Eric Foster, an attorney with Foster Denman, LLP who focuses on taxation, estate planning and probate and trust administration, presented his thinking on the massive new tax law and its potential effect on individuals and businesses at our April 24 meeting.
The primary takeaways from the presentation:
1) The new tax law is generally more favorable to businesses than individuals.
2) Many prior Schedule A deductions are being eliminated or reduced. However, the standard deduction is being doubled, thereby eliminating the need for many individuals to itemize. Oregonians are likely to be more negatively impacted by this change because we are a high property and income tax state. The amount of those deductions is being capped at $10,000.
3) Nonprofit organizations are likely to be negatively impacted since charitable contributions will not be tax deductible for the increased number of filers moving to the standard deduction.
4) Touted as legislation to simplify the tax code and needing only a postcard to file is simply not true. In fact, the new tax law is as complicated and confusing as ever.
If you have the stomach for the details, you can read the entire 1,097 page text of the new “simplified” tax law by clicking on the link below:
https://docs.house.gov/billsthisweek/20171218/CRPT-115HRPT-466.pdf
