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Just in time for the holidays, Congress passed a bill with more tax reform changes. H.R. 3301, the Taxpayer Certainty and Disaster Relief Act of 2019, includes several repeals and modifications to the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act from 2017, with two provisions in particular that impact tax-exempt organizations. Most will remember the administrative complexity that was added the last time Congress passed a major piece of tax legislation. This time around, however, the changes are likely to put a smile on the faces of most non-profit organizations.

In addition to the features included in the SECURE Act (addressing retirement plan changes) and some benefits provided to tax exempt entities, both of which are covered in related articles, this piece will provide an overview of some general tax provisions included in this month’s Further Consolidated Appropriations Act, or H. R. 1865.

On May 23, 2019, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly (by a vote of 417 to 3) passed the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019, generally known as the SECURE Act, and sent it to the Senate. It was expected to pass quickly, but it remained in limbo in the Senate for over six months. We previously wrote about this bill here.

The combination of some relatively new partnership tax rules combined with some long-standing procedural rules make a compelling argument that many partnerships should begin filing federal extensions on an annual basis, whether or not they need to. Doing so may be the only way to ensure that certain subsequent changes to a partnership’s taxable income impact the same partners, in the same year, as the original income did.

As our nation’s population continues to age, baby boomers continue to retire, and as the younger generations are questioning whether they can rely on Social Security in retirement, there is an increasing number of savers looking for alternative ways to save and grow their retirement nest eggs. The government has provided a tax advantaged vehicle for taxpayers to move their retirement funds into investments outside the norm of mutual funds, ETFs, stocks and bonds and into less traditional retirement account investments including real estate, precious metals and debt notes through the use of a self-directed Individual Retirement Account (IRA).

In July 2019, the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Auditing Standards Board (ASB) issued a new auditing standard for audits of employee benefit plans subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), with the goal of improving audit quality and to make the auditor’s report more relevant, clear, and easy to understand.

This article is the third in a series containing advice from a CPA to young adults. The series tackles issues that should be formally taught in high school or college, but seemingly are not, and its goal is to encourage good financial habits early in life.