A November revenue ruling offers an interesting opportunity for employers to do some beneficial year-end tax planning.

When structuring a bonus pool for key employees, companies now have an opportunity to set the bonus pool this year and deduct the cost of the pool this year, yet actually pay for the bonuses early next year.

In ruling 2011-29 the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) ruled that an accrual-basis taxpayer can take a deduction for payments made under a bonus program, even though the payments are not made until the following year and the individual recipients and the amount paid to each recipient is unknown at the end of the employer's tax year.

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

  • Critical BenefitsPRO information including cutting edge post-reform success strategies, access to educational webcasts and videos, resources from industry leaders, and informative Newsletters.
  • Exclusive discounts on ALM, BenefitsPRO magazine and BenefitsPRO.com events
  • Access to other award-winning ALM websites including ThinkAdvisor.com and Law.com
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.