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Federal Tax Reform Includes Traps For Deferred Compensation Deals

By Robert M. Jason and Olga Loy
March 29, 2005

Last October, President Bush signed into law the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004. This 2004 Tax Act amended nearly 600 sections of the Internal Revenue Code (IRC), thereby making far-reaching changes to many areas of tax law. While the major focus of the 2004 Act was to provide tax relief for U.S. corporations repatriating earnings back to the United States, this new legislation also provided numerous revenue-raising provisions and tax cuts that affected corporate and individual taxpayers and special interest groups, from film producers to owners of sports teams.

In fact, the 2004 Act affects the entertainment industry in numerous ways. The Act contains a variety of provisions that are specifically targeted at the entertainment industry, including new rules creating current deductions for small films made predominantly in the United States, and an amendment to the income-forecast method of depreciation. The Act also includes provisions that, though not targeted exclusively at the entertainment industry, have an intended and foreseeable impact on the industry, such as the new deduction for domestic production activities.

More insidious, though, are provisions that on their face suggest no connection to the entertainment industry, but which could cause major tax problems if not properly considered. The new rules relating to nonqualified deferred compensation fall into this category. If not properly addressed, these rules will create unintended, horrible tax consequences in some very basic transactions.

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