On Thursday, November 2, the House Ways and Means Committee released the proposed Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which proposes significant revisions to the Internal Revenue Code. According to Fox Rothschild tax partner Jennifer Benda, “my sense after reading the Bill is that most taxpayers’ tax liabilities will roughly remain the same.” The Tax Policy Center agrees with this general view.
A broad overview of several different parts of the Bill are discussed below.
Individuals
- The Bill reduces the number of individual income tax brackets from seven to four. In general, rates are lowered.
- The Bill provides for an increased standard deduction (nearly double the current deduction amount). The intent behind the increased standard deduction is to achieve simplification by reducing the number of filers who itemize deductions from approximately 33% currently to less than 10%. To accomplish this objective, the Bill repeals or reduces many deductions (such as deductions for personal exemptions, moving expenses, tax preparation expenses, medical expenses, and personal casualty losses, among others).
- The Bill reduces the mortgage interest deduction. Under current law, taxpayers are allowed to deduct $1 million for acquisition indebtedness and $100,000 for home equity indebtedness. The Bill reduces the deduction for acquisition indebtedness from $1 million to $500,000, and interest is deductible only on the taxpayer’s principal residence (under current law, the deduction is available for interest paid on a principal residence and one other residence). Interest on home equity indebtedness will no longer be deductible.
- The Bill modifies the exclusion of gain from the sale of a principal residence. Under current law, a taxpayer may exclude $250,000 ($500,000 if married filing jointly) on gain of the sale of a principal residence if the property was owned and used as a principal residence for two of the previous five years. The Bill modifies the exclusion to require the taxpayer to own and use the home as a principal residence for five of the previous eight years, and the exclusion if phased out one dollar for every dollar by which the taxpayer’s adjusted gross income exceeds $250,000 ($500,000 if married filing jointly).
- The Bill narrows property that is eligible for like-kind exchange treatment. Current law allows like-kind exchange treatment for real property and personal property if certain conditions are met. The Bill allows for like-kind exchange treatment only for real property. However, the Bill provides for a transition rule to allow exchanges of personal property to be completed if the taxpayer has either disposed of the relinquished property or acquired the replacement property on or before December 31, 2017.
- The Bill increases the Child Tax Credit from $1,000 per child to $1,600, and increases the threshold at which the credit is phased out. The Bill also provides for a new family flexibility credit, which is non-refundable and subject to a phase out.
- The Bill consolidates the current American Opportunity Credit, Hope Scholarship Credit, and Lifetime Learning Credit into a single education credit. The Bill also repeals the deduction for student loan interest and qualified tuition and related expenses.
- Family law attorneys will want to note that the Bill provides that alimony payments are not deductible by the payor or included in income of the payee.
Repeal of Alternative Minimum Tax
- The Bill repeals the AMT, effective for tax years beginning after 2017. If a taxpayer has an AMT credit carryforward, the taxpayer can claim a refund of 50 percent of the remaining credits in tax years beginning in 2019, 2020, and 2021, and taxpayers can claim a refund of all remaining credits beginning in tax year 2022.
Estate Tax, Gift Tax, Generation Skipping Transfer Taxes
- The Bill doubles the basic exclusion amount from $5 million under current law to $10 million (indexed for inflation).
- The Bill repeals the estate and generation skipping transfer taxes beginning after 2023.
- The Bill lowers the gift tax rate to a top rate of 35% (currently 40%) and retains an annual exclusion of $14,000 (indexed for inflation).
Pass-Through Entities
- The Bill introduces an option for individual owners or shareholders of pass-through entities to treat a portion of pass-through entity net income distributions as “business income” that would be taxed at a maximum 25% rate. The remaining income would be taxed at the owner or shareholder’s individual income tax rates. Under current law, owners of pass-through entities are taxed on their share of business income at their respective individual income tax rates (i.e., there is currently no option to treat a portion of income as business income that would be taxed at a reduced rate).
- The proposal offers two different ways to determine business income: (1) a set capital percentage of 30% of the net business income derived from active business activities (treated as business income subject to the 25% rate, and the remaining 70% is taxed at the owner or shareholder’s individual income tax rate), or (2) apply a formula to determine the exact capital percentage. Professional service partnerships are not eligible for the 70/30 rule. If the alternative method is chosen (option 2), the election would be binding for a five-year period. The Bill distinguishes between passive and active activities, to be determined pursuant to already-existing regulations.
- The Bill repeals the current technical termination rule related to partnerships. Under current law, a partnership terminates if within a 12 month period there is a sale or exchange of 50% or more of the total interests in partnership capital and profits. The Bill repeals the technical termination rule, meaning the partnership would be treated as continuing and new elections that are currently required in the event of a technical termination would not be required or permitted.
Corporations
- The Bill provides for a flat 20% corporate tax rate (25% for personal service corporations), eliminating the current marginal tax rate structure.
- The Bill provides for enhanced cost recovery deductions and expands section 179 expensing. Under current law, taxpayers may take additional depreciation deductions when it places qualified property in service through 2019. The additional depreciation is limited to 50% of the cost of the property, at most. The Bill allows taxpayers to fully and immediately expense 100% of the cost of qualified property acquired and placed in service after September 7, 2017 and before January 1, 2023, and expands property that is eligible.
- The Bill modifies the accounting method rules. Under current law, corporations with average gross receipts exceeding $5 million typically must use the accrual method of accounting. The Bill allows more corporations and partnerships with corporate partners to be eligible for the cash method of accounting by increasing the $5 million threshold to $25 million.
- The Bill also allows more taxpayers to be eligible to use the completed contract method of accounting for long-term contracts (as opposed to the percentage of completion method) by increasing the threshold amount from $5 million to $25 million. The completed contract method allows eligible taxpayers to deduct costs associated with construction when they are paid and recognize income when the contract is completed.
- The Bill modifies or repeals several business-related deductions. The Bill provides for interest deduction limitations (although the limitations do not apply to businesses with average gross receipts of $25 million or less), which disallows a deduction for net interest expense in excess of 30 percent of the business’s adjusted taxable income. The Bill also modifies the net operating loss deduction and nonrecognition for like-kind exchanges (discussed above – limited to exchanges of real property under the Bill), among other deductions. The Bill repeals deductions for local lobbying expenses and domestic production activities (DPAD).
- The Bill repeals a number of business credits.
Tax Controversy
- From a tax controversy perspective, the Bill does not modify any existing procedural rules for dealing with the IRS or provide for additional penalties.
This article touches on only a few topics addressed in the Bill. The Bill also revises taxation of foreign income and foreign persons, multi-national businesses, and exempt entities. You can read the Ways and Means Committee’s section-by-section summary of the Bill here.