The Proposed Sec. 199A Regs Are Here! Part Two
September 05, 2018
This is the second in a series of posts reviewing the recently proposed regulations (“PR”) under Sec. 199A of the Code. https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2018/08/16/2018-17276/qualified-business-income-deduction
Yesterday, we considered the elements of a “qualified” trade or business under Section 199A. Today, we’ll pick up with those trades or businesses that may be excluded from its coverage, and tomorrow we’ll turn to the meaning of qualified business income. https://www.taxlawforchb.com/2018/09/the-proposed-sec-199a-regs-are-here-part-one/ Hold on to your seats as we continue to look at more . . . definitions.
Effect of Specified Service Trade or Business Status
A qualified trade or business (“QTB”) – the qualified business income (“QBI”) of which provides the basis for the Section 199A deduction – includes any trade or business other than a “specified service trade or business” (“SSTB”).
Thus, if a trade or business is an SSTB, no QBI, W-2 wages, or unadjusted basis (“UB”) of qualified property from the SSTB may be taken into account by an individual owner of the SSTB whose taxable income exceeds a threshold amount plus a phase-in range, even if the taxable income is derived from an activity that is not itself an SSTB.
If the trade or business conducted by a PTE is an SSTB, this limitation will apply to any direct or indirect individual owners of the business, regardless of whether the owner is passive or participated in any SSTB activity. However, the SSTB limitation will not apply to an individual with taxable income below the threshold amount.[i]
SSTB Defined
Conceptually, the definition of an SSTB emphasizes the direct provision of services by the employees or owners of a trade or business, rather than the application of capital.
Although the Code does not require a certain quantum of specified service activity is necessary to find an SSTB, the PR provide a de minimis rule under which a trade or business will not be considered an SSTB merely because it provides a small amount of services in a specified service activity.[ii]
An SSTB means any trade or business involving the performance of services in the fields of health, law, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, brokerage services, or any trade or business where the principal asset of such trade or business is the reputation or skill of one or more of its employees or owners, and any trade or business that involves the performance of services that consist of investing and investment management, trading, or dealing in securities, partnership interests, or commodities.
Some of these services are considered below.
Health
The PR provide that the term “performance of services in the field of health” means the provision of medical services by physicians, pharmacists, nurses, dentists, veterinarians, physical therapists, psychologists, and other similar healthcare professionals who provide medical services directly to a patient.
The performance of services in the field of health does not include the provision of services not directly related to a medical field, even though the services may purportedly relate to the health of the service recipient.
For example, the performance of services in the field of health does not include the operation of health clubs or health spas that provide physical exercise or conditioning to their customers, payment processing, or research, testing, and manufacture and/or sales of pharmaceuticals or medical devices.
Law
The term “performance of services in the field of law” means the provision of services by lawyers, paralegals, legal arbitrators, mediators, and similar professionals in their capacity as such.
It does not include the provision of services that do not require skills unique to the field of law; for example, the provision of services in the field of law does not include the provision of services by printers, delivery services, or stenography services.
Accounting
The PR provides that the term “performance of services in the field of accounting” means the provision of services by accountants, enrolled agents, return preparers, financial auditors, and similar professionals in their capacity as such.
Provision of services in the field of accounting is not limited to services requiring state licensure as a certified public accountant (CPA). The aim of the PR is to capture the common understanding of accounting, which includes bookkeeping services.
The field of accounting does not include payment processing and billing analysis.
Consulting
The term “performance of services in the field of consulting” means the provision of professional advice and counsel to clients to assist the client in achieving goals and solving problems.
Consulting includes providing advice and counsel regarding advocacy with the intention of influencing decisions made by a government or governmental agency and all attempts to influence legislators and other government officials on behalf of a client by lobbyists and other similar professionals performing services in their capacity as such.
The performance of services in the field of consulting does not include the performance of services other than advice and counsel, such as sales or economically similar services, or the provision of training or educational courses. The determination of whether a person’s services are sales or economically similar services is made based on all the facts and circumstances of that person’s business, including the manner in which the taxpayer is compensated for the services.
In recognition of the fact that, in certain kinds of sales transactions, it is common for businesses to provide consulting services in connection with the purchase of goods by customers – for example, a company that sells computers may provide customers with consulting services relating to the setup, operation, and repair of the computers – the PR provide a de minimis rule under which a trade or business is not an SSTB if less than 10% of the gross receipts (5% if the gross receipts are greater than $25 million) of the trade or business for a taxable year are attributable to the performance of services in a SSTB.
However, the IRS also recognized that this de minimis rule may not provide sufficient relief for certain trades or business that provide ancillary consulting services. Thus, the PR also provide that the field of consulting does not include the performance of consulting services that are embedded in, or ancillary to, the sale of goods or the performance of services on behalf of a trade or business that is other than an SSTB if there is no separate payment for the consulting services.
Financial Services
The PR limits the definition of financial services to services including managing wealth, advising clients with respect to finances, developing retirement plans, developing wealth transition plans, the provision of advisory and other similar services regarding valuations, mergers, acquisitions, dispositions, restructurings (including in title 11 or similar cases), and raising financial capital by underwriting, or acting as the client’s agent in the issuance of securities, and similar services.
This includes services provided by financial advisors, investment bankers, wealth planners, and retirement advisors and other similar professionals.
Brokerage Services
The PR provide that the field of brokerage services includes services in which a person arranges transactions between a buyer and a seller with respect to securities for a commission or fee. This includes services provided by stock brokers and other similar professionals, but does not include services provided by real estate agents and brokers, or insurance agents and brokers.
Principal Asset of the Business: Reputation or Skill of Employees or Owners
Thankfully, the PR rejected a broad, service-based approach to the meaning of what could have been the catch-all “reputation or skill” clause by limiting it to fact patterns in which the individual or PTE is engaged in the trade or business of: (1) Receiving income for endorsing products or services, including an individual’s distributive share of income or distributions from an PTE for which the individual provides endorsement services; (2) licensing or receiving income for the use of an individual’s image, likeness, name, signature, voice, trademark, or any other symbols associated with the individual’s identity, including an individual’s distributive share of income or distributions from an RPE to which an individual contributes the rights to use the individual’s image; or (3) receiving appearance fees or income.[iii]
Investing and Investment Management
The PR provide that any trade or business that involves the “performance of services that consist of investing and investment management” means a trade or business that earns fees for investment, asset management services, or investment management services, including providing advice with respect to buying and selling investments. The performance of services that consist of investing and investment management would include a trade or business that receives either a commission, a flat fee, or an investment management fee calculated as a percentage of assets under management.
The performance of services of investing and investment management does not include directly managing real property.
Trading
The PR provide that any trade or business involving the “performance of services that consist of trading” means a trade or business of trading in securities, commodities, or partnership interests. Whether a person is a trader is determined taking into account the relevant facts and circumstances. Factors that have been considered relevant to determining whether a person is a trader include the source and type of profit generally sought from engaging in the activity regardless of whether the activity is being provided on behalf of customers or for a taxpayer’s own account.
Dealing in Securities
The “performance of services that consist of dealing in securities” means regularly purchasing securities from and selling securities to customers in the ordinary course of a trade or business or regularly offering to enter into, assume, offset, assign, or otherwise terminate positions in securities with customers in the ordinary course of a trade or business. For purposes of the preceding sentence, a taxpayer that regularly originates loans in the ordinary course of a trade or business of making loans but engages in no more than “negligible” sales of the loans is not dealing in securities for purposes of Section 199A.
The fact that businesses are operated across entities raises the question of whether, in defining a “trade or business” for purposes of Section 199A, trades or businesses should be permitted or required to be aggregated, or disaggregated, and if so, whether such aggregation, or disaggregation, should occur at the entity level or at the individual-owner level.
Services or Property Provided to an SSTB
The IRS observed that some taxpayers have contemplated a strategy to separate out parts of what otherwise would be an integrated SSTB, such as the administrative functions, in an attempt to qualify those separated parts for the Section 199A deduction. Such a strategy, the IRS has stated, is inconsistent with the purpose of Section 199A.
Therefore, the PR provide an anti-abuse rule pursuant to which an SSTB will include any trade or business (not otherwise an SSTB) with 50% or more common ownership (direct or indirect) with an SSTB, that provides 80% or more of its property or services to the SSTB.
Additionally, if a trade or business provides less than 80% of its property or services to an SSTB, but has 50% or more common ownership with an SSTB, that portion of the trade or business of providing property or services to the SSTB will be treated as part of the SSTB (meaning the income will be treated as income from an SSTB). For example, dentist A owns a dental practice and also owns an office building. A rents half the building to the dental practice and half the building to unrelated persons. The renting of half of the building to the dental practice will be treated as an SSTB.
The PR also provide a rule that if a trade or business (that would not otherwise be treated as an SSTB) has 50% or more common ownership with an SSTB, and has shared expenses with an SSTB, including wages or overhead expenses, it is treated as incidental to the SSTB and, therefore, as part of the SSTB, if the gross receipts of the trade or business represent no more than 5% of the gross receipts of the combined business in a taxable year.
Example. A, a dermatologist, provides medical services to patients on a regular basis through LLC, a disregarded entity owned by A. In addition to providing medical services, LLC also sells skin care products to A’s patients. The same employees and office space are used for the medical services and sale of skin care products. The gross receipts with respect to the skin care product sales do not exceed 5% of the gross receipts of LLC. Accordingly, the sale of the skin care products is treated as incidental to A’s SSTB of performing services in the field of health and is treated as part of such SSTB.
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[i] For purposes of this post, it is assumed that the threshold amount ($315,000 in the case of married taxpayers filing jointly) and phase-in range are exceeded. It should be noted, however, that an individual with taxable income in excess of the threshold amount but within the phase-in range will be allowed to take into account a certain “applicable percentage” of QBI, W-2 wages and QB of qualified property from an SSTB in determining their Section 199A deduction. Thus, some owners of an SSTB may qualify for the Section 199A deduction while others may not.
[ii] For more details on this de minimis rule, see the discussion below, under “consulting” services.
[iii] Oh, to be a celebrity!