Tax ALERT – What to Know For Year-End Planning

As holiday lights twinkle around me and passersby bundle up against the cold, Congress was hard at work pushing their tax reform bill through the legislature. Their stated goal was to simplify the tax system, stimulate the economy and create jobs.

There’s no simplification here, and economic stimulus is dubious, but there are a few things you need to know now if you want to do some 11th hour planning, especially if you have been itemizing your deductions:

Mortgage interest – Interest on mortgages taken out on 12/15/17 or later is deductible only up to $750,000, down from the current $1,000,000 of mortgage debt
Second Homes – This mortgage interest deduction is available for a personal residence and one other home
Home equity loans – The deduction for home equity loans and lines of credit is repealed; interest on up to $100,000 of this debt was deductible
State and Local Taxes (SALT) – Deductions for these taxes (including sales taxes in states with no income tax) combined with property taxes are capped at $10,000
PLANNING NOTE: You can pre-pay property taxes in jurisdictions where this is allowed. You can check here to see if you can accelerate a property tax payment in King County, WA and the San Francisco Bay Area:
King County, WA: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/king-county-dont-prepay-your-property-taxes-now-to-avoid-tax-hit-next-year/

SF Bay Area:  http://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/Faced-with-loss-of-deduction-more-Bay-Area-12448244.php
You expressly cannot prepay 2018 state and local income tax.
Medical Expenses – The threshold for this deduction is 7.5% retroactive to 2017 through 2019 – then it goes back to 10%.
Charitable Contributions – You now need substantiation for ALL charitable contributions, but the limit on what you can deduct has been increased from 50% of Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) to 60%.
Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions – These deductions are currently subject to a 2%-of-AGI threshold, but are eliminated entirely after 2017:

  • Moving expenses (except for the Armed Forces)
  • Moving expense exclusion (for expenses paid by employer)
  • Unreimbursed employer expenses (you file a Form 2106 for these)
  • Qualified bicycle commuting ($20/month)
  • Personal casualty losses (EXCEPT if in a disaster zone)
  • Safe deposit box fees
  • Tax preparer fees
  • Investment advisory expenses
    PLANNING NOTE: You may want to ask your tax preparer if you would benefit from paying their fee before 12/31/17, while you can still take a deduction for it. Likewise, for your investment advisor. Here is a quick chart to give you an idea of the total of these miscellaneous expenses you must have before even have a deduction:

AGI = $50,000, 2% = $1,000

AGI = $100,000, 2% = $2,000

AGI = $250,000, 2% = $5,000

AGI = $400,000, 2% = $8,000

Note: Any of you with AGI over $313,800 (Married Filing Jointly) / $261,500 (Single) will start to see your Itemized Deductions also reduced by the Pease limitation.

Alimony – Marital support paid to an ex-spouse has been deductible by the payee and includible on the return of the recipient. For new divorce settlements, alimony is no longer deductible after 2018. Note: this change is a revenue raiser: Almost always the person paying alimony is in higher bracket than the recipient.

Obamacare – Despite what the President has stated about repeal, technically the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka “Obamacare”) is still on the books, as is the individual mandate. The individual mandate has NOT been repealed, but penalty for not having coverage equals 0% after 2017

In my view, the Trump Tax Plan is bad, though not as bad as it could have been based on earlier proposals. Some workers may see a little relief for a couple of years, but the big wins go to public companies and the wealthiest Americans.

It is also unlikely the President will sign the bill into law before the end of the year. By waiting to sign until 2018, cuts to Medicare and Social Security that are part of this package won’t impact voters until after the 2018 mid-term elections.