8/8/2018

TAXES/TREASURY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “A new 20 percent tax break included in last year’s $1.5 trillion tax overhaul could wind up benefiting President Trump’s real estate empire given how the Treasury Department plans to implement the provision, several tax experts said. On Wednesday [8-8-18], the Treasury Department issued a sprawling regulation outlining the types of companies and professionals eligible to qualify as ‘pass-through’ entities and get the 20 percent tax deduction. The widely anticipated rule has huge implications for law firms, real estate trusts, family farms and other companies that are structured so their profits are taxed as individual income for their owners. The 184-page rule probably means a windfall for authors and small banks, who appear eligible for the 20 percent deduction, but a disappointment for dentists, who are not. It takes some steps meant to stop individuals and companies, such as law firms, from gaming the loophole to reduce their tax bills. Tax experts say it appears to be largely a victory for business groups, who had argued for a more generous interpretation of a deduction that the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation estimates will primarily benefit Americans earning $1 million and up. ‘It looks like Treasury took some of the major concerns of the business community and the tax community seriously,’ said Kyle Pomerleau, an economist at the Tax Foundation in Washington.”

Jim Tankersley, “Who Gets a New 20% Tax Break? The Treasury Dept. Speaks, and Trump May Save,” The New York times online, August 8, 2018