New Tax Laws - Linkenheimer LLP CPAs & Advisors

2 Tax Law Changes That May Affect Your Business’s 401(k) Plan

When you think about recent tax law changes and your business, you’re probably thinking about the new 20% pass-through deduction for qualified business income or the enhancements to depreciation-related breaks. Or you may be contemplating the reduction or elimination of certain business expense deductions. But there are also a couple of recent tax law changes that you need to be aware of if your business sponsors a 401(k) plan.

Plan loan repayment extension

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) gives a break to 401(k) plan participants with outstanding loan balances when they leave their employers. While plan sponsors aren’t required to allow loans, many do.

Before 2018, if an employee with an outstanding plan loan left the company sponsoring the plan, he or she would have to repay the loan (or contribute the outstanding balance to an IRA or his or her new employer’s plan) within 60 days to avoid having the loan balance deemed a taxable distribution (and be subject to a 10% early distribution penalty if the employee was under age 59½).

Under the TCJA, beginning in 2018, former employees in this situation have until their tax return filing due date — including […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2018-06-11T19:26:30+00:00June 11th, 2018|401k, business, New Tax Laws|0 Comments

IRS Releases Updated Withholdings Calculator and 2018 W-4 Form

The IRS has completed updating its online withholding calculator that individual taxpayers can use to determine how many withholding allowances they should claim for 2018. The IRS also issued a new 2018 Form W-4, Employee’s Withholding Allowance Certificate. The IRS had previously announced that taxpayers could use the old 2017 Form W-4, as modified in Notice 2018-14, until 30 days after the new form was issued.

The calculator and new Form W-4 are designed to implement changes made by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (passed earlier this year), which increased the standard deduction, removed personal exemptions, increased the child tax credit, limited or discontinued certain deductions, and changed the tax rates and brackets, among many other changes.

To use the calculator, taxpayers should have certain information available, including an estimate of their 2018 income and other items that affect their taxes, including the number of children claimed for the child tax credit and the earned income tax credit. The IRS emphasized that the calculator is used to compute the amount of tax to be […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2020-09-03T20:04:42+00:00March 2nd, 2018|irs, New Tax Laws, withhold|0 Comments

Fringe Benefits – Transportation Updates

In years prior to the recently passed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, Congress encouraged “green”efforts to protect the environment by giving employees tax breaks for carpooling and using mass transit. For employees, the TCJA doesn’t take away the tax-favored status of these commuting benefits (other than bicycle commuting) or the option to pay for them with pre-tax dollars. Instead, starting January 1, 2018 businesses can no longer take a deduction for transportation fringe benefits (including employee parking). This means for both profit and non-profit businesses, the cost of providing these benefits is generally increased by the corporate tax rate (21% as of January 1, 2018).

This poses a dilemma for employers. Either they continue to provide these transportation fringe benefits despite the loss of the business deduction or they discontinue making these benefits available. This will cause businesses to take a careful look at the tax impact/ cost of transportation benefits against the value to their employees (and in turn, the importance of attracting and retaining talent by offering these benefits). It is also possible that local ordinances may have an impact as well:

• San Francisco, California. Businesses with a location in San Francisco (including nonprofit […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2020-09-03T20:04:42+00:00March 1st, 2018|deduction, New Tax Laws|0 Comments

Disaster Relief Provisions in the Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018

On February 9, Congress passed, and the President signed into law, H.R. 1892, the “Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018” (the Budget Act, P.L. 115-123). In addition to providing a continuing resolution to fund the federal government through March 23, this 2-year budget contains a host of tax law changes. The Act retroactively extends through 2017 over 30 so called “extender” provisions, provides a number of miscellaneous tax-related provisions, and includes tax relief to victims of the California wildfires and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria.

Relief from early withdrawal tax for California wildfire distribution. A distribution from a qualified retirement plan, a tax-sheltered annuity plan, an eligible deferred compensation plan of a State or local government employer, or an individual retirement arrangement (IRA) generally is included in income for the year distributed. In addition, unless an exception applies, a distribution received before age 59½ is subject to a 10% additional tax under Code Sec. 72(t) (the “early withdrawal tax”) on the amount includible in income.

In general, a distribution from an eligible retirement plan may be rolled over to another eligible retirement plan within 60 days, in which case the amount rolled over generally is not includible in income. The 60-day requirement can be waived by IRS in […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2020-09-03T20:04:43+00:00February 16th, 2018|disaster, New Tax Laws, relief|0 Comments

Tax Extenders Reinstated

In the massive budget deal passed last week, Congress has bestowed surprise tax breaks on homeowners, students and the climate conscious. There are tax breaks for mortgage insurance premiums, higher-education expenses, energy-efficient home-improvement projects and more. These were tax breaks that expired at the end of 2016, but are now back on for 2017, now that Trump has signed them into law.

The immediate good news for taxpayers: You could see additional tax savings on the tax return you’re filing now—for the 2017 tax year. Below are some highlights. For a complete list, click here.

Tax Relief for Families and Individuals

Extension and modification of exclusion from gross income of discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness. The provision extends through 2017 the exclusion from gross income of a discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness. The provision also modifies the exclusion to apply to qualified principal residence indebtedness that is discharged pursuant to a binding written agreement entered into in 2017.

Extension of mortgage insurance premiums treated as qualified residence interest. The provision extends through 2017 the treatment of qualified mortgage insurance premiums as interest for purposes of the […]

By Linkenheimer LLP|2020-09-03T20:04:43+00:00February 13th, 2018|deduction, deductions, New Tax Laws, tax, tax implications|0 Comments