By Jessica Salerno-Shumaker, OSCPA senior content manager
The former Ohio Tax Commissioner offered this advice to CPAs on tax developments in the new year: be prepared for anything.
“I expect 2025 to be a year of chaos in terms of the number of legislative proposals that will be presented and whether or not they get enacted,” said Tom Zaino, JD, CPA, managing member of Zaino Hall & Farrin LLC.
At the federal level, there will be a focus on the TCJA provisions expiring, the SALT deduction cap, tip exemption and tax rates.
Don’t assume the TCJA expiring provisions will be extended, Zaino said.
“It's going to be a tough battle. It's expensive,” he said. “And one of the reasons it’s a challenge is while the Republicans have control of the House and the Senate, the Senate is not filibuster-proof. Getting a lot of these changes and extensions through Congress will be hard.”
Zaino said some of the more common questions tax professionals have on the state level are about the SALT cap workaround and the R&D credit for the Commercial Activity Tax.
“The Ohio Department of Taxation has been pretty aggressive in denying the R&D credit,” he said. “There are also challenges related to e-filing with the new systems going live at ODT in December, and multi-factor authentication going into place. It's going to challenge tax preparers to be able to access these systems.”
Something else to be aware of is the Consumer’s Use Tax Account, Zaino said. Companies are audited by the Department of Taxation that have never had a consumer use tax account, which means the department would go back seven years instead of four years of liability.
“The numbers can be outrageous when consider how much tax exposure there is from this related to sales and use tax and whether or not companies are paying sales and use tax on what they're buying,” he said. “It's important for CPAs to make sure their clients have consumers use tax accounts so that they can limit exposure.”
Zaino encouraged tax professionals to stay focused when monitoring state and federal developments, as changes are bound to happen.
“In 2025 professionals need to stay sharp because their clients are going to ask them a lot of questions about these potential changes,” he said.
Zaino Hall & Farrin is a proud sponsor of the MEGA Tax Conference, happening on Dec. 10 & 11. Register today!