Category: Taxation-Corporate

  Earlier this year, the IRS published a proposed safe harbor giving owners of certain rental real estate interests the opportunity to take advantage of the qualified business income (QBI) deduction. The QBI write-off was created by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) for pass-through entities. The IRS has now released final guidance (Revenue Procedure 2019-38) on the safe harbor that clearly lays out the requirements that taxpayers must satisfy to benefit. QBI in a nutshell The TCJA added… Read more ›

Congress has yet to tackle several outstanding uncertainties frustrating both businesses and individual taxpayers. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), for example, contains several “glitches” requiring legislative fixes. Congress also has neglected to pass the traditional “extenders” legislation that retroactively extends certain tax relief provisions that expired at the end of an earlier year, in this case 2017. Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Glitches The sprawling TCJA signed into law in late 2017 contains some inadvertent glitches that range… Read more ›

Starting on April 1, 2019, private sector employers in the District of Columbia must begin tracking wages for its employees for purposes of paying a new tax to fund the District’s Paid Family Leave (PFL) benefit. The first quarterly payment to the District of Columbia (beginning on July 1) will be determined from a calculation based on employee wages for the previous three months. The first payment, for example, will be determined based on wages paid to employees during April,… Read more ›

The Trump administration has released its long-awaited proposed rule to update the overtime exemptions for so-called white-collar workers under the Fair Labor Standards Act. The rule increases the minimum weekly standard salary level for both regular workers and highly compensated employees (HCEs). It also increases the total annual compensation requirement for HCEs that’s required to qualify them as exempt. In addition, it retains the often confusing “duties test.” The Trump administration rule generally is more favorable to employers than the… Read more ›

When President Trump signed into law the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) in December 2017, much was made of the dramatic cut in corporate tax rates. But the TCJA also includes a generous deduction for smaller businesses that operate as pass-through entities, with income that is “passed through” to owners and taxed as individual income. The IRS issued proposed regulations for the qualified business income (QBI), or Section 199A, deduction in August 2018. Now, it has released final regulations… Read more ›

The IRS has announced that it will begin accepting paper and electronic tax returns for the 2018 tax year on January 28, but much remains to be seen about how the ongoing shutdown of the federal government will affect this year’s filings. Although the Trump administration has stated that the IRS will pay refunds during the closure — a shift from IRS practice in previous government shutdowns — it’s not clear how quickly such refunds can be processed. Effects of… Read more ›

On Monday, December 10, 2018, the U.S. Treasury Department provided additional guidance on how tax-exempt organizations can compute unrelated business taxable income resulting from parking provided to their employees. The guidance is intended to help employers better understand their new tax situation as it pertains to employee parking. Below is CBM’s overview of the new guidance. In most cases, employer-paid commuting and parking is considered a qualified transportation fringe benefit (QTFB). Because of the 2018 Tax Cut and Jobs Act, tax-exempt nonprofits… Read more ›

The IRS has issued guidance clarifying that taxpayers may continue to deduct 50% of the food and beverage expenses associated with operating their trade or business, despite changes to the meal and entertainment expense deduction under Sec. 274. The amendments in the Tax Cut and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) specifically deny deductions for expenses for entertainment, amusement, or recreation, but did not address the deductibility of expenses for business meals. This has created a lot of confusion, which the… Read more ›

On June 21, 2018, The U.S. Supreme Court issued its highly anticipated decision in the South Dakota v. Wayfair case. The verdict declared that states can impose sales tax nexus without requiring a seller’s physical presence in the state and will have significant implications for all sellers, including automotive suppliers. This decision overturns the Supreme Court precedent in Quill Corp. v. Dakota, which required retailers to have a physical presence in a state before it could compel the seller to… Read more ›

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) was packed with goodies for businesses, but it also seemed to eliminate the popular meal expense deduction in some situations. Now, the IRS has issued transitional guidance — while it works on proposed regulations — that confirms the deduction remains allowable in certain circumstances and clarifies when businesses can claim it. The need for guidance Before the TCJA, Section 274 of the Internal Revenue Code generally prohibited deductions for expenses related to entertainment,… Read more ›