IRS Clarifies Tax Treatment Standards for Partners

At the Journal of Accountancy, Sally P. Schreiber reports:

The IRS issued temporary regulations intended to halt the practice some partnerships have adopted of treating partners as employees of a disregarded entity owned by the partnership so they can be included in employee benefit plans and receive other benefits. However, the IRS is also asking for comments on when it might be appropriate to allow partners to also be employees of a partnership.

To give taxpayers time to implement the new rules, the IRS is allowing any plan sponsored by an entity that is disregarded as an entity separate from its owner to apply them on Aug. 1, 2016, or the first day of the latest-starting plan year following May 4, 2016, whichever is later.

Under Regs. Sec. 301.7701-2(c)(2)(iv)(B), a disregarded entity is treated as a corporation for employment tax purposes, meaning that the entity, rather than its owner, is treated as the employer of the entity's employees. However, this rule does not apply for self-employment tax purposes, so the owner of an entity that is treated as a sole proprietorship is subject to self-employment tax.

For the full post, see "IRS clarifies: Partners cannot be employees." 

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