The GOP tax law has given an unexpected boost to one industry - and it's all because the plan is so complicated
- The GOP tax law passed in 2017 has given an unexpected boost to tax lawyers and accountants, since it's so complicated.
- The situation is a reminder that any tax code rewrite is going to make some tax laws more complex, not simpler - and someone always benefits from that.
Don't look now, but added complexities from the 2017 Trump tax cuts are driving a hiring boom for tax lawyers and accountants, along with a rash of issues where they shouldn't expect help.
Driving the news: "U.S. accounting firms crossed the one-million-employee threshold last year ... Job growth in the sector in the first year of the law was 3.6%," the WSJ's Richard Rubin notes.
- "Deloitte Tax LLP grew by 10% this fiscal year and expects another 10% bump next year. KPMG LLP says it hired twice as many experienced employees in 2018 in its U.S. tax practice as it did the year before."
- "[The Trump tax cuts] created just a whole lot of new complexity and it's given us mountains of new guidance to figure out and to deal with," McDermott Will & Emery LLP partner David Noren told The Journal.
Between the lines: It's not exactly a surprise that a rewrite of the tax code would create new business for accountants, Axios' David Nather notes.
- But the piece is a reminder that any tax code rewrite is going to make some tax laws more complex, not simpler - and someone always benefits from that.
Why it matters: The tax cuts simplified filing for many Americans - particularly by doubling the standard exemption - but have added a slew of issues on the corporate side.
- International: "Multinational companies are subject to two new minimum taxes and complex rules for calculating a one-time tax on their past foreign profits. And Congress didn't eliminate many of the old rules, instead layering new ones atop them."
- Domestic: "Pass-through businesses such as partnerships can get a special 20% deduction, but they have to follow detailed regulations ... Businesses of all types face new restrictions on net operating losses and interest deductions and have new potential benefits from accelerated depreciation."
The bottom line: Don't expect Democrats to rush to help on the "technical corrections" Republicans have introduced to fix elements of the bill, especially after Republicans spent years rejecting Democratic efforts to clean up the Affordable Care Act.