Question

Shelly has $200,000 of QBI from her local jewelry store (a sole proprietorship). Shelly's proprietorship paid $30,000 in W–2 wages and has $20,000 of qualified property. Shelly's spouse earned $74,400 of wages as an employee, they earned $20,000 of interest income during the year, and they will be filing jointly and using the standard deduction.What is their QBI deduction for 2018?

Answer 1

Qualified Business Income (QBI) Deduction:

With respect to the applicable provisions, the following are the provisions relating to QBI deduction:

(a) For Joint filers, if the taxable income is less than $315,000, the QBI deduction is limited to 20% of the qualified business income.

(b) The qualified business income includes the interest income not allocable to the business.

In the present case, the interest amount of $20,000 will not be considered for the calculation of QBI deduction (refer point (b) above).

Therefore, the total taxable income of S and her spouse will be $274,400 ($200,000 + $74,400) which was below the threshold limit of $315,000. Hence, they can claim the QBI deduction of 20% on the qualified business income of $200,000. The QBI deduction for 2018 is calculated as under:

QBI Deduction for 2018 = QBI x 20%

= $200,000 x 20%

= $40,000

Therefore, the QBI deduction for 2018 is $40,000.

Note: If the total taxable income exceeds the threshold limit of $315,000 for QBI deduction, the value of W-2 wages and qualified property would have been considered.