William Byrnes' Tax, Wealth, and Risk Intelligence

The Texas A&M Master and LL.M. programs (e.g. international tax, transfer pricing, wealth management, or risk management) are accepting applications from financial professionals and from lawyers. Over 850 enrolled, the enrollment for a course’s section is kept to between 20 and a maximum of 30 so that each student receives meaningful feedback throughout the course from the full-time academic faculty and renowned professional case study leaders, and each other via teamwork and peer review. https://law.tamu.edu/distance-education

Prof. William H. Byrnes

Robert Bloink, J.D., LL.M.

This week, we have valuable information for clients wondering how the 401(k) rollover rules intersect with the required minimum distribution (RMD) rules and an update on a work-from-home related lawsuit against Amazon. We also have more details on the enhanced and extended tax credits for clean vehicles contained in the Inflation Reduction Act. Wondering whether your clients qualify? Read on for more details.

Inflation Reduction Act Expands and Boosts Appeal of Electric Vehicle Tax Credits. The Inflation Reduction Act expands the electric vehicle tax credit for electric vehicles placed into service after December 31, 2022 for ten years, through 2032. Taxpayers who buy qualifying vehicles will qualify for a tax credit of up to $7,500 for new vehicles. For used electric vehicles, the maximum credit will equal $4,000 or 30% of the vehicle’s cost, whichever is less. Used electric vehicles only qualify if they’re purchased for personal use, rather than for resale. The newly expanded electric vehicle tax credits are intended to provide benefits for lower- and middle-income clients. As such, they come with income restrictions and limitations. The credit is unavailable for single taxpayers who earn more than $150,000 per year, joint filers who earn more than $300,000 per year and heads-of-households who earn $225,000 per year or more. Certain luxury electric vehicles are also excluded and restrictions on where the vehicle is manufactured will also apply. For more information on the expanded tax credit for clean vehicles, visit Tax Facts Online. Read More

California Judge Won’t Dismiss Amazon Employee’s Work-From-Home Reimbursement Lawsuit. A federal district court judge in California denied a motion to dismiss a proposed class action lawsuit against Amazon. The lawsuit focuses on whether Amazon was required to reimburse the employees for expenses related to work-from-home requirements. The employee in this case alleged that state employment laws required Amazon to reimburse employees for work-related expenses incurred because of pandemic-related work-from-home requirements after the California governor issued lockdown orders. The expenses at issue here include electricity, Internet and space-related expenses totaling somewhere between $50 and $100 per month. California law requires employers to reimburse employees for any home office expenses incurred while they’re working from home. For more information on remote worker issues brought to light during the COVID-19 pandemic, visit Tax Facts Online. Read More

Rollerovers & RMDs: Need to Know for Clients Working Past the Traditional Retirement Age. At some point, every client is required to begin taking distributions from traditional retirement accounts. However, not all of those clients have stopped working. Some of those clients may wish to roll their 401(k) funds into an IRA if they don’t need those funds to cover living expenses while they’re still working. Clients need to understand that RMDs are not eligible for rollover. The client must take their RMD before completing the rollover–and the first distribution from the plan counts toward the RMD if the client is subject to RMD requirements (the client can’t roll funds into an IRA and take their RMD later in the year). Further, 401(k) RMDs can’t be taken from the client’s IRA–they must be taken from the 401(k) itself. After the client takes their RMD for the year, they can roll remaining plan funds over into an IRA–at which point, those funds become subject to the rules governing IRAs (not the 401(k) rules, so the “still working” exception won’t apply). For more information on the RMD failure penalties, visit Tax Facts Online. Read Mor

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Texas A&M, operating budget of $9.6 billion (FY2022) and capital budget of $1.9 billion, is #1 for U.S. public universities, one of only 60 accredited U.S. universities of the American Association of Universities (R1: Doctoral Universities – Highest Research Activity) and one of only 17 U.S. universities that hold the triple U.S. federal grant of Land, Sea, and Space! The law school, ranked in the 1st tier of law schools and is ranked in the top 10 for the employment of its graduating law students among U.S. law schools.

• Ranked in top 20 public universities by Wall Street Journal / Times Higher Education (2020)
• #2 endowment for U.S. public universities, #8 overall
• #1 of U.S. public universities for a superior education at an affordable cost
• #1 for most CEOs employed by Fortune 500
• top 10 for the employment of its law graduates
• Rank #11 by Money Best Colleges Report, 2021 and #5 in U.S. among public universities (Sources: U.S. Department of Education, Peterson’s, PayScale.com, Money/College Measures calculations)
• Texas A&M ranks #1 in Texas, #1 in the SEC, and #12 in the U.S. in Washington Monthly’s 2020 overall college rankings based on the quality of education, accessibility, graduation rates, student involvement, and research: see tx.ag/WashMonth20
• The School of Law enrollment is 850 Master/LL.M. students with a maximum of 30 per course section. The university enrollment is 70,000 degree seekers.