Click on the links below to jump to each section in this article:
- What is Form 1099-NEC?
- RIC Shareholder Dividends Qualify as Section 199A
- Temporary Relief for Retirement Plan Participants
- Tax Facts to Know If You’re Selling Your Home This Year
- Small Business Tax Tips: Payroll Expenses
What is Form 1099-NEC?
Starting in tax year 2020, payers must complete Form 1099-NEC, Nonemployee Compensation to report any payment of $600 or more to a payee. There is a new form that only applies to business taxpayers who pay or receive nonemployee compensation.
Generally, payers must file Form 1099-NEC by January 31. For 2020 tax returns, however, the due date is February 1, 2021. Be advised that there is no automatic 30-day extension to file Form 1099-NEC although an extension to file may be available under certain hardship conditions.
Nonemployee compensation may be subject to backup withholding if a payee has not provided a taxpayer identification number to the payer or the IRS notifies the payer that the taxpayer identification number provided was incorrect.
Backup withholding refers to situations when the person or business paying the taxpayer doesn’t generally withhold taxes from certain payments. It applies to most kinds of payments reported on Forms 1099 and W-2G. There are, however, situations when the payer is required to withhold a certain percentage of tax to make sure the IRS receives the tax due on this income. This is known as backup withholding.
A taxpayer identification number (TIN) can be one of the following numbers:
- Social Security
- Employer identification
- Individual taxpayer identification
- Adoption taxpayer identification
If you have questions on non-employee compensation, contact the office for more information.
RIC Shareholder Dividends Qualify as Section 199A
Section 199A, enacted as part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), allows individual taxpayers and certain trusts and estates to deduct up to 20 percent of certain income (section 199A deduction). It is available to eligible taxpayers with qualified business income (QBI) from qualified trades or businesses operated as sole proprietorships or through partnerships, S corporations, trusts, or estates, as well as for qualified REIT dividends and income from publicly traded partnerships. The deduction is not available for C corporations.
Recently, regulations were issued clarifying that a RIC that receives qualified real estate investment trust (REIT) dividends is now able to report these dividends, which are paid to its shareholders, as section 199A dividends to take the deduction.
The regulations also provide additional guidance on the treatment of previously disallowed losses that are included in QBI in subsequent years and guide taxpayers who hold interests in split-interest trusts or charitable remainder trusts.
For more information about this and other provisions of the TCJA, please call.
Temporary Relief for Retirement Plan Participants
Temporary administrative relief has been issued that helps certain retirement plan participants or beneficiaries who need to make participant elections by allowing flexibility for remote signatures. Generally, signatures of the individual making the election must be witnessed by a notary public or in the presence of a plan representative. This includes a spousal consent as well.
Plan participants, beneficiaries, and administrators of qualified retirement plans and other tax-favored retirement arrangements have now been granted temporary relief from the physical presence requirement for any participant election that is:
- Witnessed by a notary public in a state that permits remote notarization; or
- Witnessed by a plan representative using certain safeguards.
The guidance was issued as a result of local shutdowns and social distancing practices due to COVID-19 and is intended to facilitate the payment of coronavirus-related distributions and plan loans to qualified individuals, as permitted by the CARES Act. The relief is in effects for the period from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020. During this period, a plan participant or beneficiary may use an electronic system facilitating remote notarization if executed via live audio-video technology to satisfy the requirements of participant elections.
In the case of a participant election witnessed by a plan representative, the individual may use an electronic system using live audio-video technology if the following requirements are satisfied:
- The individual must be effectively able to access the electronic medium used to make the participant election;
- The electronic system must be reasonably designed to preclude any person other than the appropriate individual from making the participant election;
- The electronic system must provide the individual making the election with a reasonable opportunity to review, confirm, modify, or rescind the terms of the election before it becomes effective; and
- The individual making the election, within a reasonable time, must receive confirmation of the election through either a written paper document or an electronic medium under a system that satisfies the applicable notice requirements.
Don’t hesitate to contact the office if you have questions about this or need additional information regarding tax relief for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tax Facts to Know If You’re Selling Your Home This Year
In most cases, gains from sales are taxable. But did you know that if you sell your home, you may not have to pay taxes? Here are ten facts to keep in mind if you sell your home this year.
1. Exclusion of Gain. You may be able to exclude part or all of the gain from the sale of your home. This rule may apply if you meet the eligibility test. Parts of the test involve your ownership and use of the home. You must have owned and used it as your main home for at least two out of the five years before the date of sale.
2. Exceptions May Apply. There are exceptions to the ownership, use, and other rules. One exception applies to persons with a disability. Another applies to certain members of the military. That rule includes certain government and Peace Corps workers. For more information about these exceptions, please call the office.
3. Exclusion Limit. The most gain you can exclude from tax is $250,000. This limit is $500,000 for joint returns. The Net Investment Income Tax will not apply to the excluded gain.
4. May Not Need to Report Sale. If the gain is not taxable, you may not need to report the sale to the IRS on your tax return.
5. When You Must Report the Sale. You must report the sale on your tax return if you can’t exclude all or part of the gain. You must report the sale if you choose not to claim the exclusion. That’s also true if you get Form 1099-S, Proceeds from Real Estate Transactions. If you report the sale, you may need to pay the Net Investment Income Tax. Please call the office for assistance on this topic.
6. Exclusion Frequency Limit. Generally, you may exclude the gain from the sale of your main home only once every two years. Some exceptions may apply to this rule.
7. Only a Main Home Qualifies. If you own more than one home, you may only exclude the gain on the sale of your main home. Your main home usually is the home that you live in most of the time.
8. First-time Homebuyer Credit. If you claimed the first-time homebuyer credit when you bought the home, special rules apply to the sale. For more on those rules, please call.
9. Home Sold at a Loss. If you sell your main home at a loss, you can’t deduct the loss on your tax return.
10. Report Your Address Change. After you sell your home and move, update your address with the IRS. To do this, file Form 8822, Change of Address. You can find the address to send it to in the form’s instructions on page two. If you purchase health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace, you should also notify the Marketplace when you move out of the area covered by your current Marketplace plan.
Questions? Help is just a phone call away.
Small Business Tax Tips: Payroll Expenses
Federal law requires most employers to withhold federal taxes from their employees’ wages. Whether you’re a small business owner who’s just starting or one who has been in business a while and is ready to hire an employee or two, here are five things you should know about withholding, reporting, and paying employment taxes.
1. Federal Income Tax. Small businesses first need to figure out how much tax to withhold. Small business employers can better understand the process by starting with an employee’s Form W-4 and the withholding tables described in Publication 15, Employer’s Tax Guide. Please call if you need help understanding withholding tables.
2. Social Security and Medicare Taxes. Most employers also withhold social security and Medicare taxes from employees’ wages and deposit them along with the employers’ matching share. In 2013, employers became responsible for withholding the Additional Medicare Tax on wages that exceed a threshold amount as well. There is no employer match for the Additional Medicare Tax, and certain types of wages and compensation are not subject to withholding.
3. Federal Unemployment (FUTA) Tax. Employers report and pay FUTA tax separately from other taxes. Employees do not pay this tax or have it withheld from their pay. Businesses pay FUTA taxes from their own funds.
4. Depositing Employment Taxes. Generally, employers pay employment taxes by making federal tax deposits through the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS). The amount of taxes withheld during a prior one-year period determines when to make the deposits. Publication 3151-A, The ABCs of FTDs: Resource Guide for Understanding Federal Tax Deposits and the IRS Tax Calendar for Businesses and Self-Employed are helpful tools.
Failure to make a timely deposit can mean being subject to a failure-to-deposit penalty of up to 15 percent. But the penalty can be waived if an employer has a history of filing required returns and making tax payments on time. Penalty relief is available, however. Please call the office for more information.
5. Reporting Employment Taxes. Generally, employers report wages and compensation paid to an employee by filing the required forms with the IRS. E-filing Forms 940, 941, 943, 944, and 945 is an easy, secure, and accurate way to file employment tax forms. Employers filing quarterly tax returns with an estimated total of $1,000 or less for the calendar year may now request to file Form 944,Employer’s Annual Federal Tax Return once a year instead. At the end of the year, the employer must provide employees with Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, to report wages, tips, and other compensation. Small businesses file Forms W-2 and Form W-3, Transmittal of Wage and Tax Statements, with the Social Security Administration and if required, state or local tax departments.
Questions about payroll taxes?
If you have any questions about payroll taxes, please call.
