Tag: Small Business

Tax Cuts and Jobs Act: Changes to Business Taxes

We continue our blog series recapping our recent presentation on the new tax laws to the Indian Valley Chamber of Commerce. This blog covers changes made to business tax laws.

One of the advantageous aspects of this new tax law is that the government has provided a clear definition of what constitutes a “small business.” A “small business” is defined as a company with average gross receipts for the past three years of $25 million or less.

This means that businesses meeting the definition of a small business can now avail themselves of these aspects of the tax law:

  • Expanded ability of cash method: This means that If you have been operating on the accrual method and consistently have higher receivables than payables, you can elect to switch to the cash method, allowing for potential consistent deferment of income.
  • Inventory tracking requirements: This allows you to elect to treat your inventory as non-incidental materials and supplies (items you expense when used or consumed). However, under the non-incidental materials and supplies category there is another election called the de minimis safe harbor election, which allows you to expense, safely and without fear of audit, anything under $2500 or less. So, if you have inventory that qualifies as non-incidental materials and supplies, and the unit cost of each item is $2500 or less, you can potentially write off your entire inventory for this year, presuming the inventory is under a year old. For example, if you are the owner of a junkyard business and have $400,000 in inventory, if you did not pay over $2500 per car, you can make these elections and have a $400,000 expense.
  • Section 263A threshold raised: This was a tax requiring that you had to capitalize indirect costs, just for tax. This is gone

Other changes include:

  • C-corporate rate is a flat 21%
  • Entertainment no longer deductible: Meals, however, are another story. Technically, right now, according to the law meals are not deductible, but in October 2018 the IRS put out a guidance that they are deductible because there was a mistake in the writing of the law. This is likely one of the technical directions that will eventually be passed by Congress. Until then, we can rely on the IRS guidance.
  • Interest deductions limited: If your gross receipts are over $25 million, your interest deductions are limited to 30% of your taxable income and any unused portion will get carried forward.
  •  Business losses, no carryback and limited to 80% of income
  • Like-Kind Exchanges now only qualify on real estate
  • Technical terminations of partnerships are eliminated

Business Change Highlights – Depreciation

Changes were also made on depreciation. Here are the highlights:

  • Additional first-year/bonus depreciation: 100% for property acquired after 9/27/17
  • Bonus now allowed for new and used property: it used to be allowed only for new property
  • Bonus on qualified improvement property no longer qualifies as written. This is another item needing correction, but the IRS has not provided any guidance to date.
  • Bonus phase-down schedule for years after 2022
  • Luxury auto limits (note that the additional $8k depreciation has been extended for 2017)
  • Increased to Sec. 179 ($1M and threshold $2.5M)
  • SUV limitation remains at $25,000
  • 179 limits are indexed for inflation
  • 179 expansion for certain real property (HVAC, roofs)
  • 179 allows for residential rental property improvements

New Employer Credit

There is a new employer credit for paid family and medical leave. This is a general business credit that employers can claim based on wages paid to qualified employees while on leave, subject to conditions.

Planning Opportunities

Please keep in mind, these tax changes are set to expire at the end of 2025. There are a number of potential savings opportunities within these tax law changes. We recommend that businesses evaluate their tax structure and engage in multi-year tax planning.

If you have any questions or concerns about these changes, please call us at 215-723-4881. You may also consult our free online 2018-19 Tax Planning, which can be found here.

To view the portions of his seminar that were broadcast via Facebook Live, please visit our Facebook page.

“Starting Your Own Business” Class with Brent Thompson, CPA CMA CGMA

Are you thinking of starting your own business? Then plan on attending the aptly-named “Starting Your Own Business” class presented by Canon Capital’s Brent Thompson as part of the Souderton Area School District’s Community Education program.

This four-hour class takes place in two, two-hour sessions 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. on Tuesday, February 26 and Thursday, February 28, 2019.

During the class, Brent will cover:

  • Business entity structures and the advantages, disadvantages, and tax ramifications of each.
  • Concepts to help your new venture be more successful.
  • An overview of financing, accounting, insurance, titled assets, home office deductions, auto mileage rules, buy/sell agreements, and more.

Bring any questions you might have to class. Cost is $30.00. Register with SACE online (from the left sidebar of the page select “Evening School,” “Life Planning & Organizing,” and then “Starting a Business.”). View the full program catalog here (Please note, the catalog shows this class as happening in two separate, two-hour sessions. It is one full course presented in the four hours of the two evening sessions.)

Should You Choose a Different Business Structure After the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was passed by Congress in November of 2017 but did not take effect until the beginning of this tax year (2018). It brings enough significant change to the tax code to prompt the question, “Should I choose a different structure for my business to take full advantage of this new law?” Our answer: “Yes, No, Maybe.”

Fortunately, those are the only three choices. Unfortunately, these otherwise simple choices become more complicated when associated with the tax code. As you can probably imagine, one size does not fit all when it comes to tax planning.  It never did.  And, with the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, one size doesn’t even fit one size anymore.

For instance, if you’re a business owner whose company is structured in any way other than a C-corporation, you might be aware of the new “Qualified Business Income Deduction.” With the Qualified Business Income Deduction, you get to deduct 20% of your flow-through business income on your personal tax return and pay tax on 80% of the business income. Sounds simple, right? This section of tax law has more restrictions and limitations – we’ll call them “weeds” – than Round-Up could ever hope to control, but we’ll keep the explanation that simple to gain a general understanding.

If your business is a Sole Proprietorship with no payroll and no assets that nets $200,000 – absent of any “weeds” – you get a whopping $40,000 deduction and pay tax on only $160,000 of your net income.  Since a sole proprietorship does not differentiate between the business and the owner, the owner is entitled to take the full $200,000 “out of the business” without any tax consequences.

Ah, but now here comes a “weed.”  Corporations are required to pay salaries to the owner for the money they take out of the business. Partnerships must classify the money the owner takes out for services as “guaranteed payments.” Both salaries and guaranteed payments do not qualify for the 20% deduction mentioned above.

Therefore, if the Corporation or Partnership has the same $200,000 net annual income, and they pay a salary (Corporation) or guaranteed payment (Partnership) of $80,000, then what remains eligible for the 20% deduction is the $120,000 bottom line business income. So, a business organized as a Corporation or Partnership, doing the same exchange for services as a Sole Proprietorship, netting the same annual income, will only qualify for a $24,000 deduction. The only difference between the three? Their business entity structure.  And so, one size – each one is a business — isn’t truly one size under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

By now you’re probably thinking, the best recommendation would be to structure your business as a Sole Proprietor if your business type allows for that to make sense. Yes, but, what happens when the business is even more profitable than $200,000 per year? Let’s say that in 2019, you net $500,000 (before salaries or guaranteed payments). That’s when the “weeds” really take over, and their explanation would require a dissertation, not a blog post. Take our word for it. With such an increase in income, under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the Sole Proprietor, and Partnership businesses would not qualify for any deduction. And yet, an S-Corporation that is the same business, providing the same services, netting the same income, would qualify for a $62,500 deduction.

So, not only is “one size fits all” a thing of the past. “One size” isn’t even “one size” from year to year. What happens when your Sole Proprietorship profit is low one year and high the next? You can’t switch business entities each year based on projected income. So, based on the current realities of the tax code, what is the wisest move for a business owner? Absent any other information, the recommendation would be to do business as an S-Corp.

This new tax code will affect every business in the United States, regardless of size or entity structure, which is how we arrived at our initial answer to the question, “Should I change my business structure under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act?” is “Yes. No. Maybe.”

Let’s find out what entity will be right for you. Contact us online or call 215-723-4881 to schedule a consultation.

New Sales Tax Laws Effective 8/1/16

On July 13, 2016, Governor Tom Wolf signed into law Act 84 of 2016. Per the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, the following updates have been made to Sales, Use, and Hotel Occupancy taxes:

Timely Filing Vendor Discount
Effective for returns that have a period end date after August 1, 2016, the vendor discount for licensees for timely filed returns and payments is limited to the lesser of $25 or 1 percent of tax collected for a monthly filer, $75 or 1 percent of tax collected for a quarterly filer and $150 or 1 percent of tax collected for a semi-annual filer.

Exemptions
Effective July 1, 2017, property and services directly and predominately used in “timbering” by a company primarily engaged in the business of harvesting trees is exempt from tax. The term shall not include the harvesting of trees for clearing land for access roads.

Effective immediately, licensees are not required to collect tax on corrugated boxes used by a person engaged in the manufacture of snack food products to deliver the manufactured product, whether or not the boxes are returnable.

Effective in 60 days, the sale at retail or use of services related to the setup, tear down, or maintenance of tangible personal property rented by an authority to exhibitors at the Pennsylvania Convention Center and the David L. Lawrence Convention Center is exempt from sales and use tax.

Sales tax base expansion
Effective August 1, 2016, licensees are now required to collect tax on digitally or electronically delivered or streamed video, photographs, books, any other taxable printed material, apps, games, music, any audio service including satellite radio or canned software. These items are taxable whether accessed and purchased singly, or by subscription or in any other manner. Any maintenance, updates or support on these items are taxable.

Taxable sales on these items made on or after August 1, 2016, must be included when filing sales tax returns. The date of sale is the date of the invoice or other similar document.

Sales Suppression
Any person who, for commercial gain, sells, purchases, installs, transfers or possesses in this commonwealth an automated sales suppression device or zapper that the sole purpose of the device is to defeat or evade the determination of sales tax due commits a punishable offense.

Anyone that commits such an offense and is in possession of three or fewer devices will be subject to a fine up-to but not to exceed five thousand dollars ($5,000).

Anyone that commits such an offense and is in possession of three or more devices will be subject to a fine up-to but not to exceed ten thousand dollars ($10,000).

This shall not apply to an entity that possesses an automated sales suppression device for the sole purpose of developing hardware or software to combat the evasion of taxes by use of automated sales suppression devices or zappers or phantomware.

For additional information or if you have any questions regarding this notification, contact the Taxpayer Service and Information Center at 1-717-787-1064, or visit the department’s website at www.revenue.pa.gov, and click on Online Customer Service Center; Service for Taxpayers with Special Hearing and/or Speaking Needs is 1-800-447-3020 (TT only).