This from the ABA – “Pass-through businesses include partnerships, Subchapter S corporations and sole proprietorships. . . –  owners of pass-through businesses can take a 20 percent deduction for qualified business income they receive from the entity.”

There is a link to the 570 page Conference Committee report with more explanation.

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Consensus tax bill includes law firms in pass-through tax relief, with limits

By Debra Cassens Weiss

Posted December 18, 2017, 1:38 pm CST

Law firms and other professional service entities won’t be entirely excluded from tax relief for pass-through entities in the final version of the tax bill that is awaiting passage.
The consensus provision on pass-through businesses is in many ways a victory for the ABA. The association had lobbied Congress to accept the Senate version of the tax bill giving a tax deduction to owners of pass-through businesses, including professional service firms.

The House version of the bill would have excluded law firms and all other professional service business from pass-through tax relief, and it would have lowered the maximum tax rate rather than provide for a deduction.

The conferees accepted the Senate approach, but did not eliminate caps that phase out the pass-through deduction for higher-income professional service providers. The ABA had asked conferees to drop the phase-out.

Pass-through businesses include partnerships, Subchapter S corporations and sole proprietorships. Income for such entities pass through to the owners’ individual returns, where it is currently taxed at ordinary income tax rates.

Under the consensus bill, owners of pass-through businesses can take a 20 percent deduction for qualified business income they receive from the entity, according to the Washington Post, the conference report (PDF) and the conference committee’s joint explanatory statement (PDF, see pages 20-40). Qualified business income is nonwage income that is calculated according to a formula. The deduction in the original Senate bill was 23 percent.

The tax deduction is phased out for owners of professional services businesses whose taxable income exceeds $315,000 for married individuals filing jointly or $157,500 for individuals. The threshold in the consensus bill is lower than the thresholds of $500,000 and $250,000 that were in the original Senate bill.

Many high-income law firm partners will still benefit, however, because the final tax bill lowers the top individual income tax rate from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. The bill also increases income thresholds for the higher tax brackets.

The ABA position also prevailed in regards to these provisions in the consensus bill:

• The student loan tax deduction is preserved.

• Some contingency-fee lawyers will still be able to deduct upfront litigation-related expenses. Lawyers within the jurisdiction of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals are permitted to deduct such expenses.

• There is no requirement that high-income law firms or other professional service businesses use accrual accounting. The accrual method would have forced many law firms to pay taxes on accounts receivable and other “phantom” income they hadn’t received and may never receive.

The ABA Section of Taxation had asked Congress (PDF) to preserve the deduction for tax code compliance expenses. But the final tax bill prevents a deduction for costs connected with the determination, collection, or refund of any tax unless the expenses are for the production of income.

This suggestion is from Needham selectman, former Norfolk County administrator, and attorney Dan Matthews – Dan suggests accelerating the payment of the rest of your FY18 real estate taxes before the end of the calendar year, if you will not get to deduct the full amount in 2018, due to the new federal tax bill (I believe local real estate taxes will only be deductible up to $10,000/year starting in 2018).

Merry Christmas!  Happy Holidays! 

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Dear Friends-

If a combination of cheery greetings, politics, and tax accounting is too much for one email, please accept my Best Wishes for the Holidays and ignore the rest of this.

But it’s become apparent that as a result of the latest tomfoolery in Washington, almost every Massachusetts homeowner who will itemize deductions for 2017 can save measurably on US income taxes by pre-paying the second half of their FY18 city/town property tax (i.e., the payments that will be due in Feb and May of 18) NOW, before Dec. 31.

Not everyone can swing that on such short notice.  If your taxes are paid from mortgage holder escrow, you would have to notify the bank (and still probably have to do the prepay yourself and adjust later).  And there are only four business days left in the year.  And did we say the Holidays?

But with some exceptions, the dollar amount involved equals approximately the half-year property tax bill times your marginal US tax rate, which should make the effort worthwhile for (tens of?) thousands of people in MA, most who know little if anything about this.

I’m sending this along to friends who may be affected or themselves have friends or family it applies to.

I’m not a tax expert, and everyone’s situation is different- if you have questions, you may want to check with a tax advisor. But this is the basic information as I understand it.

Some cities/towns are posting prepayment information of their websites, and there is likely to be news information about this as well, but the window is short.

If you feel guilty about taking advantage of this break you can:

– consider it part of your patriotic duty to help show how wrong and reckless this new tax law is.

– make an additional donation to the charity of your choice (still deductible!).

I hope this is helpful.Happy Holidays!

Dan Matthews