One month into a new President. He’s checking things off his list that he promised to do. One yet to be done has to do with MAJOR tax reform. There is not enough room in a small column like this to go over all Donald Trump’s proposals, but here are a few that will impact most Americans which seem to have a high likelihood of getting passed through Congress.
Corporate Taxes will go down! Currently the top rate is 35%, which is so much higher than almost the entire rest of the world that we are experiencing companies repatriating to other countries to escape this burden. The Donald wants to drop it by more than half to 15%. Congress will probably settle somewhere in the low 20’s though. One of Trump’s proposals that might happen is to tax ALL businesses, regardless of entity type at the same rates. As an example, that means a self-employed business owner reporting on Schedule C of their personal tax return, will see their business earnings taxed using the same lower rates. Probably like is currently done with Capital Gains and Qualified Dividends. (A separate tax computation worksheet.)
One-time 10% tax on repatriated corporate earnings from overseas. The purpose is to get large corporations who have large stashes of cash offshore to bring it back into the US and invest it in US job growth. Some estimates are 2-3 Trillion dollars would come back into the US if this were enacted. Do we hear money to build the wall? (10% of 3 Trillion dollars is $300 billion!)
Expensing all new manufacturing investment rather than capitalizing the costs. Currently, when a company expands a plant, they usually have to write that off over many years. The President is proposing to allow writing off 100% of new investments into expanding operations in the US for manufactures all in one year. This defers tax a bit, but over the long haul, the US government would get the same tax, and probably more if those investments increase business profits. (Downside would be the elimination of the Section 199 manufacturing deduction and all other business credits except research credit.)
Individuals would see some major beneficial changes as well. Simplify the tax rate structure down to just 3 rates (12%, 25%, and 33%). The Standard Deductions would jump up to $15,000 for singles and double that to $30,000 for married folks. Alternative Minimum Tax (a disaster that doesn’t do what it was designed to do) is on the chopping block. So is the Obamacare Net Investment Income Tax. An increase in Earned Income Tax Credit, and providing an above the line deduction for dependent care expenses is also highly likely.
Did you hear? Prov 22:11 “He who loves purity of heart and has grace on his lips, the king will be his friend.”
Kelly Bullis is a Certified Public Accountant in Carson City. Contact him at 882-4459. On the web at BullisAndCo.com Also on Facebook.
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