Zinner & Co. Blog and Newsroom

The tax code is long and complicated and oftentimes, taxpayers do not know what deductions or credits are available, which means they cannot take advantage of possible savings.

With so many changes under the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and the 2019 SECURE Act now in place, changes have been made regarding the deductibility of expenses that both business and individual taxpayers may not be aware of.

A new piece of legislation enacted in late December will help simplify the retirement system and help individuals increase their savings.

The “Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement” Act or SECURE Act, which was part of the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 expands opportunities for individuals to increase their savings, and makes administrative simplifications to the retirement system.

Among the major changes for individuals are:

The IRS issued its annual inflation adjustments for key tax items for the tax year 2020. Among them are new amounts for standard deductions.

For the tax year 2020, the standard deduction for a married couple filing jointly will be raised from $24,400 to 24,800. For single taxpayers and married couples filing separately, the standard deduction will be raised from $12,200 to 12,400. For heads of households, the standard deduction will be $18, 650.

Margin tax rates will change as follows:

Governor Mike DeWine has signed a bill into law that will allow Attorneys and Lobbyists to take the Business Income Deduction (BID) deduction.The law was backed by the Ohio Society of CPAs, and was viewed as a fix to a part of the biennial budget that was thought to be unfair in its treatment of two specific professions.

As we wrote about when the bill first passed the General Assembly of the House in October, the law, in part, allows lawyers and lobbyists to take the same deductions as other types of pass-through entities. The law also contains two other provisions of note:

The IRS has released the retirement contribution limits for the 2020 tax year. The new limits are adjusted based on increases in the cost of living.

It’s the 4^th quarter. The holidays are right around the corner. The last thing you may want to think about is income taxes … but there are some compelling reasons why you should be thinking ahead.

Last year’s tax season saw the biggest change to the tax code in over 30 years. At the end of the tax season, we noted that one of the lessons learned was that individuals who engage us in tax planning early, on average, fared much better than those who did not. There are some very important reasons for this:

The Ohio General Assembly unanimously passed a bill that reverses a previous tax measure, passed in July, that required lawyers and lobbyists to pay tax on the first $250,000 of income they earned.

In a blow to several high-tax states, a federal judge has upheld a key provision of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction cap.

Under the TCJA, congress placed a cap on the amount taxpayers could claim on their Schedule A for state and local taxes.

Ask the Expert: I sold my income property. Someone told me I could be impacted by depreciation recapture even though I didn’t claim depreciation – is this true?The short answer is, yes.

Certain types of assets can be depreciated and are subject to depreciation recapture; among these are investment rental properties.

The IRS has announced it will be automatically waiving penalties for over 400,000 taxpayers. The waived penalties apply to those who have already filed their 2018 taxes, but did not file a waiver seeking forgiveness for the under-payment penalty.