Blog & Newsroom

Zinner & Co. is pleased to share that we will celebrate our 80th anniversary this month. Founded in 1938 by Harry Zinner, as a solo practitioner providing bookkeeping services, Zinner & Co. has grown into a full service accounting and management consulting firm with a staff of approximately 40 people.

With an increasing number of baby boomers reaching retirement age, business owners are choosing to leave the workforce. This means the end of a partnership and a change in the way you do business.

Current Law:

The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 limits individual taxpayer's state and local tax (SALT), itemized deduction to $10,000 (including real estate taxes). The previous law allowed an unlimited deduction. This change may be detrimental to many individual taxpayers who relied heavily on these deductions in the past.

State Work-Arounds:

Some states have considered "work-arounds" to combat this limitation. Select states (California, Connecticut, Illinois, New York and New Jersey, thus far) have created state

Every year at this time, you start to hear more about the importance of year-end income tax planning in radio and television commentary. For many people with more complex businesses or investments, the beginning of the 4^th quarter of the year signals the time to start to organize their tax documents and to set-up an appointment with their advisors to review results.

This year is different! This year, tax planning should be important to everyone, not just for those that have complex tax situations. The implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has impacted every taxpayer. While we have all heard about it, not everyone has an applied working knowledge of what the impact will be in the first annual income tax filing season, which begins in about three months.

Every organization has that room where miscellaneous stuff accumulates. Most don't know what's in that room. There are holiday decorations, a couple broken chairs and rows and rows of filing cabinets. In those filing cabinets are thousands of files that everyone is afraid to get rid of, but never use.

If your organization is like most, you have thousands of documents you don't know what to do with. Well, never fear! 

High school and elementary school tuition can now be paid through a 529 savings plan.

For many families, use of Section 529 plans or “Qualified Tuition Programs” for college tuition planning has provided a great way to exempt the growth of a dedicated asset account when used for qualified education expenses. 

The 2017 Tax Cut and Jobs Act made changes to this tool to allow for up to $10,000 in annual expenses for tuition with enrollment or attendance at a qualified elementary or secondary public, private or religious school.

Recently, proposed regulations were issued to provide some clarity concerning the new Section 199A deduction. 

As part of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which became effective as of the beginning of this year, this new deduction generally provides a 20 percent deduction for a pass-through businesses (primarily partnerships and LLCs taxed as partnerships, S Corporations, Sole Proprietorships and single member LLCs) that generate Qualified Business Income (QBI). This deduction is taken at the individual level and is allowable after one takes the greater of their itemized deductions or the standard deduction.

QBI does not include wages earned by an employee, guaranteed payments paid to a partner or reasonable compensation paid to an S Corporation shareholder. 

For many individuals, September means it is time to look for a new car since the upcoming year’s automobile models are introduced.

A primer on how to navigate the changes

In the past few months, phrases like “tariffs on Chinese imports” and “trade war with China” have been  floating around in the news. The government levied a 25 percent tariff on over $50 billion of products imported from China.

On July 24, Zinner & Co. honored Gabe Adler, CPA, CGMA, Partner and Howard Kass, CPA, CGMA, AEP, Partner, for their nearly 90 combined years of public accounting experience with a retirement party at Acacia Clubhouse in Lyndhurst.

Both Adler and Kass graduated from Cleveland Heights High School in 1971 and 47 years later, they are both retiring after successful careers.

“In today’s world, it’s almost unheard of to have that kind of longevity in a single field and most notably, together in the same firm for the last 19 years,” said Zinner & Co. Managing Partner Robin Baum, CPA.