Author Archives: mgracey

The COVID-19 pandemic and long-awaited rollout of FDA-approved vaccines this year highlight the importance of planning for rising medical costs and taking advantage of tax breaks, when available, to help you cover some of those expenses. Following are the IRS’s annual cost-of-living adjustments for various provisions of the tax code that relate to health care […]

The Consolidations Appropriations Act of 2021, signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020, provides 401(k) sponsors with welcome relief from partial plan terminations that may have otherwise occurred in the wake of COVID-19-related workforce reductions. Background  Under longstanding IRS rules, businesses that lay off 20 percent or more of employees covered by a defined-contribution plan in a […]

In the rush to put 2020 in the rearview mirror and welcome in the promises of a New Year, employers should remember that there are some critical tax-reporting deadlines they must prepare to meet in the next few weeks. For example, businesses have until Feb. 1, 2021, to file Forms W-2, Wage and Tax Statements, and […]

The second round of COVID-19 stimulus signed into law on Dec. 27, 2020, temporarily lifts the 50 percent limitation on deductions for business meal expenses that was first introduced in 2017 by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Effective for tax years 2021 and 2022, businesses may fully write off 100 percent of the […]

In 2020 New Jersey became the fourth state in the U.S. to raise taxes on some of its wealthiest residents. Under the law, the state’s top marginal tax rate of 10.75 percent will apply to annual earnings of $1 million or more effective for tax years starting on Jan. 1, 2020. Previously, taxpayers with annual […]

On December 27, President Trump signed the $900 billion economic-assistance package approved by Congress earlier in the week to help Americans weather the ongoing financial strains of the COVID-19 health crisis. The legislation calls for direct stimulus payments to qualifying taxpayers, an additional 11-weeks of federal emergency-unemployment benefits and greater flexibility for taxpayers to qualify […]

It has been nine months since millions of businesses were forced to shut down due to COVID-19 only to learn that their insurers would not payout claims for business interruption losses. While the courts have dismissed a significant number of legal actions filed by policyholders against insurers for breach of contract, it appears the tides […]

The following changes to federal tax laws apply to U.S. individual taxpayers, trusts and estates for tax year 2021 and the tax returns they will file the following year. Marginal Income Tax Rates For tax years beginning on Jan. 1, 2021, there continues to be seven individual tax brackets with marginal rates topping out at […]

If you are struggling to pay an outstanding tax liability under the financial pressure of the COVID-19 health crisis, help has arrived. On November 2, the IRS unveiled a Taxpayer Relief Initiative, offering new tools and payment options for individuals and businesses to settle unresolved tax debts. The IRS has always offered taxpayers different options […]

The IRS and Treasury Department recently released guidance clarifying how Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) participants must treat loan expenses when they have not received loan forgiveness by the end of the 2020 tax year. Under Revenue Ruling 2020-27 and Revenue Procedure 2020-51, businesses that “reasonably believe” the SBA will forgive their PPP loans in the […]