In December 2017 the U.S. passed a comprehensive tax reform package focused on supporting U.S. investments and the repatriation of foreign profits. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 (TCJA) lowered the corporate federal tax rate from 35 to 21 percent and made significant changes as to how foreign generated income would be taxed going forward. The TCJA enacted a “territorial” tax system and at the same time introduced provisions aimed to prevent U.S. companies from shifting profits...
Updated 7/30/2019. This 2018 U.S. federal tax filing season, the good news might actually be the smaller refunds seen by many Americans. However, you might be understandably hard to convince if you, your employees or family members fall into this category.
At this point in the tax return season, many are dismayed to find their refunds are smaller than expected. Or non-existent, in the case of those shocked to find that they owe more. Spoiler alert: the culprit is most likely to be...
Whether you’re self-employed or working for someone else, tax filing season is a great excuse to start thinking about strategies to lower your taxable income and maximize your retirement savings.
You still have time. You have until April 15 to make contributions to your retirement accounts and have it apply to the 2018 tax year. If you file for an extension, your deadline for doing this in 2019 is October 15.
The following information will be especially useful if you discover or...
Starting on November 15, 2018 and ending January 15, 2019, the State of New Jersey will hold a 60-day tax amnesty program aimed towards taxpayers who have delinquent taxes owed to the state. This will provide taxpayers an opportunity to file past tax returns and/or pay outstanding taxes due to the state, including a one-half reduction of the interest due as of November 1, 2018. The amnesty program only applies to outstanding filings and payments due for tax returns which were due...
By Laura Zindel, CPA
Details of the Trump Administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act are so complex that it is easier for businesses to discuss the details and ramifications in smaller pieces. One specific section of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act involves changes to rules affecting hardship withdrawals from your employees’ benefit plan account, most commonly 401(k) and 403(b) plans.
The definition of a hardship withdrawal hasn’t changed. If a plan permits, a hardship is an early withdrawal...
On August 8 the U.S. Treasury and Internal Revenue Service (IRS) released highly anticipated proposed regulations providing rules and clarification regarding the 20% Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction. Concurrently, the IRS also released a FAQ listing, which walks through the basics of the QBI deduction and Notice 2018-64, which provides guidance on ways in which taxpayers can compute “W-2 wages” with regard to the QBI deduction limitation. The regulations attempt to clarify...
Is your wallet stuffed with business receipts that you just don’t have time to organize? Do you dread preparing expense reports? Does your bookkeeper spend an inordinate amount of time chasing down those tiny pieces of paper and explanations from salespeople in far-flung regions? How often do your employees feel cheated out of reimbursement because they lost proof of valid expenditures?
In other words, is your business still being held hostage to the dreaded paper receipt? It needn’t...
On July 1, 2018, Governor Murphy signed New Jersey’s 2019 budget. Here are a few highlights of which you should be aware.
Main highlights:
Increased income tax rate, effective for the 2018 tax year, to 10.75% for individual taxpayers whose incomes are at or above $5M
A temporary corporate business tax surcharge of 2.5% for 2018 & 2019 and 1.5% for 2020 & 2021
Effective for the 2018 tax year, an increase in the state property tax deduction cap from $10,000 to $15,000
There...
The Supreme Court cleared the way Thursday for state and local governments to collect new sales taxes from online retailers and others with substantial sales into a state. The ruling in the South Dakota v. Wayfair case opens the door for states to require out-of-state online retailers and other remote sellers to collect sales tax from their customers, overturning a prior court decision that states have fought for years and that the court upheld in 1992’s Quill case.
In 1992,...
By Michael Kroll, CPA and Larry DiPasquale, CPA, MST
The Tax Cuts and Jobs Acts has been a popular topic this year where the focus has been mainly on tax cuts. However, there is a lot more to the new tax law than just tax cuts. There are new provisions providing significant tax benefits for investments in so-called Opportunity Zones and below are the details you need to know.
Distressed Area Investment
The idea behind the Opportunity Zones program is to create tax incentives for...
