The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, signed into law on Dec. 22, 2017, marks the largest change to U.S. tax policy in decades.
What changes are coming for healthcare companies?
To help organizations navigate the issues most impactful and urgent to the healthcare industry, we’ve prepared a summary of the major implications based on the signed legislation.
Read ahead to 5 steps healthcare organizations should take to tackle tax reform
| Provision | Implications for Nonprofits |
| Repeal of the ACA Individual Mandate | The final legislation ends the requirement for individuals to possess health insurance or face a monetary penalty. This will increase the number of uninsured individuals by about 13 million in 2027, according to the Congressional Budget Office. However, large portions of the ACA are still in effect. [Industry View]
Effective date: Effective for years after Dec. 31, 2018 |
| For-Profit Considerations | |
| Reduce the Corporate Tax Rate | The final legislation reduces the corporate tax from 35% to 21%. [Industry View]
Effective date: Effective for taxable years after Dec. 31, 2017 |
| Limitation of Interest Rate Deductibility | The final legislation caps interest deduction to the sum of business interest income plus 30% of the adjusted taxable income of the taxpayer for the taxable year. [Industry View]
Adjusted taxable income is defined similar to EBITDA for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017 and before Jan. 1, 2022, and is defined similar to EBIT for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2021. Limitation applies to both related party and unrelated party debt. Disallowed interest is carried forward indefinitely. Effective date: Taxable years after Dec. 31, 2017 |
| Immediate Expensing of Certain Capital Expenditures | The final legislation enables companies to fully expense capital expenditures for most types of property other than real estate in 2018. [Industry View]
Effective date: Applies until 2022 for purchases made after Sept. 27, 2017; the percentage of allowable expensing will be phased out at a rate of 20% per year from 2023 (80%) to 2026 (20%). |
| Amortization of Research and Experimental (R&E) Expenditures | The final legislation requires that expenditures paid or incurred be capitalized and amortized over five years (15 years for expenditures for research conducted abroad). [Industry View]
Effective date: Taxable years after Dec. 31, 2021 |
| Pass-through Deduction of 20% for Business Owners | Owners of most pass-through entities such as sole proprietorships, partnerships and S-corporations may be entitled to claim a deduction equal to 20% of qualified business income if they are not considered a prohibited specified service trade or business. While not all healthcare trades or businesses fall into this definition, most owner-operated clinical entities are generally considered a specified service trade or business, which disallows the deduction unless the owners meet certain taxable income thresholds. [Industry View]
Effective date: Taxable years after Dec. 31, 2017 |
| Non-Profit Considerations | |
| Increase the Standard Deduction; Limit the State and Local Tax Deduction | The final legislation nearly doubles the standard deduction for individuals and married couples filing jointly and limits the deduction for state and local taxes to $10,000. [Industry View]
Effective date: Taxable years after Dec. 31, 2017 |
| Increase the Charitable Contribution Deduction Limit and Repeal the “Pease†Limitation | The Act increases the charitable contribution deduction limit for an individual to 60% of his or her adjusted gross income (AGI), up from the current limit of 50%. The Act repeals the “Pease†limitation, whose original intent was to raise tax revenue by increasing the taxable income for high-income earners. It does this by reducing the value/ benefits of several itemized deductions (including charitable contributions) once a taxpayer’s AGI reaches a certain amount ($261,500 for single filers and $313,800 for married couples filing jointly). The suspension of this limitation sunsets in 2025. [Industry View] |
| Impose an Excise Tax on Endowments of “Applicable Educational Institutions†| The law includes a new excise tax of 1.4% on the net investment incomes of applicable educational institutions. The term “applicable educational institution†refers to an educational institution which a) had at least 500 students during the preceding taxable year; b) the aggregate fair market value of the assets of which at the end of the preceding taxable year (other than those assets which are used directly in carrying out the institution’s exempt purpose) is at least $500,000 per student of the institution; and c) more than 50 percent of the students are located in the United States. [Industry View]
Effective date: Taxable years after Dec. 31, 2017 |
| Repeal of Advance Refunding Bonds | Effective date: Applies to advance refunding bonds issued after Dec. 31, 2017. [Industry View] |
| Imposes Excise Tax on Executive Compensation | The Act imposes a 21% excise tax on the compensation of any covered employee in excess of $1 million. The term “covered employee†means any employee (including any former employee) of an applicable tax-exempt organization if the employee a) is one of the five highest compensated employees of the organization for the taxable year, or b) was a covered employee of the organization (or any predecessor) for any preceding taxable year beginning after Dec. 31, 2017. Certain medical professionals are excluded from the definition of a covered employee. [Industry View]
Effective date: Effective for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017 |
| Modifications to the Unrelated Business Income Tax (UBIT) | The Act disallows tax-exempt organizations to take the business losses from one economic activity and deduct them from the gains of another economic activity. Organizations could, however, use one year’s losses on the same unrelated business to reduce taxes on another year’s operation of the same unrelated business. [Industry View]
The provision is effective for taxable years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017. NOLs arising before Jan. 1, 2018, are not subject to the rule. |
| Certain Fringe Benefits Taxed as UBI | A tax-exempt organization includes as UBTI any amounts paid or incurred by the organization for any qualified transportation fringe or any parking facility used in connection with qualified parking.
UBTI does not include the amounts described above to the extent connected with an unrelated trade or business. [Industry View] Effective date: Tax years beginning after Dec. 31, 2017 |
CONSIDERATIONS FOR HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS
HERE ARE 5 STEPS HEALTHCARE ORGANIZATIONS SHOULD TAKE NOW TO TACKLE TAX REFORM:
- Assess impact. Tax professionals will likely need to review the bill text manually and measure their organization’s specific circumstances against it to assess the impact of the provisions and their holistic effect on their organization’s bottom line.
- Assemble a team. While the heaviest burden may fall on accountants, companies and their finance teams will have an important role to play in gathering all the necessary data.
- Dig into the data. Assessing the impact of tax reform requires a substantial amount of data. Organizations need to move from modeling the impact of tax reform to focusing on data collection and computations as soon as possible. If you have an international presence, bear in mind that some of the information needed could date back to 1987.
- Establish priorities. When considering next steps, focus on the areas that could have the greatest impact on your organization.
- Initiate tax reform conversations with your tax advisor. Tax reform of this magnitude is the biggest change we’ve seen in a generation and will require intense focus to understand not only how the changes apply at the federal level, but also to navigate the ripple effect this is likely to have on state taxation as well.
If you’d like to discuss the changes in the tax law and tax planning for your healthcare organization, please contact Rich Edelman.
This article originally appeared in BDO USA, LLP’s “BDO Knows Alert†newsletter (March 2018). Copyright © 2018 BDO USA, LLP. All rights reserved. www.bdo.com
