With the end of the year approaching, this is a good time to think about planning moves that will help lower your tax bill for this year and possibly 2020 as well.
Year-end planning should consider the effect of recent major changes in tax rules for individuals and businesses. For individuals, these changes include lower income tax rates; a higher standard deduction; severe limits on itemized deductions; no personal exemptions; an increased child tax credit; and a watered-down alternative minimum tax (AMT).
For businesses, the corporate tax rate has been reduced to 21%; there is no corporate AMT; business interest deductions have been limited; and there are very generous expensing and depreciation rules. Non-corporate taxpayers with qualified business income from pass-through entities may be entitled to a special deduction.
Despite these major changes, the time-tested approach of deferring income and accelerating deductions to minimize taxes still works for many taxpayers, along with the tactic of bunching expenses into this year or next to get around deduction restrictions.
Below we provide two checklists to assist your year-end tax planning, one for individuals and the second for businesses. (Business owners should also review the checklist for individuals.) If you have questions, please reach out to us for assistance.