President’s Proposed Tax Changes for 2014

The budget proposal released by President Obama on April 10 includes a substantial number of proposed tax changes impacting individuals, businesses, estate taxation, energy incentives, and international issues. Although these are only proposals, they provide an insight into the administration’s thinking on tax reform. An overview of the most prominent issues related to individuals and small business is provided below.

Individual Proposals

• Reduce the value of itemized deductions and other tax preferences to 28% for families with income in the three highest tax brackets. This limit would apply to all itemized deductions; foreign excluded income; tax-exempt interest; employer-sponsored health insurance; retirement contributions; and selected above-the-line deductions.
• Observe the “Buffett rule” by requiring millionaires to pay no less than 30% of income (after charitable contributions) in taxes. This would be referred to as the “fair share tax.”
• For tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017, permanently extend the American Opportunity Tax Credit (AOTC), a partially refundable tax credit worth up to $10,000 per student over the course of four years of college.
• For tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017, permanently extend the increased refund ability of the child tax credit (CTC) by permanently reducing the earned income threshold to $3,000.
• Extend the exclusion from income for the cancellation of certain home mortgage debts to amounts that are discharged before Jan. 1, 2016 and amounts that are discharged pursuant to an agreement entered into before that date.
• For tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017, make permanent the expansion of the EITC for workers with three or more qualifying children by maintaining (i) at 45%, the phase-in rate of the EITC for workers with three or more qualifying children, and (ii) the phase-out range for married couples at $5,000 higher than those for unmarried filers (indexed after 2009).
• Increase the child and dependent care credit available to working families with incomes between $15,000 and $103,000.
• Extend the exclusion for income from the discharge of qualified principal residence indebtedness (QRPI) to amounts that are discharged before Jan. 1, 2015, and to amounts that are discharged pursuant to an agreement entered into before that date.
• Prohibit individuals from accumulating over $3 million in tax-preferred retirement accounts.

Business Proposals

• Make permanent the $500,000 Sec. 179 deduction with a $2million phase-out threshold.
• Enhance and make permanent the research credit and increase the simplified credit percentage to 14%.
• Permanently extend the work opportunity tax credit (WOTC) to wages paid to qualified individuals who begin work after Dec. 31, 2013.
• Offer a one-time, temporary, 10% tax credit for increases in company wage payments over wages paid in 2012, whether driven by new hires, increased wages or salaries, or both.
• Require employers who have over 10 employees and do not currently offer a retirement plan to enroll their employees in a direct-deposit Individual Retirement Account (IRA) that is compatible with existing direct-deposit payroll systems. (Employees can opt out if they choose.) Employers would be entitled to a tax credit of $25 per participating employee, up to $250 per year, for six years.
• Deny deductions for punitive damages.
• Make the 100% exclusion permanent for qualified small business stock (QSBS) acquired after Dec. 31, 2013.
• Permanently double the maximum amount of start-up expenditures that a taxpayer may deduct (in addition to amortized amounts) in the tax year in which a trade or business begins from $5,000 to $10,000 for tax years ending on or after the date of enactment. Reduce this maximum amount of start-up expenditures (but not to below zero) by the amount that start-up expenditures with respect to the active trade or business exceed $60,000.
• For tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2012, expand the group of employers who are eligible for the tax credit available to small employers providing health insurance to employees so as to include employers with up to 50 full-time (or the equivalent) employees, and begin the phase-out at of the restriction to no more than 20 full-time equivalent employees.
• Create a new general business credit against income tax equal to 20% of the eligible expenses paid or incurred in connection with in sourcing a U.S. trade or business.
• Disallow deductions for expenses paid or incurred in connection with outsourcing a U.S. trade or business.

Estate and Gift Tax Proposals

• Beginning in 2018, return to 2009 levels the estate, generation-skipping transfer (GST), and gift tax exemptions and rates. Thus, the highest tax rate would be 45%, and the exclusion amount would be $3.5 million for estate and GST taxes and $1 million for gift taxes.
• Require that the basis of property in the hands of the recipient be no greater than the value of that property as determined for estate or gift tax purposes (subject to subsequent adjustments). These rules would apply to transfers on or after the enactment date.

Keep in mind that these are only proposed changes, and they must be passed by both houses of Congress in order to become law.