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Firm news and client alerts that may be beneficial
Firm news and client alerts that may be beneficial
Purpose. Earlier this year, legislation was passed and signed into law in New York to provide many NY taxpayers with a strategy to “work around” the provision under the federal tax law that limits individual taxpayers to a $10,000 deduction for state and local income and real estate taxes paid (the “SALT” limitation).
Example. Here’s an example showing how much additional federal taxes New Yorkers pay by application of the SALT limitation:
Assume Charlie is a partner in a NY partnership and that his share of the partnership’s 2021 net income is $400,000, which is also his adjusted gross income on his federal tax return (the amount appearing at the bottom of page 1 of the Form 1040).
New York’s average tax rate on taxable income of $400,000 is about 6.4%. Therefore, Charlie’s New York income tax liability would be about $25,600. If we assume his real estate taxes exceed $10,000, then none of his NY income taxes can be deducted on his federal return. Had they been deductible, Charlie would have saved between $8,200 and $9,000 in taxes (depending on whether he filed as an individual or jointly with his spouse).
The “Work-Around”. The new legislation enables the individual owners of “pass-through entities” – partnerships, LLCs and S corporations – to effectively regain the tax benefit by having the pass-through entity (which is not subject to the SALT limitation) opt into a new “pass-through entity tax” or PTET. This approach shifts the New York income tax liability to the pass-through entity, which pays the PTET (the tax brackets for this tax are similar to individual tax brackets). The law then grants a tax credit to each partner, member or shareholder (to be applied on his or her individual tax return) for his or her share of the taxes paid by the entity so that there is no “double tax” to both the entity and the individual owner.
The entity will deduct on its federal return the amount of NY taxes it paid, thereby reducing the amount of each individual owner’s share of the entity’s taxable income and in effect regaining for them the lost deduction under the SALT limitation.
In order to prevent the individual from in effect gaining a deduction on his or her NY return for New York taxes paid by the entity, the individual will have to add back into taxable income his or her share of the PTET paid by the entity.
Note the following:
We trust this will help you and your accountants in addressing the SALT limitation that has affected so many New Yorkers. After you have had a chance to review this, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Since 1979, the Syracuse-based law firm of SCOLARO FETTER GRIZANTI & McGOUGH, P.C. has provided sophisticated tax, business, litigation, employee benefits, estate and trust planning and administration services to its individual, business, entrepreneurial and professional clients throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Florida and other states in which its attorneys are admitted to practice.