When Congress enacted tax reform in 2017, the new tax law permanently lowered the tax rate for corporations from 35% to 21%. To make sure that other business owners weren’t left behind, Congress provided a new deduction—Section 199A—for sole proprietors and owners of pass-through businesses. Section 199A offers eligible business owners a lower effective tax rate  by allowing for a deduction of up to 20% on qualified business income (QBI) for tax years 2018 - 2025. Due to a lack of initial guidance, there has been much difficulty and speculation regarding how this deduction works.

Article originally published in the Quarterly V12-I2, 2018. Author: Patrick Carlson, JD, LLM. Get all your business and estate planning information by becoming a Quarterly subscriber.

Sadly, many attorneys do not approach their client development efforts with an eye towards creating lifetime value. When you transition your mindset, it can have far-reaching – and valuable – implications for how to approach your marketing efforts, initial intake, client service, and the cultivation of additional legal service opportunities with those clients.

With the ability to learn almost anything and buy whatever you want at your fingertips, it’s hard to fathom that the internet’s role in our daily lives will diminish. On the contrary, more and more consumers are turning to the internet to shop for goods and research the best service provider. To survive the times, many law firms are turning to the power of the virtual world to attract more clients and run more efficiently.

Unlike a traditional firm, virtual firms have much smaller start-up costs. In ditching the old brick and mortar office for a virtual one, the list of tools an attorney needs to run a successful practice fall into two main categories: hardware and software.