Entries by TAX

PTET Election Under The OBBBA

By John G. Hodnette As discussed in New North Carolina PTE Tax Can Reduce Federal Income Taxes (December 14, 2022), the pass-through entity tax (the “PTET”) elections enacted by states and blessed by the IRS in Notice 2020-75 provides a workaround to the 2017 Tax Act’s $10,000 limit on the deductibility of state and local taxes […]

Federal Income Tax Update

By Keith A. Wood I. Conservation Easement Deed did not Constitute a CWA because it did not Contain a Merger Clause; Martin vs. Commissioner, TC Memo 2026-39. A. Contemporaneous Written Acknowledgement Requirement. Under Section 170, no charitable contribution deduction of $250 or more is allowed unless the donee organization provides a contemporaneous written acknowledgement (“CWA”) […]

S Corporation F Reorganizations Under Rev. Rul. 2008-18

By John G. Hodnette An F reorganization, as discussed in The Basics of F Reorganizations, is a tax-free “mere change in identity, form, or place of organization of one corporation, however effected” pursuant to Section 368(a)(1)(F). Although a simple example of an F reorganization is the change of a corporation’s state of incorporation, the broad definition […]

Qualified Trade or Business Under Section 1202

By John G. Hodnette and Savannah Rankich The general rules for qualified small business stock (“QSBS”) were discussed previously in “Gain Exclusion for Section 1202 Stock” and updated in “Expanded Benefits for Qualified Small Business Stock Under the OBBB.” For taxpayers to qualify for this gain exclusion, the issuing C corporation must meet the active […]

Section 453 Trap for S Corporation Asset Sales

By John G. Hodnette In my prior post, Installment Sale Notes Owned by S Corporations, I discussed sales of S corporation assets in exchange for a promissory note, invoking the installment sale method of Section 453. Buyers commonly use the installment sale method for earnouts, which provide additional contingent consideration based on the performance of the […]

199A Deduction for Real Estate Rental Businesses

By John G. Hodnette Section 199A, as discussed in my prior blog post Section 199A Pass-Through Deduction and the Magic Number, provides for a deduction generally equal to the applicable pass-through entity’s qualified business income. However, the deduction is available only for a qualified trade or business, which Section 199A(d)(1) defines as any trade or business […]

Basics of 338(h)(10) Elections

By John G. Hodnette Section 338(h)(10) allows a buyer and seller in a qualified stock purchase to elect jointly for the sale of target stock to be treated for tax purposes as a sale of the target’s assets. That is beneficial to the buyer because the transaction is a stock sale for state law purposes (which […]

Substantiating Charitable Giving: Sibling Rivalry?

By Kimberly B. Tyson On January 6, 2026, in Gibson v. Commissioner, T.C. Sum. Op. 2026-1 (a nonappealable “S” case), the Tax Court sustained the IRS’s disallowance of a charitable contribution deduction of $188,563 for high-end cycling apparel that taxpayers donated in 2019. The court’s analysis of the appraiser regulation reminded me of Jan Brady, […]