When Form 8865 Allocated 2023-2024

Hello, in this video we'll talk about partnership allocations. Now, this is one of the more difficult topics in partnership tax. Every time that I teach partnership tax, I have to go back and review the rules because this can get very dicey. So it's very important that you pay attention. While you're doing this, feel free to stop and look at the textbook reading or any assigned reading that you have. Looking at examples really helps to understand. The first thing I want to focus on is the difference between distributions and allocations. In partnership taxation, there's one level of taxation every year. The partners or owners of the business are allocated various items of income, loss, deductions, credits, and all the different items. They are allocated even though they might not actually receive cash or have to pay in terms of a loss. It's basically all on paper, but it still gets allocated and flows through to the owners on their tax returns. This is a tax transaction because it's allocated, as opposed to a distribution, where property or cash is actually distributed to the owners of the partnership. It's important to understand this difference because the rules we're talking about here deal with allocations. The rules for distributions will be discussed later on. In partnership tax, it's very flexible. One of Congress's goals in enacting subchapter K of the Internal Revenue Code, which deals with partnerships, is to keep a set of flexible rules that promote partnerships as a form of business entity. However, Congress has also put in place various anti-abuse rules to prevent actions done solely for tax avoidance purposes. In partnership tax, there's room for flexibility in terms of the partnership agreement. However, we also have to keep in mind the economics of the...