THE Thread on the Final GOP Tax Bill - Q&A

[Brandon Hall]

Happy Holidays! As of today, the House and Senate have sent the GOP Tax Plan to the President to sign into law. 

I've seen numerous threads popping up about the GOP Tax Bill. I wanted to start a thread to consolidate questions and basically provide a user guide (via the Q&A) for years to come. 

I invite all tax pros on BP to contribute to this thread. It will be neat to see discussion on the tax bill itself, but also loopholes and strategies that develop once the massive bill has been digested. 

Link to the bill.

Key highlights from the bill: 

1. Mortgage interest deduction allowed on up to $750k of new acquisition debt starting Jan. 1, 2018. (Does not apply to rentals)

2. Interest paid on home equity loans that are not "acquisition debt" is not deductible. (Debt tracing rules will apply - if you use a HELOC to buy rentals, you can still deduct the interest).

3. State and Local Taxes (SALT) are limited to an aggregate $10,000.

4. A "freebie" deduction will be available beginning in 2018 for "combined qualified business income." Calculating the deduction can be complicated. Per our current understanding, you cannot use the deduction for activities generating passive losses. This includes sole props, meaning you do not need to utilize an entity (LLC/S-Corp) to qualify for the deduction as far as we can tell.

5. C-Corp tax rate reduced to 21%. 

6. AMT still exists but the exclusion is higher.

7. Bonus depreciation is now 100% for assets with a useful life of less than 20 years.

8. 529 plan funds can now be used to pay for public, private, and religious elementary and secondary education.

9. Penalty from Obamacare individual mandate has been eliminated.

10. Rehabilitation tax credit reduced in scope.

11. Domestic Production Activity Credit (DPAD) eliminated. 

12. Standard deduction increased, personal exemptions eliminated. 

What did not change:

1. Section 121 Exclusion - aka Capital Gain Exclusion on primary residence

2. Depreciation schedules. (Except for commercial properties on ADS). 

Ask away!