Start-up Business Consultants and Software Engineers, particularly those in the early phases of their careers. To face some unique tax complexities and tax planning opportunities due to their career path. Flex Tax and Consulting Group works with many of these consultants and has even given on-site tax seminars at several consulting firms.
This article attempts to summarize some of the major tax areas that consultants should be aware of about their taxes. We aim to help consultants avoid filing mistakes and optimize their finances proactively.
You May Need to File Returns in Multiple States
Start-up Business Consultants and Software Engineers travel frequently. They are often sent to work in different states for weeks or months.
All that travel means the consultant might need to file tax returns in each state they worked. That’s because each state will claim a portion of your income earned in that state.
Your timesheet will help determine the days spent in each state, and your employer will withhold state taxes accordingly. A consultant might see two or more conditions in the state portion of their Form W-2, Wage, and Tax Statement. See box 15 in the bottom left of the example Form W-2.
A common mistake is Consultants and Software Engineers accidentally paying double state tax. This happens because a consultant might not realize they need to take credit in their home state for taxes paid to other states.
You Could Be Taxed on Your MBA Tuition Loan Forgiveness
Sometimes an employer will pay for a consultant’s MBA tuition. The employer often sets this up as a loan that must be repaid if the employee stops working for the firm. However, the loan is forgiven in installments if the consultant continues working for a specific period. For instance, if they covered $120,000 of total tuition payments, then $60,000 might be forgiven after one-year of post-MBA work. And the other $60,000 will be forgiven after your second year of employment.
What is often misunderstood, though, is that loan forgiveness of $60,000 will show up on your Form W-2 each year as a taxable fringe benefit. This likely results in a significant tax bill to you, even though you didn’t receive the $60,000 in cash (it was used to pay your tuition a few years earlier).
What can be done?
They are going forward. The one thing that can do is to claim the MBA tuition expenses as a deduction in the tax year that the costs were paid. This deduction is available for the year 2017. If someone forgot to claim a deduction for their MBA tuition, they could revise their previously filed tax returns as far back as 2014. They are The premise for MBA tuition will be temporarily unavailable from 2018 through 2025.
Let’s illustrate this with an example. Sarah, a graduate of the class of 2017, started her MBA program in 2015. She had $30,000 of tuition expenses in the tax year 2015, $60,000 in 2016, and $30,000 in 2017, for a total of $120,000 of tuition covered by her firm, McKinsey. One year after returning to work, McKinsey will forgive $60,000 of that tuition payment. Sarah will see an extra $60,000 reported on her 2018 Form W-2. The same will happen on her 2019 Form W-2.
Sarah didn’t realize that she would face the tax impact and never claimed the tuition expenses on her tax return. For 2017 taxes, which need to be filed by April 17, 2018, she can deduct the $30,000 paid this year. She can also do the same by amending the tax returns for 2015 and 2016. The tax savings that result from taking the deduction can help her cover the cost of the high tax bill that Sarah will face in 2018 and 2019.
Don’t forget the IRS carefully analyzes this deduction, so we highly advise working with a tax advisor to ensure your return is in good shape. FTCG specializes in handling these cases.
Retirement Saving Optimization
Like many employees, many Consultants and Software Engineers have not given much thought to their retirement savings. Often, they elect to contribute a portion of their wages to a traditional 401(k) on their first day of work and don’t think about it again other than to increase or decrease the contribution amount from time to time.
Many Consultants and Software Engineers are unaware there is a second version of the 401(k), the Roth 401(k). It requires after-tax contributions today to avoid any tax obligation when funds are withdrawn in retirement. The traditional 401(k) works the opposite, shielding income from tax today and deferring tax until retirement.
For Consultants and Software Engineers in the earlier stages of their career. Opting to pay tax now via the Roth 401(k) might be the better choice. If they believe they will be in a higher tax bracket in retirement. Management consultants typically have good career prospects are good. We wouldn’t be surprised if consultants accumulate significant assets over time and work in some part-time or board of director capacity during retirement.
For those clients interested in boosting their savings, we point them to what is known as a backdoor Roth IRA contribution. This allows people to save another $5,500 per year. The backdoor strategy is helpful because it avoids some income limitations. It generally prevents most Consultants and Software Engineers from making a direct contribution. If this might interest you, read more about the backdoor Roth IRA.
Bonus Payments
Another common misconception among Consultants and Software Engineers is the tax treatment of bonus payments.
Bonuses are treated like any other form of wage compensation for tax purposes. That means whether you earned $100,000 in salary and $50,000 in a bonus or $150,000, all in salary will not affect your total tax liability.
However, the bonus payment is subject to unique withholding requirements set by the IRS, often resulting in a significant over- or under-withholding. The implication is that when it is time to file your taxes. You might surprise by a large tax refund or a large balance due. Neither of these outcomes is ideal. One is an interest-free loan to the government, and the other could result in an underpayment penalty.
What can you do about it? There are a few possible solutions, including ingadjusting your withholding selection applied to your regular wages over the remainder of the year.
Tax Move Takeaways
- Multiple State Income Tax Filings: Each state has its rules, and too often, Consultants and Software Engineers will double pay state income taxes without ever knowing. FTCG solves this problem for our management consultant clients as a national firm that does not charge anything extra for each state income tax filing. Be very careful if using a do-it-yourself online solution. If using an accountant, make sure they are familiar with the tax code of the relevant states.
- MBA Employer Sponsorship: Having your MBA paid for by your employer is great, but there is often a sizeable future tax bill associated with it when you return to work. Deducting the tuition expenses in the tax years when you were a student is a great way to offset the costs if eligible. If you did not take advantage of the deduction at the time. FTCG can help determine your eligibility and even go back and amend past year’s tax returns
- Retirement Saving Optimization: In the early stages of your career, consider making contributions to a Roth 401(k) on an after-tax basis rather than a pre-tax Traditional 401(k). And after reaching the $18,500 limit for the 401(k), consult a tax advisor if interested in contributing another $5,500 to an IRA, as the backdoor Roth IRA contribution strategy might benefit you.
- Bonus Payments: Bonuses have special withholding rates but are subject to standard tax rates. If you are not proactive, you might be over withheld. You will not get that money back for months until you file that year’s tax return. You may want to adjust the withholding on your standard paycheck to increase your cash flow. In the meantime, to recapture those funds sooner, a tax advisor can help you with this.
