Tag Archive for Tax Changes

Necessary But Overlooked Tax Changes We Need

Necessary But Overlooked Tax Changes We Need

I’ve been maintaining a list for several years of overlooked improvements I think are needed for our federal tax system. I keep adding to the list including based on oddities found in current court cases.  For the next few weeks, I’ll post most of these suggestions. I hope you’ll comment on them and add some of your own. It would be terrific to see these included in any tax reform legislation of the 117th Congress and Biden Administration.

  1. Create a de minimus rule for personal use of virtual currency similar to §988(e) for foreign currency which excludes personal gains under $200. This is needed for simplicity. It should exclude bitcoin acquired after a certain date though due to the tremendous gains that exist with very low basis bitcoin (too much of a windfall rather than only simplification).
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Written by | Posted in Discharge Of Debt • Rental Limitations • Virtual Currency

Charitable Miles Deduction: Is It Changing Under The New Tax Reform?

Now that the effects of last year’s tax reform bill are being felt, the proposals to reform the reform keep rolling in. Last month, Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) put forth a bill to reinstate unreimbursed job expenses. This week, Rep. Richard Nolan (D-MN) introduced H. R. 5662, also known as the Volunteer Driver Tax Appreciation Act of 2018.

The purpose of the bill is to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to equalize the charitable mileage rate with the business travel rate. For 2018, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) optional standard mileage rates for the use of a car, van, pickup or panel truck are 54.5 cents per mile for business miles driven but a mere 14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations. Read More

Written by | Posted in 2018 Tax Law • Charity • Deductions • Mileage • Tax Changes

Business Vehicle Trade-Ins Under The New Tax Law

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”) has resulted in many changes in the tax laws. One little-noticed change affects trade-ins of vehicles uses for business. Let’s go over the tax changes for business vehicle trade-ins.

Old Tax Law: Tax-Deferred Exchange of Trade-In Business Car

Until 2017, you could do a tax-deferred exchange of a business vehicle. This was also called a Section 1031 exchange. With such an exchange, there would be no tax due on the sale of your trade-in. Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Cuts Jobs Act • Vehicle Trade-Ins

Passive Investment Income Proposed Tax Changes

The Canadian tax system is built on the concept of tax integration. Based on the view of principles of fairness and neutrality, tax integration aims to ensure that an individual is indifferent between earning income through a corporation or directly as the after tax results should be the same.

Currently corporate tax rates are lower than personal tax rates; however, when after tax profits earned in a corporation flow out to an individual the net result is comparable to the net result had the individual earned it directly. The difference occurs when a corporation’s after tax profits are saved inside the corporation as a passive investment to be flowed out to the individual at a later date. Read More

Written by | Posted in Canada • Tax Changes

2018 Tax Changes

Most of you are aware that a new tax law was recently passed.  Most of the changes relate to 2018 and beyond – here are just a few of the ones most like to affect individuals.

Standard Deduction Increased

For tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017 and before Jan. 1, 2026, the standard deduction is increased to $24,000 for married individuals filing a joint return, $18,000 for head-of-household filers, and $12,000 for all other taxpayers, adjusted for inflation in tax years beginning after 2018. No changes are made to the current-law additional standard deduction for the elderly and blind.  Read More

Written by | Posted in 2018 Tax Law

Passive Investment Income Proposed Tax Changes

Grant Gilmour, Canada,

What are the proposed tax changes on passive investment portfolios held inside a private corporation?

The Canadian government is proposing changes on tax treatment of passive income on investment portfolios held inside a private corporation to neutralize the financial advantages of such holdings. This targets private corporations being used as investment vehicles for retirement. Read More

Written by | Posted in International

Contacting Members of Congress – Dos And Do Nots

Tom Kerester

Members of Congress have many sources from which they can obtain critical information on the impact a proposed tax will have on taxpayers generally. But they value most the information they obtain from tax practitioners who deal with tax matters hourly and daily. So, take advantage of the opportunity to furnish the Members of Congress the vital and critical information they need and cannot obtain that information elsewhere. Please review the list of The Dos and The Do Nots.

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Written by | Posted in Tax Legislation

Congressional Tax Legislative Process And Contacting Members of Congress #3

Tom Kerester

This is the 3rd article in the TaxConnections Education Series on the Congressional Tax Legislative Process. This continues the legislative process education provided in previous articles (first article and second article), specifically on the TaxConnections Legislative Process that outlines the steps in the development of every tax proposal approved by the Congress.

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Written by | Posted in United States

U.S. Corporate Tax Rate Changes In 2017

Kat Jennings

2017 is finally upon us. There are a lot of changes that we should expect to happen to taxes over the course of the next few years. But as of the first, many states have already begun changing their tax codes. Corporate income taxes are one of the areas in which we will be seeing multiyear reductions and reforms. We will look at the five states (four states and capital) that reduced or will reduce their corporate tax rates in 2017: Arizona, The District of Columbia, Indiana, New Mexico, and North Carolina.

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Written by | Posted in State Tax

Top Tax Blogs from 2015

Top Tax Blogs from 2015

During 2015 readers of TaxConnections Worldwide Tax Blogs arrived from more than 200 countries and spent an average of 12:45 during each visit. These are mighty numbers and they are due to the tax experts who joined our community and submitted their tax expertise and blog posts throughout the year.

We would like to congratulate our top tax blog contributors and link you to the top posts this year. We are grateful for the journey we made with you throughout the year and look forward to enjoying a successful 2016 with you.

Check out the top 20 Tax Blogs in 2015!

Story of A Good Citizen Who Reports Foreign Bank Accounts But Forgets FBARs! Huh? – Manasa Nadig

How To Live Outside The United States In An FBAR And FATCA World – John Richardson

Read This Before Tossing Old Tax Records – Barry Fowler

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Written by | Posted in Tax Updates • TaxConnections

Rate Increase and Withholding of Tax on Dispositions for US Property Interests

TaxConnections Member Larry Stolberg

An important tax update was made regarding the rate increase and withholding of tax on U.S. property dispositions. On December 18th, President Obama, signed H.R. 2029, the tax (the “Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015”) and spending bills (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2016) to fund the government for its 2016 fiscal year.

The December The Act increases the rate of withholding from dispositions of U.S. real property interests under §1445 from 10% to 15%, but remains at 10% for residences sold for less than $1 million.

The withholding exemption where the sale price is under $300,000US and the purchaser will acquire the property as their principal residence is still in effect.

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Written by | Posted in PATH Act • Tax Legislation • Tax Policy • Tax Updates

The PATH Act Significantly Enhances The R&D Tax Credit Program

Tax Advisor - Peter Scalise

On December 18th of 2015, President Obama signed into law a sweeping $1.14 trillion dollar funding bill that will keep the federal government operating through September 30th of 2016. In connection to the tax aspects of this comprehensive and pivotal legislation, the Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015 (hereinafter the “PATH Act”) accomplished considerably more than the typical tax-extenders legislation passed in previous years and truly signifies a dynamic paradigm shift as the PATH Act makes permanent over twenty leading tax incentives while extending other tax incentives over either a five year period or a two year period.

In particular, the PATH Act meaningfully enhanced the R&D Tax Credit Program (hereinafter “RTC program”) on a myriad of levels. As an overview, the RTC program was initially added to the U.S. Internal Revenue Code (hereinafter the “Code”) in 1981 through the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981 as a temporary provision of the Code. The RTC program had most recently expired on December 31, 2014. A tremendous paradigm shift to the RTC program was made possible through the PATH Act which not only renewed the RTC retroactively for all of calendar year 2015 but most importantly made the RTC program permanent. In addition, the enhanced RTC program has been considerably restructured to: Read More

Written by | Posted in Tax Legislation • Tax Policy • Tax Updates
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