As a way to make those tax cuts appear paid for, they changed how R&D expenditures -- which includes software development on software that has ALREADY been commercialized -- has to be amortized.
This was a budgetary sleight-of-hand that made the tax cuts appear paid for.
Most small companies are LLCs, not Corporations, and therefore pay personal tax rates.
As a result, software and other tech companies now have phantom profits because their engineer salaries and other expenses are no longer deductions.
Comments
There's a bit more to it than that.
As a way to make those tax cuts appear paid for, they changed how R&D expenditures -- which includes software development on software that has ALREADY been commercialized -- has to be amortized.
This was a budgetary sleight-of-hand that made the tax cuts appear paid for.
Most small companies are LLCs, not Corporations, and therefore pay personal tax rates.
As a result, software and other tech companies now have phantom profits because their engineer salaries and other expenses are no longer deductions.
IRS guidance: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/n-23-63.pdf