In 2019, Americans took an estimated 470 million domestic business trips, and spent more than $327 billion on business travel, which has increased year after year. In fact, global business travel is forecasted to increase by 6.9% in 2020. Surveys suggest that 85% of companies have employees who work outside their resident jurisdiction—and more employees are travelling away from their home business location than ever before.

On Dec. 20, 2019, President Trump signed into law the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020 (FCTA). Among its many provisions, the FCTA includes the Setting Every Community Up for Retirement Enhancement Act of 2019 (aka the SECURE Act). While most of these changes affect taxpayers’ IRAs and 401(k) accounts in a positive way, certain provisions tighten some rules. This discussion will review key provisions of the act and their impact on taxpayers.

On Dec. 19, 2019, the U.S. Department of Treasury and the IRS (collectively, the Treasury Department) released long-awaited final regulations on qualified opportunity funds (QOF). The final regulations come on the heels of two tranches of proposed regulations, which generated more than 300 comment letters from organizations and other interested parties. The NYSSCPA submitted a comment letter to the Treasury Department dated Jan. 9, 2019, that addressed a wide range of issues. In addition, the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) submitted two separate comment letters to the Treasury Department on trust- and estate-related issues, the second of which was dated Jun. 27, 2019.

In addition to the plethora of New York State (NYS) taxes imposed on residents and businesses, New York City (NYC or city) has its own distinct set of business taxes, administered and collected by the NYC Department of Finance (DOF). The DOF collects more than $33.2 billion in revenue for the city and values more than 1 million properties with a total market value of $988 billion.

During the administration of a decedent’s estate, an executor performs four basic functions: identifies and collects the decedent’s assets; determines cash needs for payment of expenses and debts, and raises cash to pay the expenses; files any required tax returns, including the decedent’s final personal income tax returns, gift tax returns, estate tax returns, and fiduciary income tax returns, and pays associated taxes; and distributes assets in accordance with the terms of the decedent’s Last Will and Testament.