Daniel Whelan and Tadhg Matthews this afternoon were celebrated at their Eagle Scout Court of Honor at the UCC this afternoon. Here they are shown with their parents.
Posted onJanuary 9, 2018|Comments Off on Affordable Housing Trust meeting
At the affordable housing trust committee meeting this evening at the Public Safety Building, the Committee and about 35 residents heard an update on the Tilden Village expansion and the 41 Dale Street project by John Kelly (in the photo). Mr. Kelly was complimented by those neighbors that had attended his three neighborhood meetings with doing what the neighbors had asked.
The Tilden expansion is at about 45 units, but osler realistically five years off due to the financing backlog. The Dale Street project was presented a either a 36 unit all rental, or a 12 unit sale combined with a 24 unit rental project The preference appears to be for the latter. The Dale site is 2.93 aces.
The town already has two LIP projects lined up that will give the town a second year of safe harbor after May from unfriendly 40B projects, and we seem to have a variety of options on other projects to keep us in a safe harbor beyond that.
Developer John Kelly has been vetting his 40B proposals for his Dale Street and Rte. 27 site with the neighbors, and he will present his latest iteration (copy attached below) to the Affordable Housing Trust next Tuesday – 36 units (12 sale and 24 rental), and nothing on the cemetery side of Rte. 27.
Per Mr. Kelly: “this design has the entrance to both the sale and rental element is from N. Meadows, with emergency ingress/egress from Joseph Pace Rd. Otherwise, the plan is quite similar.”
The town is currently in a 40B safe harbor, that precludes unfriendly 40B projects, through this spring, but has enough Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI) units lined between the two approved and pending LIP’s to provide the town another year of safe harbor. The approved LIP’s are Bob Borrelli’s North Street 8 units next to his current 8 unit LIP and the other Borrelli’s 16 units rental LIP next to the Goddard School. If the Tilden Village expansion or the Lot 3 housing proceed, either one of those could provide two years of additional safe harbor, as the town needs to permit and build 21 SHI per year to stay in our safe harbor status.
Given the town’s safe harbor status, for Mr. Kelly’s proposed 40B to be able to proceed, it must be endorsed by the town.
Posted onJanuary 5, 2018|Comments Off on Refinished floor at The Center
I held my monthly office hours this morning at the Center, and Roberta showed me their newly refinished hardwood floors in the Fellini Hall. The floor was beautiful, and slippery (with the water on my shoes).
The Center will celebrate its 10th anniversary this Sunday at 2 pm.
Office hour discussions about dog parks, maple sugaring, affordable housing, new Saturday hours at The Center starting in March, and more.
Posted onJanuary 3, 2018|Comments Off on Office hours this Friday 9-10
Selectman Office Hours this Friday 9-10AM – After the snow shoveling
Selectman Osler “Pete” Peterson holds regular monthly office hours at The Center on the first Friday of every month from 9:00 to 10:00 AM (his litigation schedule permitting).
Residents are welcome to stop by to talk in person about any town matters. Residents can also have coffee and see the Council on Aging in action (a vibrant organization with lots going on).
Peterson can be reached via 508-359-9190 or his blog about Medfield matters https://medfield02052.wordpress.com/, where any schedule changes will be posted.
Maurice Goulet, DPW Director, this morning shared this update with a neighbor on the status of the Philip Street bridge replacement –
“Yes, the final contract documents have been signed for the fabrication. The fabricator has begun the manufacturing process of the top deck. The company has submitted their required shop drawings and field measurements. The fabrication is scheduled to be completed in March. As we get closer we can narrow down the delivery of the deck. MassDOT has given their final approval of the entire project, we are moving forward with the procurement of the contractor for installation.”
Posted onDecember 23, 2017|Comments Off on More about what was in the tax bill
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.
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.
Comments Off on More about what was in the tax bill
I started this blog to share the interesting and useful information that I saw while doing my job as a Medfield select board member. I thought that my fellow Medfield residents would also find that information interesting and useful as well. This blog is my effort to assist in creating a system to push the information out from the Town House to residents. Let me know if you have any thoughts on how it can be done better.
For information on my other job as an attorney (personal injury, civil litigation, estate planning and administration, and real estate), please feel free to contact me at 617-969-1500 or Osler.Peterson@OslerPeterson.com.
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