JK Lasser's New Rules for Estate, Retirement, and Tax Planning, 6th Edition
by Stewart H. Welch III, J. Winston Busby
CHAPTER 1Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017
President Trump signed new tax legislation on December 19, 2017, that will significantly impact many Americans. The title of the new law was intended to be the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. However, due to certain procedures involved in passing the new law, the short title was removed and the official title is “To provide for reconciliation pursuant to title II and V of the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.” Despite the issues surrounding the name, the new tax law is commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and will be referred to in this book as the TCJA.
The TCJA sets forth the most extensive changes to the tax law in more than 30 years, although many of the provisions are set to expire after 2025. The TCJA significantly impacted both individual and corporate taxpayers. Individual tax rates were reduced, and individual deductions were modified. Taxpayers operating businesses through flow‐through entities, such as LLCs, S corporations, or sole proprietorships, received a favorable new deduction for certain types of income. The TCJA reduced corporate tax rates for corporations taxed as C corporations. In the estate and gift tax arena, the TCJA doubled the amount of wealth that may pass tax‐free to nonspouse, noncharitable beneficiaries.
Although the TCJA made changes to many areas of the tax law, not all the provisions of the TCJA are permanent. Most provisions took effect on January 1, 2018. The TCJA included a sunset ...