As part of 2017 Tax Act, beneficiaries of inherited IRA’s no longer could take required minimum distributions (RMDs) over their life expectancies. Instead except for spouses and disabled children, they must do so within 10 years. There was a question as to how beneficiaries were to go about removing the funds. Could they wait until the 10th year and remove it all or did they have to take it out periodically. The answer as always is, “it depends”.
If prior to death, the account holder was taking required minimum distributions, then the beneficiaries have to continue taking decedent’s RMDs and close the account in the 10th year. If decedent was taking no RMDs prior to death, then the beneficiary doesn’t have to remove funds until year 10. This means that the money can grow tax deferred creating a larger return over the 10 year period. Unless you have qualified Trust provisions, Trusts must take the funds out within 5 years. So, it is not necessarily good to name your revocable trust as a beneficiary on your IRA.
Category Archives: income tax
Weed Store Whacked by Tax Court
In San Jose Wellness v. Commissioner 156 TC 4 (2021), the Court ruled that depreciation and charitable deductions made by the business were not deductible.
Section 280E reads:
“No deduction or credit shall be allowed for any amount paid or incurred during the taxable year in carrying on any trade or business if such trade or business (or the activities which comprise such trade or business) consists of trafficking in controlled substances (within the meaning of schedule I and II of the Controlled Substances Act) which is prohibited by Federal law or the law of any State in which such trade or business is conducted.”
The Tax Court opined that since marijuana is a controlled substance, that 280E applied to the pot store. Thus essentially, Pot stores are taxed on their gross income.
Remarkably though Pot stores can deduct costs of goods sold however. CHAMP v. Commissioner 128 TC 173 (2007).
Zombie Tax effect on Bernie Sanders
So, President Biden’s Tax plan has to gifts for farmers and small business owners. Reduction of the Estate tax exemption from $11.5 Million to $3.5 Million ($7 Million per couple). And capital gain recognition upon the death of an ancestor. So, let’s take Bernie Sanders. He dies owning real estate totalling about $3 Million and his basis is about $800,000. This translates into a $2.2 Million gain. This gets taxed at 45% = $990,000. So, let’s take Grandma who dies with $4 Million in a farm with a basis of $100,000. Capital gain of $3.9 Million x 45% tax = $1,755,000 to be paid over 15 years by the family or they have to sell the farm to some conglomerate probably. Same numbers if Grandma owned a gas station. Jobs will be lost, wealth will be lost, investment will be lost. If you want to raise taxes, raise it the simplest way possible, raise rates on income for everyone. Then everyone sees that their taxes are going up and that the Government is spending money.
Trump Organization Indictments
In the grand scheme of things $3.5 Million of benefits spread over 13 years for a billion dollar operation is not a huge issue and in probably 99.9% of the cases leads to a civil, not criminal case. However there are some of the charges that are on pretty solid ground while others are tenuous. The charges involving the rent free apartment are the strongest. He and his wife lived in the apartment and clearly the checks for the rents were paid by the Trump Organizations without calling it compensation and his salary was reduced by the rent payments. This leads to the inevitable conclusion that he was receiving a rent free apartment as part of his compensation. The private school tuition payments for his children are on the tenuous side. Those were actually paid by Donald Trump or by his trust. That would tend to make them a gift from Mr. Trump and if they are less than $28,000 per year per child, they don’t even trigger a gift tax calculation. So, that part of the indictment might fail (although apparently there is a plea deal in the works so he will cooperate with an investigation into former President Trump).
So, the lesson from this is that if you are a hard target of those who wish to discredit you, you probably should make sure that all transactions are fully defensible and not bleed into the tax fraud realm. Tax avoidance is acceptable and if there is a business purpose and economic reality to a transaction, it is not fraud. In this case, the rent free apartment is of a possible tenuous business purpose (perhaps he was on 24 hour/day call and needed to be close to the office), but normally that still doesn’t cure the economic reality that he was getting a place to stay courtesy of his employer and his salary was being reduced accordingly. Those two facts push it into the compensation zone and it was taxable and shows intentionality.
IRS Extending Tax Filing Deadline
The IRS is extending the Tax filing deadline. Returns and payments will be due May 17, 2021 for 2020 individual returns. There is no extension for Corporation, S. Corporation or Partnership returns got similar delays. There is no indication that Fiduciary returns got extended either.
“In a statement, the IRS said the extension would be automatic, with no need to file any forms and no penalties or interest on taxes due that are paid between April 15 and May 17.”
1st Quarter Estimated Taxes however are still due on April 15.
Maryland is extending their deadline to July 15. The extension applies to individual, pass-through, fiduciary and corporate income tax returns, including first and second quarter estimated payments. It’s brought on by the recent and pending legislation at the state and federal levels impacting 2020 tax filings during the pandemic.
Virginia has not weighed in with an extension, yet.