 184 pages of proposed regs cover more than just QBI. We will discuss the most relevant here. Consider consulting with a tax professional to review how your personal situation is affected by these proposed regulations.

If I find any other juicy tidbits, I’ll publish. If not, I’ll wait until the final regs are issued.

A major tax bill late in the year followed by a bill of extenders February 9th and we have the perfect recipe for problems.

My initial reaction to the tax bill in December was that most of my clients would see some benefit since my clients tend towards the upper end of the income scale. I also have lower income and older clients who are not benefiting as I expected. Certain taxpayers are even seeing a tax increase, most notably, those with large unreimbursed employee business expenses like on-the-road sales people and rock band members.

The tax software used in my office estimates what the new tax rules will mean for clients if the rules applied to their 2017 return. This has been a powerful planning tool early in the tax season. But as an accountant I always look under the hood and when I did found a disturbing problem.

The IRS has a complex formula in determining who to audit so secret even the government doesn’t know what it is. This secret is the subject of much debate and some even claim to know the formula. (They also have the secret formula to Coca Cola.)

In my neighborhood if you have an S corporation and get audited, I apologize. The lady who handles S corporation audits at the IRS around here was once an employee of mine. I take full responsibility for my limited role in training her. I am ashamed of my behavior.

But an IRS audit is not really an issue for most people. IRS audits are at all-time lows and do not look to be expanded much in the future. Most audits are not the dreaded visit to the IRS office or the auditor showing up at your place. Most audits are of the correspondence type, where they send you a letter. Correspondence audits are generally narrow in focus and are the result of a misplaced number or a mismatch on the tax return with information the IRS has.