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Pursuant to the Act, for tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026, a deduction will only be allowed for interest on a debt that qualifies as Acquisition Indebtedness. No deduction will be allowed for Home Equity debt.

In addition, the Act reduces the amount of eligible Acquisition Indebtedness borrowing to $750,000 for any debt incurred on or after December 15, 2017.

A taxpayer who entered into a binding contract before December 15, 2017 to close on the purchase of a residence before January 1, 2018, and who actually closes on the acquisition before April 1, 2018, shall be considered to have incurred the Acquisition Indebtedness before December 15, 2017.

ii. The old Acquisition Indebtedness limits continue to apply to taxpayers who refinance existing Acquisition Indebtedness as long as the indebtedness resulting from the refinancing does not exceed the amount of the original debt.

For 2017, the deduction for Qualified Residence Interest was limited to interest paid on up to $1,000,000 of borrowing that qualified as “Acquisition Indebtedness” and up to $100,000 of borrowing that qualifies as “Home Equity Indebtedness”.
Acquisition Indebtedness being defined as debt incurred to acquire, construct or substantially improve a principal residence or a second home, with no restriction on the use of Home Equity Indebtedness.

The combination of residential property taxes and Income or sales taxes continues to be capped at $10,000.

Property taxes remain fully deductible for taxpayers in a business or for-profit activity, so taxes paid on rental realty can be taken in full on Schedule E.

For 2019, the tax bracket amounts have been indexed for inflation.

For tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026, seven brackets will apply to individuals: 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%.

No change has been made to the filing statuses that apply to individuals.

Section 280F limits the §179 expensing and depreciation deductions (including bonus depreciation) with respect to certain passenger automobiles.

For passenger automobiles placed into service after December 31, 2017 the maximum amount of allowable depreciation is increased to $10,000 for the first year;
$16,000 for the second year; $9,600 for the third year; and $5,760 for the fourth and later years. Each of these amounts will be indexed for inflation in years after 2018.

The maximum first-year bonus depreciation (which was scheduled to reduce to $6,400 in 2018 and $4,800 in 2019) will remain at $8,000.

For property placed into service after December 31, 2017, qualified leasehold improvement, qualified restaurant and qualified retail improvement property will be subject to a 15-year recovery period and straight-line depreciation.

For contributions made in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017 and before January 1, 2026 the 50% limitation is increased to 60%. Any amounts in excess of the new limit can be carried forward and deducted for up to five years (as was allowed under prior law).

For any contribution made in a tax year beginning after December 31, 2016, the requirement of a charity to provide contemporaneous written acknowledgement as substantiation for any contribution of $250 or more is repealed.

Beginning in 2018, no charitable deduction is allowed for any payment to an institution of higher learning in exchange for which the contributor is given a right to purchase seats at an athletic event.

Prior to the enactment of the new law, charitable contributions were deductible with certain ceilings based upon a percentage of AGI. A 50% of AGI limit applied to cash contributions to public charities and certain private foundations.

For tax years beginning January 1, 2019, medical expenses, for all taxpayers, are deductible to the extent that they exceed 10% of youir AGI. It was 7.5% of AGI in 2018.

In addition, the AMT preference related to medical expenses is eliminated.

Pursuant to the Act, the child tax credit is increased to $2,000 per eligible child for 2018 through 2025.

The income level at which the credit phase-out begins is increased to $400,000 for taxpayers filing married filing jointly and $200,000 for all others. The credit continues to phase out at a rate of $50 for every $1,000 that AGI exceeds the threshold amounts.

The refundability of the credit was also modified so that the earned income threshold is reduced to $2,500.

The PATH Act permanently extended the enhanced $500,000 maximum amount of expensing available (along with the $2,000,000 phase-out threshold) under §179.

Under the new law, for property placed into service in tax years beginning after December 31, 2017, the maximum amount of expensing is increased to $1,000,000, and the phase-out threshold amount is increased to $2,500,000.

For tax years after 2018 these amounts will be indexed for inflation.

Long-Term Capital Gains (and Qualified Dividends) have been subject to special maximum tax rates. The Act generally retains the maximum tax rate structure.
For 2018 the 15% rate applies once the following income limits are met: a. Joint returns - $77,200
b. Head of Household returns - $51,700
c. Single returns - $38,600
d. Married Separate returns - $38,600
e. Trusts and Estates - $2,600

For 2018 the 20% rate will apply to long-term capital gains and qualified dividends above these income levels:
a. Joint returns - $479,000
b. Head of Household returns - $452,400
d. Married Separate returns - $239,500
e. Trusts and Estates - $12,700

Prior to the Act, a 0% capital gain rate applied to capital gains where the taxpayer is paying in the 10% or 15% rate on ordinary income; a 15% capital gain rate applied to any taxpayer paying any other rate below 39.6%; and a 20% rate applied to the high-income taxpayers paying 39.6% on ordinary income.

The IRS standard business mileage rate for 2018 is 54.5 cents a mile
.
The rate for medical expense and moving expense for certain military personnel deductions is 18 cents a mile.

For charitable volunteers the mileage rate is unchanged at 14 cents a mile.