Stewart Law, P.A., a boutique corporate, trusts, and estates firm in Charlotte, North Carolina is proud to announce that Founding Partner, Todd A. Stewart has been recognized as Best Lawyers in America® 2020 in Charlotte, NC. The Best Lawyers in America® program is the oldest and among the most respected attorney ranking services in the world. Todd was selected in the trusts and estates category. Attorneys named to Best Lawyers lists are recognized by their peers in the legal industry for their professional excellence in specific practice areas. To read their recently released press release click here.
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Why would I be interested in Qualified Opportunity Zones (QOZs)? This new tax provision was created to spur investment in certain under-performing economic areas known as Qualified Opportunity Zones. You can find a map of North Carolina’s zones here. Investing in a QOZ is one of the few opportunities in the tax code to defer (and possibly eliminate) tax on gains. Thus, you can put the whole amount of your proceeds from a sale to work rather than the proceeds less income taxes. How long can I defer paying taxes on my gain? Until you sell or exchange your interest […]
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By Todd A. Stewart, Founding Partner Recently, Joe Hernandez talked with our Vistage group about “High Level Negotiation.” One key takeaway for me runs counter to something that you hear a lot. His point is that you should use anchoring (i.e., the idea that people rely heavily on an idea or number they’ve heard recently) to your benefit and be the person who makes the first offer. Our informal class exercise supported this and the final negotiated value for most groups clustered around the first offer, whether it was near $20,000 or three times this amount. For more information: https://www.lionsharenegotiations.com/. *Intended as […]
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By Todd A. Stewart, Founding Partner On May 20, 2019, I was in a program with author Kevin W. McCarthy where he talked about his book, Chief Leadership Officer: Increasing Wealth So Everyone Profits. Many good takeaways and I particularly like the idea of aligning your three bottom lines: Financial, People and Purpose. If you want more information, the website is: http://chiefleadershipofficer.com/. *Intended as general guidance only and not as legal advice.
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Saving self-employment (SE) tax on the business earnings of a partner or sole proprietor can be significant, with rates from 2.9% to 15.3%. Partners in some cases have avoided this SE tax on their distributive share for an interest as a limited partner in a limited partnership (LP). Today, however, LLCs are in much more common use than LPs for business and investment purposes. This makes it unfortunate that it’s still not clear that a passive member of an LLC can avoid the SE tax. Recently though, the Tax Court allowed limited partner treatment to a passive member of an […]
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Here’s an idea that can be very powerful for some business owners. The 2017 Tax Act provides business owners with a 20% deduction on their business profits (Qualified Business Income or QBI). The catch is that the 20% is applied to taxable income if that’s lower. In other words, if taxable income is going to be lower than QBI, then you miss the opportunity to have some income that will receive a 20% deduction. Therefore, if you accelerate income, some of the cost of doing so will be eliminated by the increase you are creating with a larger QBI deduction. […]
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