May 24, 2022by admin
Our firm was recently recognized as a proud sponsor and long time supporter of the United Way, California Capital Region.
May 1, 2022by admin
May 2, 2022
Employers – Federal unemployment tax. Deposit the tax owed through March if more than $500.
Employers – Social Security, Medicare, and withheld income tax. File Form 941 for the first quarter of 2022. Deposit any undeposited tax. If your tax liability is less than $2,500, you can pay it in full with a timely filed return. If you deposited the tax for the quarter in full and on time, you have until May 10 to file the return.
May 10, 2022
Employees – who work for tips. If you received $20 or more in tips during April, report them to your employer. You can use Form 4070.
Employers – Social Security, Medicare, and withheld income tax. File Form 941 for the first quarter of 2022. This due date applies only if you deposited the tax for the quarter in full and on time.
May 16, 2022
Employers – Nonpayroll withholding.If the monthly deposit rule applies, deposit the tax for payments in April.
Employers- Social Security, Medicare, and withheld income tax. If the monthly deposit rule applies, deposit the tax for payments in April.
May 1, 2022by admin
Typically, businesses want to delay recognition of taxable income into future years and accelerate deductions into the current year. But when is it prudent to do the opposite? And why would you want to?
One reason might be tax law changes that raise tax rates. There have been discussions in Washington about raising the corporate federal income tax rate from its current flat 21%. Another reason may be because you expect your noncorporate pass-through entity business to pay taxes at higher rates in the future, because the pass-through income will be taxed on your personal return. There have also been discussions in Washington about raising individual federal income tax rates.
If you believe your business income could be subject to tax rate increases, you might want to accelerate income recognition into the current tax year to benefit from the current lower tax rates. At the same time, you may want to postpone deductions into a later tax year, when rates are higher, and when the deductions will do more tax-saving good.
To accelerate income
Consider these options if you want to accelerate revenue recognition into the current tax year:
- Sell appreciated assets that have capital gains in the current year, rather than waiting until a later year.
- Review the company’s list of depreciable assets to determine if any fully depreciated assets are in need of replacement. If fully depreciated assets are sold, taxable gains will be triggered in the year of sale.
- For installment sales of appreciated assets, elect out of installment sale treatment to recognize gain in the year of sale.
- Instead of using a tax-deferred like-kind Section 1031 exchange, sell real property in a taxable transaction.
- Consider converting your S corporation into a partnership or LLC treated as a partnership for tax purposes. That will trigger gains from the company’s appreciated assets because the conversion is treated as a taxable liquidation of the S corp. The partnership will have an increased tax basis in the assets.
- For a construction company, do you have long-term construction contracts previously exempt from the percentage-of-completion method of accounting for long-term contracts? Consider using the percentage-of-completion method to recognize income sooner as compared to the completed contract method, which defers recognition of income until the long-term construction is completed.
To defer deductions
Consider the following actions to postpone deductions into a higher-rate tax year, which will maximize their value:
- Delay purchasing capital equipment and fixed assets, which would give rise to depreciation deductions.
- Forego claiming big first-year Section 179 deductions or bonus depreciation deductions on new depreciable assets and instead depreciate the assets over a number of years.
- Determine whether professional fees and employee salaries associated with a long-term project could be capitalized, which would spread out the costs over time and push the related deductions forward into a higher rate tax year.
- Purchase bonds at a discount this year to increase interest income in future years.
- If allowed, put off inventory shrinkage or other write-downs until a year with a higher tax rate.
- Delay charitable contributions into a year with a higher tax rate.
- If allowed, delay accounts receivable charge-offs to a year with a higher rate.
- Delay payment of liabilities where the related deduction is based on when the amount is paid.
Contact us to discuss the best tax planning actions in light of your business’s unique tax situation.
May 1, 2022by admin
Adding a new partner in a partnership has several financial and legal implications. Let’s say you and your partners are planning to admit a new partner. The new partner will acquire a one-third interest in the partnership by making a cash contribution to it. Let’s further assume that your bases in your partnership interests are sufficient so that the decrease in your portions of the partnership’s liabilities because of the new partner’s entry won’t reduce your bases to zero.
Not as simple as it seems
Although the entry of a new partner appears to be a simple matter, it’s necessary to plan the new person’s entry properly in order to avoid various tax problems. Here are two issues to consider:
First, if there’s a change in the partners’ interests in unrealized receivables and substantially appreciated inventory items, the change is treated as a sale of those items, with the result that the current partners will recognize gain. For this purpose, unrealized receivables include not only accounts receivable, but also depreciation recapture and certain other ordinary income items. In order to avoid gain recognition on those items, it’s necessary that they be allocated to the current partners even after the entry of the new partner.
Second, the tax code requires that the “built-in gain or loss” on assets that were held by the partnership before the new partner was admitted be allocated to the current partners and not to the entering partner. Generally speaking, “built-in gain or loss” is the difference between the fair market value and basis of the partnership property at the time the new partner is admitted.
The most important effect of these rules is that the new partner must be allocated a portion of the depreciation equal to his share of the depreciable property based on current fair market value. This will reduce the amount of depreciation that can be taken by the current partners. The other effect is that the built-in gain or loss on the partnership assets must be allocated to the current partners when partnership assets are sold. The rules that apply here are complex and the partnership may have to adopt special accounting procedures to cope with the relevant requirements.
Keep track of your basis
When adding a partner or making other changes, a partner’s basis in his or her interest can undergo frequent adjustment. It’s imperative to keep proper track of your basis because it can have an impact in several areas: gain or loss on the sale of your interest, how partnership distributions to you are taxed and the maximum amount of partnership loss you can deduct.
Contact us if you’d like help in dealing with these issues or any other issues that may arise in connection with your partnership.
May 1, 2022by admin
Operating as an S corporation may help reduce federal employment taxes for small businesses in the right circumstances. Although S corporations may provide tax advantages over C corporations, there are some potentially costly tax issues that you should assess before making a decision to switch.
Here’s a quick rundown of the most important issues to consider when converting from a C corporation to an S corporation:
Built-in gains tax
Although S corporations generally aren’t subject to tax, those that were formerly C corporations are taxed on built-in gains (such as appreciated property) that the C corporation has when the S election becomes effective, if those gains are recognized within 5 years after the corporation becomes an S corporation. This is generally unfavorable, although there are situations where the S election still can produce a better tax result despite the built-in gains tax.
Passive income
S corporations that were formerly C corporations are subject to a special tax if their passive investment income (such as dividends, interest, rents, royalties and stock sale gains) exceeds 25% of their gross receipts, and the S corporation has accumulated earnings and profits carried over from its C corporation years. If that tax is owed for three consecutive years, the corporation’s election to be an S corporation terminates. You can avoid the tax by distributing the accumulated earnings and profits, which would be taxable to shareholders. Or you might want to avoid the tax by limiting the amount of passive income.
LIFO inventories
C corporations that use LIFO inventories have to pay tax on the benefits they derived by using LIFO if they convert to S corporations. The tax can be spread over four years. This cost must be weighed against the potential tax gains from converting to S status.
Unused losses
If your C corporation has unused net operating losses, the losses can’t be used to offset its income as an S corporation and can’t be passed through to shareholders. If the losses can’t be carried back to an earlier C corporation year, it will be necessary to weigh the cost of giving up the losses against the tax savings expected to be generated by the switch to S status.
There are other factors to consider in switching from C to S status. Shareholder-employees of S corporations can’t get the full range of tax-free fringe benefits that are available with a C corporation. And there may be complications for shareholders who have outstanding loans from their qualified plans. All of these factors have to be considered to understand the full effect of converting from C to S status.
There are strategies for eliminating or minimizing some of these tax problems and for avoiding unnecessary pitfalls related to them. But a lot depends upon your company’s particular circumstances. Contact us to discuss the effect of these and other potential problems, along with possible strategies for dealing with them.
May 1, 2022by admin
The federal government is helping to pick up the tab for certain business meals. Under a provision that’s part of one of the COVID-19 relief laws, the usual deduction for 50% of the cost of business meals is doubled to 100% for food and beverages provided by restaurants in 2022 (and 2021).
So, you can take a customer out for a business meal or order take-out for your team and temporarily write off the entire cost — including the tip, sales tax and any delivery charges.
Basic rules
Despite eliminating deductions for business entertainment expenses in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), a business taxpayer could still deduct 50% of the cost of qualified business meals, including meals incurred while traveling away from home on business. (The TCJA generally eliminated the 50% deduction for business entertainment expenses incurred after 2017 on a permanent basis.)
To help struggling restaurants during the pandemic, the Consolidated Appropriations Act doubled the business meal deduction temporarily for 2021 and 2022. Unless Congress acts to extend this tax break, it will expire on December 31, 2022.
Currently, the deduction for business meals is allowed if the following requirements are met:
- The expense is an ordinary and necessary business expense paid or incurred during the tax year in carrying on any trade or business.
- The expense isn’t lavish or extravagant under the circumstances.
- The taxpayer (or an employee of the taxpayer) is present when the food or beverages are furnished.
- The food and beverages are provided to a current or potential business customer, client, consultant or similar business contact.
In the event that food and beverages are provided during an entertainment activity, the food and beverages must be purchased separately from the entertainment. Alternatively, the cost can be stated separately from the cost of the entertainment on one or more bills.
So, if you treat a client to a meal and the expense is properly substantiated, you may qualify for a business meal deduction as long as there’s a business purpose to the meal or a reasonable expectation that a benefit to the business will result.
Provided by a restaurant
IRS Notice 2021-25 explains the main rules for qualifying for the 100% deduction for food and beverages provided by a restaurant. Under this guidance, the deduction is available if the restaurant prepares and sells food or beverages to retail customers for immediate consumption on or off the premises. As a result, it applies to both on-site dining and take-out and delivery meals.
However, a “restaurant” doesn’t include a business that mainly sells pre-packaged goods not intended for immediate consumption. So, food and beverage sales are excluded from businesses including:
- Grocery stores,
- Convenience stores,
- Beer, wine or liquor stores, and
- Vending machines or kiosks.
The restriction also applies to an eating facility located on the employer’s business premises that provides meals excluded from an employee’s taxable income. Business meals purchased from such facilities are limited to a 50% deduction. It doesn’t matter if a third party is operating the facility under a contract with the business.
Keep good records
It’s important to keep track of expenses to maximize tax benefits for business meal expenses.
You should record the:
- Date,
- Cost of each expense,
- Name and location of the establishment,
- Business purpose, and
- Business relationship of the person(s) fed.
In addition, ask establishments to divvy up the tab between any entertainment costs and food/ beverages. For additional information, contact your tax advisor.