Insight, Analysis, and Perspective for Businesses and Individuals

Under the recent Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (“TCJA”), as of January 1, 2018, employees are no longer able to deduct unreimbursed employee business expenses on their individual tax returns for tax years 2018- 2025. Previously, any qualified expenses that employees incurred while on the job could be deducted on their individual tax return subject […]

Overview On June 21, 2018, the Supreme Court decided South Dakota v. Wayfair. This pivotal sales tax case allows states to impose sales tax obligations on out-of-state businesses that have no physical presence in the state.  Previously, a business had to have some sort of physical presence in the state, such as an employee working […]

Current IRS rules that provide tax breaks on gains of sales of qualified small business stock (QSBS) have been made permanent. More specifically, a taxpayer may be able to exclude from personal income tax up to 100% of any gain realized on the sale or exchange of QSBS held for more than five years (subject […]

Several recently released cases from the Washington Department of Revenue Administrative Review and Hearings Division provide a good reminder about the reach of the department to collect real estate excise tax (REET) on the transfer of real property. In the first case (Det. No. 16-0350), the petitioner limited liability company transferred a controlling interest in […]

A Special Notice, dated May 24, 2017, from the Washington State Department of Revenue has provided further clarification regarding Business & Occupation (“B&O”) tax and corporate director fees earned within and without the state of Washington. The Notice makes it clear that all compensation received for services rendered as a corporate director may be subject to Washington […]

The Huffington Post recently ran the headline “Why We’re All Becoming Independent Contractors.”{http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-reich/why-were-all-becoming-independent-contractors_b_6731760.html}. The article recounts that GM and Uber are valued at $60 billion and $40 billion respectively, but that GM has over 200,000 employees while Uber has a paltry 850 employees. Uber has a simple, but concerning, explanation for this discrepancy – Uber’s […]

In mid-December 2016, the U.S. Treasury Department issued final regulations affecting all foreign-owned single-member limited liability companies. While these regulations have the potential to increase transparency with respect to the movement of foreign funds, they impose new burdens on the foreign owners of U.S. LLCs. Prior to these final regulations going into effect, the ownership […]