Chapter Newsletter. Board of Directors. A Letter from the President. In this issue: News from your Iowa Chapter

Transcription

1 Chapter Newsletter News from your Iowa Chapter Summer 2018 A Letter from the President Hello members! Another year in the Iowa NATP chapter has nearly passed. As always, your board is trying to keep you informed of what is happening in the tax world. New federal tax law has been the topic of the season and going forward, we will be tasked with sharing new Iowa tax law as well. Your board is gearing up again after tax season to bring you educational events in Des Moines in September the 19th - 21st, October 17 in Council Bluffs, and November 27 in Cedar Rapids. At these events, we will aim to make our education more of a discussion. You can ask questions and our instructor(s) will walk through the law as it pertains to your situations. Please feel free to send questions to one of the board members prior to our educational events. This helps the instructor give you the information you require! And it is especially important if you feel it will warrant lengthy research prior to the event. We can then be prepared as the questions arise to give you the best answer possible. I get many s from Karen Brehmer our IRS Liaison. I try to share time sensitive information that would be helpful to you in your practice, or with your clients. We also like to post pertinent information on our Facebook page. Search for Iowa Chapter NATP and like our page to stay connected. Laura Merschman, President Board of Directors Laura Merschman, President laura@merschtax.com Kathleen Flannery-Salgren, Vice President flannerytax@gmail.com Kristy Mather, Secretary bottomln@ncn.net Larry McAlexander, Treasurer ljcmc@aol.com Randy Adams, Education Chair randyadams2@hotmail.com Wayne Salgren, Newsletter Chair flannerytax@gmail.com Robert Darrah, Membership Chair darrahandcompany@qwestoffice.net Carrie Houchins-Witt, Communications Chair carrie@houchinswitt.com Leah Morrison, Board member Leah@morrisonaccountingtax.com.com In this issue: Letter from the President Board of Directors View From the Front Iowa Tax Law

2 THE VIEW FROM THE FRONT by Randy Adams I have been an instructor for NATP since 2011 and first started by teaching the RTRP courses. Each year brings a new challenge and excitement as I go on the road to teach. I am going to encourage all of you to participate in the informative seminars NATP provides for you this year. We will be speaking about the new material in the 2018 Tax Law changes. This is what I expect to see with my view from the front of the classroom this year as we hash through the pieces of the tax law changes. First. I believe it may be more valuable for many of you to attend a live seminar. I teach webinars, but it is very difficult to discuss any questions brought up by attendees. In person, we can talk about issues you have and everyone benefits by group discussion. We don t really know the full impact of some of the issues, like QBI, that will arise from the tax changes. These are great areas to explore in a live setting. Second. What are the answers? No one has all the answers to all the variables to the law changes yet. We don t know what the courts will do with some of the changes nor how the states may react. For example, electing to take the standard deduction for a client on the Federal return may be best; however some state returns may often be best filed with Itemized Deductions. This will mean educating your clients in the differences of the returns and how best to maximize their results with the documents they assemble for us. Our clients already have many questions, now we will have to find new ways to break down the information of the changes for them. This may mean doing research and knowing how to get that info. This is where listening to others and how they are assisting their clients may be advantageous. Third. How can we help those clients who end up with a negative result from the tax changes? I have plenty of clients who will not have a better result with these changes. Let s discuss other things to help them as they plan to take distributions from their pensions, or structure their charitable giving into every-other-year increments, or use the non-taxable QCD directly from their RMD as a tool to lower their taxes. Planning with our clients may be more critical now than ever. I believe that the view from the front will be different this year as we grapple with new challenges. This is exciting for me because new material brings new ways to process and think about the options we have. Come out to see us as we find the best ways to help our clients and improve our understanding of the changes for Live Seminars in the Iowa area this year are: September 19-21: Annual Iowa Conference in Des Moines at the Holiday Inn October 17: Annual One-Day Iowa Conference in Council Bluffs at Darrah & Company November 5-6: 1040 & Beyond the 1040 National Seminars in Cedar Rapids November 7-8: 1040 & Beyond the 1040 National Seminars in Des Moines November 9-10: 1040 & Beyond the 1040 National Seminars in Omaha November 27: Annual One-Day Iowa Conference in Cedar Rapids at the Longbranch Hotel

3 Developments in Iowa Tax Law Iowa tax law changes are in the works. Whether they will be beneficial or not is yet to be seen. With the federal tax law changes that occurred in 2017 Iowa law makers felt the need to re-examine the Iowa tax law. A few changes for 2018 are as follows. Iowa Senate File 2417 passed through legislation in early May and several changes vigilant because our tax planning will need to be adjusted more frequently. My hope is that the changes will be beneficial to taxpayers, while not putting stress on the state budgets. However, I feel that this may have all been pushed through a little too quickly. As we wait for instruction from the Department of Revenue, I will be keeping my eyes open for additional information. should be noted. Section 179 expensing has been tough to handle the last couple of years Laura Merschman with a $25,000 limit. The new tax law raises that limit to $70,000 in 2018 with a $280,000 threshold. Although this seems rather insignificant in comparison to the federal rate, it will help many farmers and small business owners. But be sure to check the new code section S422.7(52). This addresses the glitch on S179 from multiple pass thru entities! However, bonus depreciation will still not be allowed. Iowa legislators worked to align with many of the provisions in the federal PATH Act. This bill addresses IRA deductions by those over age 70 ½ to certain non-profits, state sales and use tax deductions, and the phase out limits of the EIC. The new law allows for the accounting method changes and teacher expense deduction as well. Iowa will not couple with the like kind exchange rules of the TCJA. Iowa will continue to recognize deferred gain or loss. Additional changes are set to go into effect in 2019 and beyond. Preparers will need to stay Ever had to sit on the phone waiting for an IRS agent to answer, those days are in the past. We have a tool provided by the IRS that allows us, as tax practitioners, a fast track to speak with an agent. My office used it several times this year and our longest wait was 17 minutes. Most times it was under 10 minutes and I think the shortest was about 30 seconds. It took longer to answer all the pre-questions to get you to the correct agent than I waited for the agent to answer. To get to the phone number and instructions for the Practitioner Priority Service follow the steps below. Go to Click on the box titled Tax Pros at the top of the screen under the search box. Scroll to middle of the screen to Contacts Click on Practitioner Priority Service That will bring up the instructions needed to use Practitioner Priority Service This is a very useful service that the IRS has provided for us. I recommend it to all practitioners. Wayne Salgren

4 New for the 2018 Convention Help us support this year s Charity The emotional and financial toll that cancer has on families is sometimes too much to bear, but that s when Breast Cancer Angels steps in. Breast Cancer Angels, who provide direct financial and emotional assistance to breast cancer patients (and their families) as they undergo breast cancer treatment in the South Bay, Orange County and San Diego areas, is this year s National Conference charity. Every year NATP supports a local charity to support at the National Conference (located in Anaheim, California this year). The silent auction is a focal point of this year s event and to help support this year s worthy charity, our chapter is developing an Iowa/RAGABRAI themed basket to donate to the silent auction. Whether you re headed to this year s event or not, we re asking for your help in supporting this year s charity and the families affected by this disease. If you re not coming to this year s event and would like to donate an item, please contact Laura Merschman, President. If your headed to the conference this year, please contact Laura Merschman, President, let her know what you re bringing and pack it in your suitcase to bring with you to conference. We ll be collecting items for the auction at the registration desk and will be assembling the baskets ahead of Tuesday s charity event. The charity event is a great opportunity to make a difference in the local community and we look forward to continuing the tradition in Anaheim. Board Membership By Carrie Houchins-Witt, EA, CFP You may have heard that the Board of Directors for the Iowa Chapter of NATP is looking for new members! Two of our members will be stepping off our board this year, so there are spots available. I d like to encourage any interested NATP members to run for board membership! And I ll help you out by letting you know what you can expect. I am one of the newest members on the board. For the past few Septembers (at the Iowa NATP conference in Des Moines), I had considered running, but it took me a while to get my courage up. I didn t really know anybody on the board, I come from a solo practice, and I was concerned I wouldn t have enough time to dedicate. But I m very glad I volunteered. At the September 2017 meeting, I volunteered myself, and I gave a short speech to the membership about myself and my practice, and then I was elected. It was a pretty easy process! Since then, I have virtually attended each board meeting. We meet each month via conference call (but we do not meet during tax season). I ve taken on the role of communications chair, so I inform the board about the happenings with our Facebook group, and I am helping to organize the education topics for our fall conference. The board of directors is a great group, and everyone really pitches in to help with their strengths. (And I m so glad, because that means nobody will ask me to help with by-laws!) The main thing that the board produces is the annual September education conference and meeting in Des Moines. Because I ve been attending it for years, I know it s a great event! And now that I m on the other side, I know how much goes into organizing it.

5 Board Membership, continued But I can t let you think that acting as a board member is purely altruistic! I have gotten so much out of my short stint on the board. The other board members are so warm and open, and as a solo practitioner it s always nice to have someone with whom to share ideas. I m not able to attend the NATP annual conference in Anaheim this year, but several of our other board members are attending and I think it will be a wonderful experience, of both education and camaraderie. So if you are ready to get more involved with your local NATP Chapter, and would like to work to advance the profession, please consider volunteering for the board of directors. Please reach out to any of the board members with questions or concerns. Save the Dates! Event Name: National Conference & Expo Date: August 6-9, 2018 Location: Anaheim, CA Anaheim Marriott Event Name: Annual Meeting & Conference Date: September 19 21, 2018 Location: Urbandale, IA Holiday Inn & Suites Event Name: Mini-Conference Date: October 17, 2018 Location: Council Bluffs Go to NATP.com to register for all conferences Event Name: Mini-Conference Date: November 27 Location: Cedar Rapids Event Name: National Conference & Expo Date: July 22-25, 2019 Location: Chicago, IL Hilton Chicago