Tax Reform One Year Later: Maximize Benefits and Minimize Burdens

Description

A year after the passage of the tax reform law, many of the provisions of the law continue to challenge tax professionals. As advisers enter into the first end-of-year planning season with the tax reform law’s provisions in place, advisers should understand which classes of taxpayers are emerging as relative “winners” and “losers” under tax reform.

Tax reform radically altered the tax landscape for virtually every U.S. taxpayer. The law lowered overall rates, eliminated many deductions, compressed income brackets, and introduced some new complexities into the tax planning and compliance processes. While many taxpayers saw at least a temporary reduction in their overall tax burden, some taxpayers experienced net tax increases. Further complicating matters is a lack of guidance from the IRS on some of the more challenging aspects of the law, leaving planners with open questions as to structuring tax matters for impacted taxpayers.

Tax advisers performing year-end planning for taxpayers holding partnership interests, foreign assets, and certain types of property will face new issues in advising clients on steps to lower their overall tax liability and structure their affairs to make tax compliance less costly and less complicated. Critical to this task is recognizing those provisions that create new liabilities and reporting requirements, and emerging approaches to managing them.

Listen as our experienced panel provides a practical guide to evaluating “winners and losers” from the tax reform law in the context of creating end-of-year tax plans.