An employee currently may exclude $5,250 from income for benefits from an employer-sponsored education assistance program.  The CARES Act expands the definition of expenses qualifying for the exclusion to include employer payments of student loan debt made before January 1, 2021.

On March 18, 2020 President Trump signed into law the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA), which eased the compliance burden on businesses.  The FFCRA include the four tax credits and one tax exemption discussed below. Payroll Tax Credit for Required Paid Sick Leave (the payroll sick leave credit) The Emergency Paid Sick Leave Act […]

After briefly offering more limited relief, the IRS almost immediately pivoted to a policy that provides the following to all taxpayers including individuals, trusts, estates, partnerships, associations, companies and corporations regardless of whether or how much they are affected by COVID-19: For a taxpayer with a Federal income tax return or a Federal income tax […]

The CARES Act makes four significant liberalizations to the rules governing charitable deductions, 2 of which affect corporations: The limitation on charitable deductions for corporations that is generally 10% of (modified) taxable income doesn’t apply to qualifying contributions made in 2020.  Instead, a corporation’s qualifying contributions, reduced by other contributions, can be as much as […]

The CARES Act makes four significant liberalizations to the rules governing charitable deductions, 2 of which affect individual taxpayers: Individuals will be able to claim a $300 above-the-line deduction for cash contributions made, generally, to public charities in 2020.  This rule effectively allows a limited charitable deduction to taxpayers claiming the standard deduction. The limitation […]

The required minimum distributions that otherwise would have to be made in 2020 from defined contribution plans (such as 401(k) plans) and IRAs are waived.  This includes distributions that would have been required by April 1, 2020, due to the account owner’s having turned age 70 1/2 in 2019.

The additional 10% tax on early distributions from IRAs and defined contribution plans (such as 401(k) plans) is waived for distributions made between January 1, 2020 and December 31, 2020 by a person who (or whose family) is infected with the Coronavirus or who is economically harmed by the Coronavirus (a qualified individual).  Penalty-free distributions […]

To help individuals stay afloat during this time of economic uncertainty, the federal government will payments up to $1,200 to eligible taxpayers and $2,400 for married couples filing joint returns.  An additional payment of $500 will be sent to taxpayers for each qualifying child dependent under age 17 (using the qualification rules under the Child […]

To determine eligibility for various benefits, the Social Security Administration uses a system of credits to determine if minimum work requirements have been met. Typical number of credits required for eligibility of benefits is 40. The maximum number of credits that can be earned in 2020 is 4. One credit is equal to earned compensation […]

  2020 Form W-4MN   Form W-4MN is in addition to the federal Form W-4, which is used to calculate Minnesota withholding for an individual. Every individual that completes federal Form W-4 (for 2020) is required to complete Form W-4MN as well. The other times an individual should complete Form W-4MN is when they change […]