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2018 Tax Season: Businesses that Planned Reaped Rewards

Posted by Andrew Desiderio on Tue, Apr 16, 2019

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Close up of businessperson hand holding money bagsTax season 2018 has come and gone. Being the first following the enactment of the sweeping Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, it was one for the accounting history books.

Here’s a few things we learned:

  • This act may be the exact opposite of tax simplification.
  • Sure, the new 1040 is postcard sized … if you don’t count the six new schedules.
  • And you can never drink enough coffee.


While complicated, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provided a lot of new tax benefits to businesses, especially those that conducted tax projections and planning.

New Tax Benefits for Businesses

New call-to-action The biggest benefits were the new 21% federal tax rate for C Corporations and the new 20% Qualified Business Income (QBI) Deduction for small businesses. In a nutshell, the deduction allows a qualified small business owner to not pay income taxes on 20% of their income in tax years 2018 through 2026.

The deduction is available to owners of sole proprietorships, partnerships, S Corporations, LLCs and estates and trusts. After reaching certain income thresholds, the deduction is limited to wages paid and percentage of depreciable property.

A business, therefore, might increase its wages by converting independent contractors to employees, assuming the benefit isn’t outweighed by higher payroll taxes, employee benefit costs and similar considerations. Single member LLCs or sole proprietorships might want to think about making a subchapter S election to get an increased QBI deduction.

For owners of multiple businesses, it’s worth exploring whether you should can aggregate your businesses to potentially claim a larger QBI deduction. If you own an interest in one business with high QBI but little or no W-2 wages and an interest in another business with minimal QBI but significant W-2 wages, aggregating the two could result in a greater QBI deduction. Keeping them separate could result in a lower deduction or maybe no deduction at all.

READ MORE: Tax Reform: The Biggest Changes for Businesses

Businesses Benefitted from Increased Depreciation Options

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act also included increased accelerated depreciation options. Like with QBI, we saw many business owners benefit from this expanded tax saving opportunity if they underwent strategic tax planning.

Such planning includes timing purchases of equipment with your budget to maximize tax savings utilizing the Section 179 business expensing election and bonus depreciation. Business owners also need to weigh the benefits of using increased asset depreciation with the tax savings they can get through the QBI deduction. Using accelerated depreciation reduces taxable income, which in turn reduces the QBI deduction, so tax projections should be run both with and without accelerated depreciation methods.

READ MORE: Tax Reform: Ways to Maximize the New QBI Deduction, Bonus Depreciation

Individual Taxpayers Experienced Mixed Results

This tax season was more of a mixed bag for our individual clients. While individual rates were reduced and the standard deduction doubled, the loss of personal exemptions and other now extinct personal deductions resulted in a higher tax bill for some. This was especially true for those with many dependents or who itemize deductions. The capping of state and local tax deductions at $10,000 was another hardship for taxpayers with high property taxes.

Some taxpayers also got surprise 2018 tax bills if they didn’t adjust their federal income tax withholding properly to align with the new tax rates. This is another example of why tax projections are worthwhile.

Since many taxpayers didn’t calculate their withholding correctly, the IRS expanded its penalty relief for any taxpayer who paid at least 80 percent of their total tax liability during the year through federal income tax withholding, quarterly estimated tax payments or a combination of the two. The usual percentage threshold is 90 percent to avoid a penalty.

The expansion of the child tax credit both in dollars and eligible income levels was able to minimize the loss of exemptions and itemized deductions for some taxpayers.

READ MORE: Individual Taxpayers Get Lower Rates, Other Big Changes Under New Tax Law

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Topics: Business tax planning, 2017 Federal Tax Reform

Concannon Miller’s unique, holistic and intimate approach to financial health sets us apart from smaller CPA firms with more limited resources as well as mega firms where mid-sized clients struggle for attention. Contact us here to talk about improving your business.

This communication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered at the time it was published. However, the general information herein is not intended to be nor should it be treated as tax, legal, or accounting advice. Additional issues could exist that would affect the tax treatment of a specific transaction and, therefore, taxpayers should seek advice from an independent tax advisor based on their particular circumstances before acting on any information presented. This information is not intended to be nor can it be used by any taxpayer for the purposes of avoiding tax penalties.

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