Tax Flashcards
Commerce Clearing House (CCH)
provides plain language interpretation of tax law
Congressional Tax Committee Reports (Blue Book)
- provides congressional reasoning for enacting tax law
- technical and difficult to understand
- best for interpretation of very recent tax law changes
to represent a client before the IRS you must be an
- Attorney
- CPA
- EA
alimony and maintenance costs
with ex-spouse written agreement, alimony may be directed to home maintenance costs and still maintain alimony status
not taxed under SS SE Tax
rental real estate income & shareholder’s share of S-Cord income above salary
tax planning services on which schedule for SE worker
Schedule C - business deduction
Schedule A - no longer allowed
kiddie tax
trust/estate tax rate
business bad debt
STCL
worthless stock held more than a year
LTCL
loss on small business stock 1244
OIL
STCL and LTCL use
first offset ST and LT gains
Then used to offset OI up to $3000
tax deferral techniques
IRA
owning cash value in life insurance (insurance savings component w/ deferred taxation)
filing tax return and blind or 65+ increased SD
must file to get additional SD for blind
must NOT file to get additional SD for 65+
“client’s income will closely approximate last year”
how much estimated taxes?
90% of “current year” = 90% of last year
self-employed: at what income must you file?
w-2 employee: at what income must you file?
>=$400 net earning SE income
income > StDed
taxation of…
ER retirement contributions
EE salary deferral
traditional IRA contribution
ER retirement contributions - excluded from GI
EE salary deferral - excluded from GI
traditional IRA contribution - Above line deduction
qualified dividends
held >60days before or after ex-dividend date
taxed at LTCG rate
taxed at set dollar breakpoints
ordinary dividends
held <=60days before or after ex-dividend date
taxed at ordinary income tax rate
Not allowed when figuring Net Operating Loss (NOL
when a company’s allowable deductions exceed its taxable income within a tax period.
- Any deduction for personal exemptions.
- Capital losses in excess of capital gains.
- The section 1202 exclusion…
- Nonbusiness deductions in excess of nonbusiness income.
- Net operating loss deduction. The domestic production activities deduction.
Net Operating Losses (NOL)
NOL losses currently CANNOT be carried back but they CAN be carried forward, (except for select agricultural or insurance filers)
NOL can only offset 80% of the current year’s income for years after 12/31/17.
marginal tax rate
The highest marginal rate paid by a taxpayer based on income.
effective income tax rate
The average rate a taxpayer pays based on taxable income.
death and basis in community property state
both halves of community property stepped to FMV regardless who inherit’s decedent’s half
undistributed profits and basis
increase basis
distributed profits and basis
decrease basis
swimming pools and basis
increase basis
Qualified Dependent: income received but not spent by dependent
gross income test - considered
support test - not considered
what constitutes support in determinging whether someone can be claimed as a dependent?
must be “GIVEN”
NOT support if used 99% of time and not given to dependent
maintenance cost, gas, insurance provided for non-given card counts as support
5 tests for Qualified Dependents
- Gross Income Test,
- Support Test
- Member of Household or Family Member Test,
- Citizenship Test (U.S., Canada or Mexico)
- Joint Filing Test.
Relationship (member of household or family member), Support, Gross Income, n-QC
can husbands be qualified dependents?
NO
when may a child of divorced parents be treated as qualifying child of the non custodial parent?
- The parents are legally divorced and not living in the same household.
- The child receives over one-half of his support for the year from his parents.
- The child is in the custody of the parents for more than half the year.
- The custodial parent signs a statement that he will not claim the child as a dependent for the year and the noncustodial parent attaches the statement to his return.
Abby and Brock are divorced. They have one daughter, Caroline, who spends exactly six months of the year living with her mother and exactly six months of the year living with her father. Abby has an AGI of $200,000 and Brock has an AGI of $150,000. Caroline is a qualifying child of both Abby and Brock. Who can claim Caroline as a dependent?
Abby
when all else equal, parent with highest AGI may claim as dependent
CANNOT both claim one person as a dependent
Section 1245 recapture does not apply to business equipment held for 17 months or longer if
The property was abandoned as worthless
because either not all depreciation was taken or there was more likely a loss rather than a gain. For 1245 recapture to occur there must be a gain over the basis.
Section 1245 recapture applies to
sale of depreciated assets (business personalty)
included in AGI for current year
Original Issue Discount on the bonds for the current year.
NOT included…
- Earnings from Series EE bonds.
- Business income that was earned on Dec. 15 of the current year. The client mailed a check on Dec. 29 of the current year. The check arrived in Daniel’s mailbox on Jan. 2 of the following year.
- A business sale to a customer made on Oct. 15. Daniel extended the payment due date, and the client has yet to pay the bill.
pre 12/31/18 (TCJA) alimony rule
The income should be taxed to the person who enjoys the benefits of the income.
NOT claims right to income - alimony could be paid to a third party for home maintenance…it would still be taxable to ex-spouse
all business deductions are
for AGI (above the line)
Job-related EE expenses not allowed item misc deduc
can money pad for child support be structured in divorce to be deductible to payor spouse for divorces prior to 2020?
Yes, if the money to be considered as child support is included in deductible alimony
If an agreement is reached (prior to 12/31/18) between former spouses where the decreed amount of alimony is increased to include child support, then the additional alimony would be taxable to the recipient and deductible to the payor. The additional money cannot be based on any contingency such as with the child reaching the age of majority or death.
qualfied education expense vs qualified eductation interest expense
both above line deduction interest - 2500 qualified education (tuition & fees) - 4000
gross income given and pre2019 alimony received
don’t include alimony in GI again, already included
categories of credits
- refundable
- non-refundable
partially-refundable not a classification
general business credit carryback and carryforward sequence
- carryforward to current year
- amount of the current year business credit
- carrybacks to current year
forward - current - back of current year