Accounting firms Crowe LLP and BKD LLP released year-end tax-planning guides Wednesday, during a time of great uncertainty over future tax changes in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic and the upcoming election.
Crowe’s Tax Planning: 2020 Year-End Guide discusses a number of issues, including recent legislation passed in Congress in response to COVID-19, such as the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act).
Christopher Condo serves Application Development & Delivery (AD&D) Professionals. He is part of Forrester's AD&D coverage of DevOps tool chains, focusing on continuous integration (CI) and continuous delivery (CD) as well as software development strategies for enabling those strategies.
Previous Work Experience
Prior to his current role as an analyst, Chris was the engineering manager for the enterprise web applications team for Altran North America, where he oversaw and led the development of enterprise applications in the medical device and automated warehousing industry. Chris led a team of 10 software engineers, developed proposals, led estimation efforts, led resourcing efforts (including offshore), and also pitched in as an individual contributor. Chris has firsthand experience of developing software using agile practices and helping clients migrate to CI and CD methodologies as well as migrating to the cloud.
Prior to Altran, Chris was a senior development engineer at Microsoft for 13-plus years, working in the SaaS space starting with the Microsoft bCentral suite of online eCommerce tools targeted at small to medium businesses. Chris went on to lead software development efforts for the Office Live product suite, developing CRM and eCommerce platforms for Microsoft's growing online customer base. With Office 365, in addition to feature development, Chris worked on early tool chains that enabled global configuration and secure cloud deployments prior to their mainstream existence on the Azure platform. He also performed research and development on components to limit the impact of DOS attacks.
Before Microsoft, Chris held senior software engineering roles at FASTech, M/A-Com, and Digital Equipment Corp.
Education
Chris graduated from UMass Lowell with a B.S. in computer science. Chris is an active member of UMass Lowell Computer Science Industry Advisory Board.
Schechter is an associate attorney at Butterfield Schechter LLP in San Diego.
Mallon is Bersin’s chief storyteller. He engages directly with Bersin members and the market to bring the Bersin’s insights to life. As a 10-year veteran with the organization, and the leader of Bersin’s Research team for six years, he is one of Bersin’s most knowledgeable thought leaders in all areas of HR, talent, learning, and leadership. As a pivotal force behind Bersin’s maturity research for the past decade, he brings a unique, integrated perspective to helping organizations solve their most vexing workforce challenges – wisely and with systematic purpose. Before joining Bersin, Mallon led the consulting practice for a major LMS provider. Prior to that, he held learning and organization development-related positions with EarthLink, where he was responsible for overall learning strategy for its global call center organization. He holds a B.A. in English Literature from Emory University and an M.S. in Digital Media from the Georgia Institute of Technology with focuses on computer-aided distance learning and on storytelling in digital environments. This column first ran on the Bersin web site
“Navigating the current landscape can be tricky and confusing,” said Gary Fox, managing partner of tax services at Crowe, in a statement. “It is important to stay on top of all the fast-moving law changes of the past six months and to remain prepared for the possible changes in the near future.”
Other topics include standard deductions vs. itemizing, state and local tax deductions, home-related breaks and tax-advantaged saving for health care. The guide also covers family-oriented tax breaks such as child, dependent and adoption credits, dependent care breaks, the “kiddie tax,” Section 529 plans, education savings accounts and Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) accounts.
The Crowe guide also covers investor issues, such as capital gains taxes and timing, being tax-smart with losses, mutual funds, income investments and 3.8 percent net investment income tax. Business-related tax topics include business structure, Section 199A deductions for pass-through businesses, projecting income, depreciation, vehicle-related depreciation, meals, entertainment and transportation, employee benefits, tax credits and the self-employed.
Retirement tax topics include 401(k)s and other employer plans, more tax-deferred options, Roth alternatives, early withdrawals, required minimum distributions, IRA donations to charity and the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act (SECURE Act).
Estate-planning topics in the guide include estate taxes, gift taxes, the generation-skipping transfer (GST) tax, state taxes, exemption portability and tax-smart giving.
The Crowe guide also covers income tax rates for individuals, corporations and estates and trusts.
The BKD Year-End Tax Advisor aims to help businesses and individuals with their year-end planning decisions and the development of an effective tax strategy, given the recent changes in requirements, updated regulations and new tax laws this year.
“2020 has been a year like no other, with the COVID-19 pandemic affecting each of our lives, businesses and communities in ways many of us have never experienced,” said BKD director of tax quality control Jesse Palmer in a statement. “Solid tax planning is probably more important than it’s ever been before as you work to create a healthy financial future for yourself and your business.”
The BKD Year-End Tax Advisor includes reminders for the year ahead. More than a dozen contributors have written 18 articles for the guide, including discussions of how COVID-19 has affected various industries, charitable giving and information-reporting reminders.
