Archive for the ‘New Jersey’ Category

2022 State Business Tax Climate Index: Bring Me the Usual Suspects!

Friday, December 17th, 2021

Yesterday, the Tax Foundation released its list of the business tax climate in the 50 states.  Not much has changed, and for those in New York, New Jersey, and California wondering why businesses are moving to Florida and Nevada, you just need to look in the mirror.  The top 10 states are:

  1. Wyoming
  2. South Dakota
  3. Alaska
  4. Florida
  5. Montana
  6. New Hampshire
  7. Nevada
  8. Tennessee
  9. Indiana
  10. Utah

There’s also a bottom 10:

41. Hawaii
42. Louisiana
43. Vermont
44. Arkansas
45. Minnesota
46. Maryland
47. Connecticut
48. California
49. New York
50. New Jersey

The best states either lack a major tax or levy all the major tax types with low rates on broad bases.  Meanwhile, the worst states share, “complex, nonneutral taxes with comparatively high rates.”  My state, Nevada, ranks 7th with low individual and property taxes but high sales and unemployment insurance taxes (corporate tax is ranked in the middle, 25th).  My former state, California, ranks in the bottom four in corporate taxes, individual taxes, and sales tax, in the middle for unemployment insurance, and above average for property tax.  The worst state, New Jersey, ranks in the bottom ten in all taxes except unemployment insurance (where it ranks below average, 32nd).

Yes, taxes aren’t everything but they’re a huge reason why my business left the Golden State and moved to the Silver State.

Tax Relief for Hurricane Ida in New York and New Jersey

Wednesday, September 8th, 2021

Hurricane Ida created disaster conditions in Louisiana; the IRS previously granted relief for impacted taxpayers in various parishes in the state.  President Biden just declared a federal disaster area for many counties in New Jersey and New York (including New York City).  The IRS extended the same relief for those taxpayers.  Any tax deadline from September 1, 2021 onward through year-end is extended until January 3, 2022.

There are some caveats with this.  First, because 2020 tax payments were due on May 17th, that payment deadline has not been extended.  However, if you filed a valid extension and owe the late payment penalty, that penalty is suspended between September 1st and January 3, 2022.  Second, be aware that the IRS has a “down-time” for electronic filing of tax returns; this typically begins in mid to late November and lasts until late January.  During that time, all returns must be paper-filed.  It’s currently taking the IRS eight to twelve months to process paper-filed returns.  You may want to consider not waiting until January (especially if you are expecting a refund).

This relief does extend to third quarter estimated payments (due September 15th), partnership and S-Corporation returns on extension (also due on September 15th), trust/estate returns on extension (due September 30th), C-Corporation returns on extension (due October 15th), and nonprofit returns on extension (due November 15th).  Quarterly payroll and excise tax returns due on November 1st are also extended for impacted taxpayers.

New Jersey is conforming to this relief for impacted New Jersey taxpayers.  Note that if you paper-file in New Jersey, you need to write, “Presidential Disaster Relief Area, Hurricane Ida” on the top of the return or payment.  While I expect New York to conform, there has been not yet been an announcement from the New York Department of Taxation and Finance.

April 15th Deadlines

Tuesday, April 14th, 2020

Yes, the tax deadline for the IRS (and federal estimated payments for the first two quarters) is July 15th. However, not all states conformed to this–especially for estimated payments. The following states all have first quarter estimated payments for individuals that are due tomorrow, April 15th:

  • Arkansas
  • District of Columbia
  • Hawaii (due April 20th)
  • Illinois
  • Iowa (due April 30th)
  • Kentucky
  • Michigan
  • Minnesota
  • New Hampshire
  • New Jersey
  • North Carolina
  • Oregon

So if you need to make estimated payments for 2020 for one of these states, do so. If you are mailing your payment, use certified mail (but not return receipt requested–there’s a possiblity no one is there to pick up the mail).

Seniors Won’t Have to File Tax Returns, SBA Loan Update, and New Jersey

Thursday, April 2nd, 2020

Earlier this week the IRS posted that to obtain the Recovery Rebate that seniors and others would have to file a tax return. When news of that got out–especially given that the law that was passed says otherwise–organizations representing seniors and tax professionals were not amused.

Late yesterday, the Department of the Treasury issued a press release titled, “Social Security Recipients Will Automatically Receive Economic Impact Payments.” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated,

Social Security recipients who are not typically required to file a tax return do not need to take an action, and will receive their payment directly to their bank account.

The IRS website has also been updated with this information.

Next, small businesses and sole proprietorships impacted by the virus can apply for loans under the federal Paycheck Protection Program starting Friday, April 3rd. From the Journal of Accountancy:

The application can be found here on the Treasury site, along with details for borrowers and lenders. Treasury urged those in need of funding to apply quickly, noting that the program has a cap and demand is likely to be high.

Independent contractors and the self-employed can apply beginning April 10th. The program has a cap of $349 billion.

Finally, New Jersey has extended their tax deadline to July 15th. It’s unclear if New Jersey has extended estimated tax payments (as best as I can tell, they haven’t). This extension is for both individual and corporate tax which was due on April 15th.

Out With the Fed Mandate; In With State Mandates

Wednesday, November 13th, 2019

Once upon a time there was the federal mandate to have health insurance; per the US Supreme Court, a “tax.” Well, beginning with 2019 tax returns (filed in 2020) the federal mandate is no more. Unfortunately, tax professionals and taxpayers aren’t done with insurance mandates: Several states have implemented their own mandates.

Massachusetts, New Jersey, and the District of Columbia have their own mandates for the 2019 tax year (tax returns filed in 2020); Massachusetts’ mandate began in 2007. California, Rhode Island, and Vermont have implemented mandates for the 2020 tax year (tax returns filed in 2021).

If you are a resident of one of these states, we’ll be asking you about health insurance when we prepare your 2019 returns. Additionally, if you do receive insurance through the Exchange (e.g. healthcare.gov) and receive a Form 1095-A, you must provide a copy of the form to your tax professional.

There’s no reason for tax professionals to be in the health insurance field. But thanks to Obamacare, we are…and will be for the foreseeable future.

IRS To New York, New Jersey, and California: We Weren’t Kidding

Tuesday, June 11th, 2019

Today the IRS issued rules and guidance on charitable contributions as a workaround to the new limits on state and local taxes. Unsurprisingly, the IRS said exactly what I thought they would: both substance over form and quid pro quo apply.

There’s a fundamental rule in tax: The substance of a transaction determines how it’s taxed, not what it’s labeled. Suppose I pay you to perform services for me, but I send you a Form 1099-INT (for interest income). What I pay you is service income, not interest income, no matter how it’s labeled. Consider state taxes. Suppose a state (say, New York) offers you the ability to contribute to the “Support New York Fund” instead of state taxes. Well, the substance is that you’re paying state taxes by contributing to that fund.

Another issue is “quid pro quo;” that’s Latin for ‘something for something.’ And if you get something for a charitable contribution, that portion isn’t charity. Consider a donation to some foundation for $50 and you receive a blanket worth $10; your charitable contribution (that you can take) is $40. This rule has been around for some time. It applies to these workarounds, too.

Put bluntly, the IRS isn’t amused with the workarounds. The Tax Code is law; until Congress changes it, federal deductions for state and local taxes are limited.

We’re Not Gonna Take It

Thursday, August 23rd, 2018

The IRS issued proposed regulations today on charitable contributions as it relates to state and local tax credits. Here’s a hint to politicians in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. The IRS is telling you:

Here’s an excerpt from the IRS press release:

The proposed regulations issued today are designed to clarify the relationship between state and local tax credits and the federal tax rules for charitable contribution deductions. The proposed regulations are available in the Federal Register.

Under the proposed regulations, a taxpayer who makes payments or transfers property to an entity eligible to receive tax deductible contributions must reduce their charitable deduction by the amount of any state or local tax credit the taxpayer receives or expects to receive.

For example, if a state grants a 70 percent state tax credit and the taxpayer pays $1,000 to an eligible entity, the taxpayer receives a $700 state tax credit. The taxpayer must reduce the $1,000 contribution by the $700 state tax credit, leaving an allowable contribution deduction of $300 on the taxpayer’s federal income tax return. The proposed regulations also apply to payments made by trusts or decedents’ estates in determining the amount of their contribution deduction.

There’s a de minimis exception for tax credits of no more than 15% of the payment amount.

This proposed regulation isn’t a surprise. Indeed, it’s hard to see under the Tax Code how tax credits as charitable contributions would succeed. As for the current lawsuit against the IRS regarding the new tax law, that has even less of a chance of success in my view. But it sounds good, so the lawsuit happened. The idea of a state like New York changing their tax laws to lower their tax rates apparently hasn’t occurred to New York politicians.

We’re Not Gonna Take It…

Saturday, July 21st, 2018

You may have heard that earlier this week four states sued to stop parts of the new tax law from going into effect. The states–New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Maryland–don’t like the new $10,000 cap on deducting state and local taxes on federal tax returns. I believe this lawsuit is doomed; there’s no right in the Constitution to allow deducting of such taxes. This isn’t just my opinion; Ilya Somin at the Volokh Conspiracy notes what I think:

They argue not only that the 2017 cap is unconstitutional, but that the federal government has a general obligation to exempt “all or a significant portion of state and local taxes” from the federal income tax. The problem with this argument is simple: nothing in the text or original meaning of the Constitution supports it. To the contrary, the Sixteenth Amendment gives Congress a general power to power “to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived.” There is no mandated exemption for income used to pay state or local taxes. There is also no support for the states’ position in Supreme Court precedent, or in the American constitutional tradition more generally.

The humorous thing (to me) is that blue states normally lead in ‘progressiveness’ of their tax systems (that is, higher rates for individuals earning higher incomes). The cap on deductions will primarily hurt high income individuals. Of course, blue states don’t want out-migration of such high income individuals. Perhaps they might look to lower tax rates. Mr. Somin notes they could remove zoning restrictions. As for this lawsuit, it sounds nice to their constituents but it is almost certainly doomed.

Taxes Matter (2018 Version), Part 1

Thursday, May 3rd, 2018

Those on the left constantly chirp that taxes don’t matter. Those of us who prepare tax returns can state as fact you’re wrong. I moved my business because of taxes and regulations. Here are two other examples from today that illustrate this.

First, the city of Seattle is proposing a new tax on businesses with $20 million in gross receipts (or more): an employee tax of $0.26/employee-hour. Shockingly, Seattle’s largest employer, Amazon.com, has stopped planning on a new 17-story office tower in downtown Seattle. Are the two related? Drew Herdener, an Amazon Vice President told FoxBusiness,

I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head tax vote by City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18 project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sub-lease all space in our recently leased Rainer Square building.

From the Wall Street Journal comes a headline, “My Clients Are Fleeing NJ Like It’s on Fire.” An excerpt:

That headline arrives via email from a money manager in northern New Jersey. The Garden State already has the third largest overall tax burden and the country’s highest property tax collections per capita. Now that federal reform has limited the deduction for state and local taxes, the price of government is surging again among high-income earners in New Jersey and other blue states. Taxpayers are searching for the exits.

Read the whole thing (note: Pay Link).

For those who say taxes don’t matter, you’re wrong. From small businesses to large taxes absolutely matter.

Yes, Two States Rank Lower than California

Tuesday, November 17th, 2015

It’s not all bad news in the Tax Foundation’s 2016 State Business Tax Climate Index for California. You could always be in New York or New Jersey. Still, it’s better to be elsewhere.

Two excerpts from the article note why states rank at the top of the list or at the bottom:

The absence of a major tax is a common factor among many of the top ten states. Property taxes and unemployment insurance taxes are levied in every state, but there are several states that do without one or more of the major taxes: the corporate income tax, the individual income tax, or the sales tax. Wyoming, Nevada, South Dakota, and Texas have no corporate or individual income tax (though Nevada and Texas both impose gross receipts taxes); Alaska has no individual income or state-level sales tax; Florida has no individual income tax; and New Hampshire and Montana have no sales tax…

The states in the bottom 10 tend to have a number of afflictions in common: complex, non-neutral taxes with comparatively high rates. New Jersey, for example, is hampered by some of the highest property tax burdens in the country, is one of just two states to levy both an inheritance tax and an estate tax, and maintains some of the worst-structured individual income taxes in the country.

So who are the winners and the losers? Here are the top ten states:

1. Wyoming
2. South Dakota
3. Alaska
4. Florida
5. Nevada
6. Montana
7. New Hampshire
8. Indiana
9. Utah
10. Texas

Here are the bottom ten states:

41. Maryland
42. Ohio
43. Wisconsin
44. Connecticut
45. Rhode Island
46. Vermont
47. Minnesota
48. California
49. New York
50. New Jersey

My home state, Nevada, does very well (ranking fifth overall). It ranks first in individual income tax (there isn’t one), fourth in corporate tax (there is no a gross receipts tax on businesses, but only large businesses and the tax rate is low), seventh in property tax, but 39th in sales tax and 42nd in unemployment insurance tax.

Note that it is possible to have every major tax and still rank highly (Indiana and Utah manage that) if the taxes are broad with low rates. Of course, you can be like New Jersey, New York, and California: have broad taxes at high rates. If you do that, you end up on the bottom.

I should point out that it is possible that New York will rise in the rankings. As the Tax Foundation noted, New York enacted corporate tax reform which should improve its standing. Meanwhile, California is apparently considering more and higher taxes for the future. That, combined with the regulatory environment in the Bronze Golden State, should give legislators pause…but probably won’t.