TaxEsqBlog -by Ronald J. Cappuccio, J.D., LL.M.(Tax)

2018 Q2 tax calendar: Key deadlines for businesses and other employers Here are some of the key tax-related deadlines affecting businesses and other employers during the second quarter of 2018. Keep in mind that this list isn’t all-inclusive, so there may be additional deadlines that apply to you. Contact us to ensure you’re meeting all applicable deadlines and to learn more about the filing requirements. April 2 Electronically file 2017 Form 1096, Form 1098, Form 1099 (except if an earlier deadline applies) and Form W-2G. April 17 If a calendar-year C corporation, file a 2017 income tax return (Form 1120) or file for an automatic six-month extension (Form 7004), and pay any tax due. If the return isn’t extended, this is also the last day to make 2017 contributions to pension and profit-sharing plans. If a calendar-year C corporation, pay the first installment of 2018 estimated income taxes. April 30 Report income tax withholding and FICA taxes for first quarter 2018 ...

Yesterday, the 115th Congress convened.The Republicans are in charge of both the House and Senate and there is been a lot of talk about tax reduction and "tax reform". Does this mean we will get tax simplification? Since President Reagan signed the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, there have been more than 30,000 changes, excluding Obama care. The fact is the Internal Revenue Code is ridiculously complex and far too much time and money spent in our society both by individuals and businesses in complying and planning for our burdensome tax laws. There definitely will be a push to lower corporate tax rates. This is good but let's also simplify our business tax structure. Even more unnecessary and confusing is the personal side of the Internal Revenue Code. For example the alternative minimum tax, designed to force a few wealthy millionaires of the late 1960s to pay tax, has now resulted in more than 1/4 of the middle class paying this burdensome tax. The AMT must go! Th...

Take stock of your inventory accounting method’s impact on your tax bill If your business involves the production, purchase or sale of merchandise, your inventory accounting method can significantly affect your tax liability. In some cases, using the last-in, first-out (LIFO) inventory accounting method, rather than first-in, first-out (FIFO), can reduce taxable income, giving cash flow a boost. Tax savings, however, aren’t the only factor to consider. FIFO vs. LIFO FIFO assumes that merchandise is sold in the order it was acquired or produced. Thus, the cost of goods sold is based on older — and often lower — prices. The LIFO method operates under the opposite assumption: It allocates the most recent costs to the cost of sales. If your inventory costs generally rise over time, LIFO offers a definite tax advantage. By allocating the most recent — and, therefore, higher — costs first, it maximizes your cost of goods sold, which minimizes your taxable income. But LIFO involves more...

Help prevent the year-end vacation-time scramble with a PTO contribution arrangement Many businesses find themselves short-staffed from Thanksgiving through December 31 as employees take time off to spend with family and friends. But if you limit how many vacation days employees can roll over to the new year, you might find your workplace a ghost town as workers scramble to use, rather than lose, their time off. A paid time off (PTO) contribution arrangement may be the solution. How it works A PTO contribution program allows employees with unused vacation hours to elect to convert them to retirement plan contributions. If the plan has a 401(k) feature, it can treat these amounts as a pretax benefit, similar to normal employee deferrals. Alternatively, the plan can treat the amounts as employer profit sharing, converting excess PTO amounts to employer contributions. A PTO contribution arrangement can be a better option than increasing the number of days employees can roll over. W...

The Internet is filled with reports from a recent article in the Journal of American Public Health showing that a sugar tax cuts consumption of sugar sweetened soda. This plays right into the hands of Bradford manufacturers! You are probably thinking I am crazy, but once again government does the wrong thing. Sweetened sodas and diet sodas are sold for the same price. Nevertheless, diet sodas are much cheaper to manufacture than sodas with high fructose corn syrup and sodas with cane sugar. Therefore the tax on sweetened soft drinks increases the number of people drinking a diet soda, which is more profitable to the beverage industry, then naturally sugar sweetened soda and drinks. So, governments by misusing taxes to force people to change behavior, have in fact increase the profit of beverage manufacturers and increase diet drinks rather than healthier all-natural sugar sweetened drinks. Obviously, the intake of the sugar sweetened drinks should be limited, but every study that i...

The controversy swirling around Donald Trump's tax returns is getting more and more ridiculous. First, Donald Trump is continually being audited by the IRS and many state tax agencies. There is absolutely no way his tax attorneys would ever let him release his tax returns in the middle of an audit. That is foolish and would be legal malpractice. Hillary likes to focus on Donald Trump not releasing his tax return to avoid the fact that she and Bill Clinton have earned hundreds of millions of dollars in speaking fees since Bill's retirement from the Presidency. The Clintons have also taken big advantage of our federal tax laws such as bear $700,000 tax deductible loss in 2015. The facts are very simple: the Internal Revenue Code and state tax laws are far too complex. Clinton is talking about increasing taxes and making things more complex. Trump is talking about decreasing taxes. But no one is addressing tax simplification except for Libertarian party candidate Gary Johnson....

Not surprisingly, Hillary Clinton is proposing to increase federal estate taxes from 40% to 45%. Right now, the rate starts at 40% for people who die with an estate, including all assets such as insurance, in excess of $5.45 million. Clinton has repeatedly stated she wants to reduce this exemption to a lower figure so more people have to pay tax and she now is revealing that she wants to also increase the estate tax rate. Many people forget that prior to President Reagan's estate tax reform in the 1980s, anyone within an   of $60,000 or more had to file a federal estate tax return and was subject to federal estate tax. This affected most people. As a result of the estate tax reform, very few people need to file federal estate tax returns. In states where the cost of housing is very high, lowering the exemption rate to $1 million would require many people to file estate tax returns with the IRS. Once again, instead of hearing about tax simplification and tax reduction, candidate...

Thursday, European governments got together to attack people trying to own and control their businesses anonymously. The governments of France, Britain, Germany, Italy and Spain got together to create laws and try to enforce treaties to force banks and governments to reveal owners of businesses in other countries. For many years the high tax countries such as the US and Europe have been trying to find ways to attack developing countries from encouraging people to start businesses. Obviously if the business can be run in a lower tax jurisdiction it is prudent for the business owners to do that. Now, with the release of the "Panama papers" which were thousands of stolen documents from a Panamanian law firm listing the names and ownership of Panamanian registered companies, European governments are using this as an excuse to limit freedom of their citizens. This follows the actions by the Obama administration in the US requiring extensive financial reporting under threat of ja...

Basic Entities in the United States - Partnerships Partnerships are similar to a sole proprietorship in that the individuals have personal liability. This means that each partner is liable for their own actions and the actions of the other partners. That is a big negative of the partnership versus a limited liability entity. For tax purposes, partnerships are generally disregarded and the attributes of income and deductions are passed through to the individuals. That is why they are referred to as "pass-through" entities The partnership will file a federal partnership tax return as well state all partnership tax returns, but it usually does not have any taxable income at the partnership level. Rather, the taxable income is solely pass-through to the partners. Partnerships can also have some interesting tax issues. For example if people simply contribute cash to the partnership for their interest, it is easy. But if one person contributes cash and another person contribut...

Cash is a good way to get clobbered for taxes! For many years, small restaurants, bars, pizza parlors, ice cream stands, and other food establishments have used all cash systems to hide their income and not pay sales tax and income tax on the full receipts. In New Jersey, the Division of Taxation has created a very aggressive system where they make up excessively high mark ons from food and liquor purchases, and absolutely slaughter businesses that don’t keep good records. The way this tack works by the New Jersey division of taxation is they subpoena the records from the major food suppliers and liquor distributors. The tax authorities then compared the expenses listed on the tax return to what these third-party sellers reported. Often a business that is trying to hide income lessons the income reported but also lessens expenses but only slightly. The division of taxation then takes the actual expenses and uses very high multiples of the expenses to with the growth should be. Usin...

Employers - are you stuck with "Obamacare" Obamacare  is a disaster for employers that have low wage employees. Frankly, many companies will need to change how they conduct business in order to stay competitive . Number of Employees Does your business have emough employees to be subject to the pay-or-play  Obamacare tax? This is called the  shared responsibility requirement forcing employers to pay a huge penalty or provide health insurance. 50 Employee Requirement. The simple definition is employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent workers. Unfortunately, this is only a partial answer. The tricky term,   full-time equivalent (FTE) covers employees who average 30 hours per week .  Note: the normal 40 hour per week definition for full time is not applicable .  The time period is the prior year . Since the mandate begins in 2014, the year 2013 controls the determination of the number of employees. There are some exceptions for sea...

You cannot claim your child as a dependent if: You are being claimed as a dependent by someone Your child is married and filing a joint tax return (unless he/she is filing just to claim a refund of withheld tax and isn't taking a personal exemption) Your child is not a resident of the U.S., Mexico or Canada Your child is over 19 and not a full-time student Your child is 24 or older on December 31 of the tax year Your child provided more than half of his or her own support Your child did not live with you for half the year, 183 days or more. Note: the exception to this rule -  illness, education, business, vacation or military services, or the child was born or died during the year You are separated or divorced, and your child spends more time at your ex-spouse's home.

Code Sec. 179 Expensing Limits Internal Revenue Code Sect. 179 expensing limits were raised to $125,000 with a $500,000 investment limit for 2012. The 2010 Small Business Jobs Act, which was signed in September, raised the expensing limits to $500,000 with a $2 million investment limit for 2010 and 2011. It also permitted, for the first time, expensing of up to $250,000 of Qualified Real Property, such as qualified leasehold, restaurant or retail improvements. The expensing of Qualified Real Property was not extended in the new tax act.

Bonus Depreciation The Tax Bill signed December 17, 2010 provides 100% First Year Bonus Depreciation created for qualified improvements made after September 8 2010 and before January 1, 2012. Bonus depreciation reverts back to 50 Percent for qualified 2012 improvements.

States Attack Business! In order to collect more money to pay for their profligate spending many states are hiring collectors and placing judgments against taxpayers who owe taxes. Many states are trying to declare businesses as being resident of their state and therefore requiring them to register and pay taxes with the state. New York is leading the attack, but others are quickly following suit. Full Article....