The federal student loan “pause” is coming to an end on August 31 after more than three years. If you have student loan debt, you may wonder whether you can deduct the interest you pay on your tax return. The answer may be yes, subject to certain limits. The deduction is phased out if your adjusted gross income exceeds certain levels — and they aren’t as high as the income levels for many other deductions.

Deduction basics

If you’re eligible, the maximum amount of student loan interest you can deduct each year is $2,500. The interest must be for a “qualified education loan,” which means a debt incurred to pay tuition, room and board, and related expenses to attend a post-high school educational institution, including certain vocational schools. Post-graduate programs may also qualify. For example, an internship or residency program leading to a degree or certificate awarded by an institution of higher education, hospital, or health care facility offering post-graduate training can qualify.

It doesn’t matter when the loan was taken out or whether interest payments made in earlier years on the loan were deductible or not.

It’s not available to everyone

For 2023, the deduction is phased out for single taxpayers with adjusted gross income (AGI) between $75,000 and $90,000 ($155,000 and $185,000 for married couples filing jointly). The deduction is unavailable for single taxpayers with AGI of more than $90,000 ($185,000 for married couples filing jointly).

Married taxpayers must file jointly to claim this deduction.

The deduction is taken “above the line.” In other words, it’s subtracted from gross income to determine AGI. Therefore, it’s available even to taxpayers who don’t itemize deductions.

No deduction is allowed to a taxpayer who can be claimed as a dependent on another tax return. For example, let’s say a parent is paying for the college education of a child whom the parent is claiming as a dependent. In this case, the interest deduction is only available for interest the parent pays on a qualifying loan, not for any of the interest the child may pay on a student loan. The child will be able to deduct interest that’s paid in later years when he or she is no longer a dependent.

More rules 

The interest paid must be on funds borrowed to cover qualified education costs of the taxpayer or his or her spouse or dependent. The student must be a degree candidate carrying at least half the normal full-time workload. Also, the education expenses must be paid or incurred within a reasonable time before or after the loan is taken out.

Taxpayers must keep records to verify qualifying expenditures. Documenting a tuition expense isn’t likely to pose a problem. However, care should be taken to document other qualifying education-related expenses including books, equipment, fees, and transportation.

Documenting room and board expenses should be straightforward for students living and dining on campus. Students who live off campus should maintain records of room and board expenses, especially when there are complicating factors such as roommates.

If you’d like help in determining whether you qualify for this deduction or if you have questions, contact us.

© 2023

An estimated 190 million Americans have recently been under heat advisory alerts, according to the National Weather Service. That may have spurred you to think about making your home more energy efficient — and there’s a cool tax break that may apply. Thanks to the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, you may be able to benefit from an enhanced residential energy tax credit to help defray the cost.

Eligibility rules

If you make eligible energy-efficient improvements to your home on or after January 1, 2023, you may qualify for a tax credit up to $3,200. You can claim the credit for improvements made through 2032.

The credit equals 30% of certain qualified expenses for energy improvements to a home located in the United States, including:

• Qualified energy-efficient improvements installed during the year,
• Residential “energy property” expenses, and
• Home energy audits.

There are limits on the allowable annual credit and on the amount of credit for certain types of expenses.

The maximum credit you can claim each year is:

• $1,200 for energy property costs and certain energy-efficient home improvements, with limits on doors ($250 per door and $500 total), windows ($600 total) and home energy audits ($150), as well as
• $2,000 per year for qualified heat pumps, biomass stoves or biomass boilers.

In addition to windows and doors, other energy property includes central air conditioners and hot water heaters.

Before the 2022 law was enacted, there was a $500 lifetime credit limit. Now, the credit has no lifetime dollar limit. You can claim the maximum annual amount every year that you make eligible improvements until 2033. For example, you can make some improvements this year and take a $1,200 credit for 2023 — and then make more improvements next year and claim another $1,200 credit for 2024.

The credit is claimed in the year in which the installation is completed.

Other limits and rules

In general, the credit is available for your main home, although certain improvements made to second homes may qualify. If a property is used exclusively for business, you can’t claim the credit. If your home is used partly for business, the credit amount varies. For business use up to 20%, you can claim a full credit. But if you use more than 20% of your home for business, you only get a partial credit.

Although the credit is available for certain water heating equipment, you can’t claim it for equipment that’s used to heat a swimming pool or hot tub.

The credit is nonrefundable. That means you can’t get back more on the credit than you owe in taxes. You can’t apply any excess credit to future tax years. However, there’s no phaseout based on your income, so even high-income taxpayers can claim the credit.

Collecting green for going green

Contact us if you have questions about making energy-efficient improvements or purchasing energy-saving property for your home. The Inflation Reduction Act may have other tax breaks you can benefit from for making clean energy purchases, such as installing solar panels. We can help ensure you get the maximum tax savings for your expenditures. Stay cool!

© 2023

Let’s say you own highly appreciated land that’s now ripe for development. If you subdivide it, develop the resulting parcels and sell them off for a hefty profit, it could trigger a large tax bill.

In this scenario, the tax rules generally treat you as a real estate dealer. That means your entire profit — including the portion from pre-development appreciation in the value of the land — will be treated as high-taxed ordinary income subject to a federal rate of up to 37%. You may also owe the 3.8% net investment income tax (NIIT) for a combined federal rate of up to 40.8%. And you may owe state income tax too.

It would be better if you could arrange to pay lower long-term capital gain (LTCG) tax rates on at least part of the profit. The current maximum federal income tax rate on LTCGs is 20% or 23.8% if you owe the NIIT.

Potential tax-saving solution

Thankfully, there’s a strategy that allows favorable LTCG tax treatment for all pre-development appreciation in the land value. You must have held the land for more than one year for investment (as opposed to holding it as a real estate dealer).

The portion of your profit attributable to subsequent subdividing, development and marketing activities will still be considered high-taxed ordinary income, because you’ll be considered a real estate dealer for that part of the process.

But if you can manage to pay a 20% or 23.8% federal income tax rate on a big chunk of your profit (the pre-development appreciation part), that’s something to celebrate.

Three-step strategy

Here’s the three-step strategy that could result in paying a smaller tax bill on your real estate development profits.

1. Establish an S corporation 

If you individually own the appreciated land, you can establish an S corporation owned solely by you to function as the developer. If you own the land via a partnership, or via an LLC treated as a partnership for federal tax purposes, you and the other partners (LLC members) can form the S corp and receive corporate stock in proportion to your percentage partnership (LLC) interests.

2. Sell the land to the S corp

Sell the appreciated land to the S corp for a price equal to the land’s pre-development fair market value. If necessary, you can arrange a sale that involves only a little cash and a big installment note the S corp owes you. The business will pay off the note with cash generated by selling off parcels after development. The sale to the S corp will trigger a LTCG eligible for the 20% or 23.8% rate as long as you held the land for investment and owned it for over one year.

3. Develop the property and sell it off

The S corp will subdivide and develop the property, market it and sell it off. The profit from these activities will be higher-taxed ordinary income passed through to you as an S corp shareholder. If the profit is big, you’ll probably pay the maximum 37% federal rate (or 40.8% percent with the NIIT. However, the average tax rate on your total profit will be much lower, because a big part will be lower-taxed LTCG from pre-development appreciation.

Favorable treatment

Thanks to the tax treatment created by this S corp developer strategy, you can lock in favorable treatment for the land’s pre-development appreciation. That’s a huge tax-saving advantage if the land has gone up in value. Consult with us if you have questions or want more information.

© 2023

If you’re age 50 or older, you can probably make extra “catch-up” contributions to your tax-favored retirement account(s). It is worth the trouble? Yes! Here are the rules of the road.

The deal with IRAs 

Eligible taxpayers can make extra catch-up contributions of up to $1,000 annually to a traditional or Roth IRA. If you’ll be 50 or older as of December 31, 2023, you can make a catch-up contribution for the 2023 tax year by April 15, 2024.

Extra deductible contributions to a traditional IRA create tax savings, but your deduction may be limited if you (or your spouse) are covered by a retirement plan at work and your income exceeds certain levels.

Extra contributions to Roth IRAs don’t generate any up-front tax savings, but you can take federal-income-tax-free qualified withdrawals after age 59½. There are also income limits on Roth contributions.

Higher-income individuals can make extra nondeductible traditional IRA contributions and benefit from the tax-deferred earnings advantage.

How company plans stack up 

You also have to be age 50 or older to make extra salary-reduction catch-up contributions to an employer 401(k), 403(b), or 457 retirement plan — assuming the plan allows them and you signed up. You can make extra contributions of up to $7,500 to these accounts for 2023. Check with your human resources department to see how to sign up for extra contributions.

Salary-reduction contributions are subtracted from your taxable wages, so you effectively get a federal income tax deduction. You can use the resulting tax savings to help pay for part of your extra catch-up contribution, or you can set the tax savings aside in a taxable retirement savings account to further increase your retirement wealth.

Tally the amounts

Here’s the proof of how much you can accumulate.

IRAs 

Let’s say you’re age 50 and you contribute an extra $1,000 catch-up contribution to your IRA this year and then do the same for the following 15 years. Here’s how much extra you could have in your IRA by age 65 (rounded to the nearest $1,000).

4% Annual Return	6% Annual Return	8% Annual Return
$22,000	$26,000	$30,000

Remember: Making larger deductible contributions to a traditional IRA can also lower your tax bills. Making additional contributions to a Roth IRA won’t, but you can take more tax-free withdrawals later in life.

Company plans

Say you’ll turn age 50 next year. You contribute an extra $7,500 to your company plan next year. Then, you do the same for the next 15 years. Here’s how much more you could have in your 401(k), 403(b), or 457 plan account (rounded to the nearest $1,000).

4% Annual Return	6% Annual Return	8% Annual Return
$164,000	$193,000	$227,000

Again, making larger contributions can also lower your tax bill.

Both IRA and company plans

Finally, let’s say you’ll turn age 50 next year. If you’re eligible, you contribute an extra $1,000 to your IRA for next year plus you make an extra $7,500 contribution to your company plan. Then, you do the same for the next 15 years. Here’s how much extra you could have in the two accounts combined (rounded to the nearest $1,000).

4% Annual Return	6% Annual Return	8% Annual Return
$186,000	$219,000	$257,000

Make retirement more golden 

As you can see, making extra catch-up contributions can add up to some pretty big numbers by the time you retire. If your spouse can make them too, you can potentially accumulate even more. Contact us if you have questions or want more information.

© 2023