Taxes, legal stuff and…Old ideas…

Taxes, legal stuff and…bewilderment

 

Assuming you’re like the rest of us and are looking forward to getting a somewhat larger take home paycheck in 2018, here’s a hint: If you don’t change your withholding rate (unless you’re an itemized filer) to reflect the new $24,000 standard deduction, and the larger child dependent deduction, the impact won’t be seen anytime soon in the old paycheck.  If you’re an itemized filer, better study up on any limited deductions (like state and local taxes) that might have a not so favorable impact on your tax exposure.

 

And if you’re the owner of the business, you need to get busy reading the fine print regarding the things like the pass-through rate reduction, and the immediate write off for capital expenditures (like vehicles and equipment, etc.). Failing doing all that, you might not gain the full benefit of the new law.

 

While the rules for waged employees are fairly straight forward, the ones that apply to owners of pass-through entities, are anything but. If you fall into that second category, this is probably the time to call in the experts and get the advice of a competent tax advisor. While the talking heads on TV make the pass-through changes sound simple, they are not. As written they’re complicated and frankly a bit on the confusing side.

 

All this potentially bewildering accounting stuff aside, the changes are good news whether you’re a work-a-day employee or own a multi-million buck operation. The overall effect of lowered personal and corporate taxes ought to result in more private sector spending and increased business growth for pretty much all of us. The last time we looked, that’s a pretty good thing!

 

Old ideas…New looks

 

One thing we all understand is that if an idea we pitched last week failed to gain the favorable attention of that prospect, simply re-pitching it again – no matter how enthusiastically we do it, probably won’t change that outcome. But does that mean that earlier approach is totally dead on arrival no matter what?

 

Well, with no modification, it’s almost certainly DOA. But if we can find a way to freshen it…well actually revise it, that might just be a horse of a different color. Let’s say our failed approach was an improved results proposal. Now admittedly it might be better to take a totally new approach (like lowered costs). But if we were to re-approach that results pitch on the basis of delivering sparkling stemware – that might promote better wine sales, maybe then it might just work.

 

Or maybe it was a savings pitch that failed to gain his attention. Perhaps it might fly by altering it with the idea of reallocating the first month of his chemical savings to buy more dish racks … racks that could reduce breakage and eliminate the still wet dishes or silver that gets used to set the tables when he’s slammed.

 

Bottom line: If that old idea fell flat, we still ought to seriously consider replacing it, but in some cases the better solution is to revise that earlier approach and give it a new look.