Plain-English guides to QBI deduction rules, income limits, SSTB categories, and the calculation mechanics behind Form 8995 and 8995-A.
Pass-through owners may deduct up to 20% of qualified business income under Section 199A. Starting in 2018 and made permanent for 2026 and beyond by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), this is one of the larger individual tax provisions in recent memory.
Read →Eligibility depends on business structure, income level, and the type of work. SSTB rules and income limits can reduce the deduction to zero. This article sorts out who qualifies and who does not.
Read →Above the threshold, service-business owners start losing the deduction while non-SSTB owners face a W-2 wage test. The phase-in math runs across a $75,000 or $150,000 band for 2026. This article shows how that works.
Read →Most professional services fall under the SSTB umbrella. Once taxable income clears the upper threshold, the deduction disappears entirely for those businesses. Two notable exceptions: engineering and architecture are explicitly excluded from the SSTB list.
Read →The deduction starts at 20% of qualified business income. After that, a taxable income cap, a W-2 wage test, a property basis test, and any SSTB reduction all get applied. This article walks through the arithmetic in the right order.
Read →Rental income qualifies only if the activity rises to the level of a trade or business. The IRS 250-hour rental safe harbor under Revenue Procedure 2019-38 is the clearest route to meeting that standard. Incidental or triple-net rentals generally do not qualify.
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