When physicians and other business owners elect S corporation status, one of the first questions they ask is:

"Should I put my car in the business?"

It seems logical. If the business uses the vehicle, shouldn't the business own it?

Surprisingly, the answer is often no.

While there are situations where S corporation ownership makes sense, personally owning your vehicle and using an accountable plan is frequently the cleaner, more tax-efficient option.

Many physicians eventually reach the point where they own both a medical practice and the real estate used by that practice. This is common for practice owners who operate from a dedicated office, clinic, or professional building. The structure often looks like this: the doctor owns the medical practice through an S corporation, partnership, or professional entity, and the building is owned separately, often through an LLC. The practice pays rent to the building entity, the building reports rental income and expenses, and everyone moves on.  It seems simple enough, but from a tax standpoint, this arrangement raises an important question: is the rental activity passive or non-passive?

In other words, the changes to the SALT deduction by themselves change how we look at charitable donations.  What’s more, the OBBBA has introduced a couple of fairly minor changes to how charitable donations are deducted.  Importantly, these take effect in 2026 (the change to the SALT deduction takes effect in 2025).  Because they are both calculated on the same schedule of the tax return, and the total is compared with the standard deduction, there is significant interplay between them in a holistic tax plan that optimizes for 2025 and future years.

For most taxpayers, the largest tax obligation they pay at the state/local level is their state income tax.