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Federal Taxation -You Decide Paper

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Submitted By tommy61700
Words 2142
Pages 9
Memo
To: John and Jane Smith
From: Desiree Looft, CPA
Date: September 24, 2011
Subject: Explanation of tax benefits and liabilities for business and personal.

1(a) As a result of a recent court settlement for a client John earned $300,000 for his law practice LLC. He wants to minimize his tax liability and understand how the IRS will treat this money earned. He lease’s office space for $3,500 per month. He wants to know the advantages in leasing office space versus purchasing the building.
John has income derived from a business and as such the gross income will be taxable. (Code §1.61-3(a)) This total amount of taxable income will pass through to his personal taxes since he has an LLC, meaning he will be subject to self employment tax. ( ) He will get a break on the self employment tax since he will get a deduction from gross income for half of the self employment tax liability.
John currently has a lease payment that provides him a deduction of $42,000 per year. (Code §162(a)) He is allowed this deduction since this lease is required to be made in order for his business to continue and he has not title or equity in the building. If purchases the building he will no longer have this deduction because capital purchases are not allowed for any expenditure for new buildings or to improve property. (Code §263)
John and Jane could establish traditional IRA’s and make contributions up to $5,000 each. Even though Jane has a minimal income John is allowed to establish and contribute to an IRA on behalf of his spouse. (Code §219(c )) A Roth IRA has phase out limits but with planning this could be another option further down the road. John has would not qualify for the full tax benefits of a Roth IRA this year without hitting phase out limits. Since John and Jane do not have an employer retirement plan they will be able to deduct the full amount on a

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