Selected Individual Tax Provisions in the New Tax Law: Planning Ideas

Article Excerpt:

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Bill (the Act) was passed by Congress on December 20, 2017. The Act contains significant tax changes which clearly require separate analysis to see how specific provisions impact each individual. There is no cookie cutter approach to this analysis.

Most of the individual provisions are effective from January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2025, then sunset back to the law as it was in 2017 unless otherwise changed or extended.  The new legislation presents many opportunities and, of course, potential pitfalls.

Due to the complexity of many of the new provisions, it may take several months — even for sophisticated tax professionals — to fully understand each provision of the new law and how clients may be impacted. The following represents a sample of some of our initial planning considerations. More articles will follow as we continue to analyze the provisions of the new law.