Hartford Business Journal

10 Hartford Business Journal • April 23, 2018 • www.HartfordBusiness.com Trump's tax overhaul complicates 2018 tax season Q&A talks with Patrick Duf- fany, managing partner of accounting firm CohnReznick's tax practice, about this year's tax season. Q. With the April 17th tax filing deadline behind us, accountants everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief. So, what were the dominant trends this tax season? A. This certainly was an interesting tax season. Clearly, the most domi- nant trend this year was the volume of questions relating to the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. While taxpayers were, as usual, trying to understand their 2017 tax position, most were also trying to understand how the tax reform legislation impacted them in 2017 and the years ahead. For example, individual taxpayers were initially questioning if, in 2017, they could (or should) prepay state and local taxes before the $10,000 deduction limi- tation went into effect for them in the 2018 tax year, and if they should prepay any charitable contributions. Business taxpayers were not only completing their 2017 tax provisions, but simultaneously trying to under- stand how the myriad tax changes im- pacted their 2017 results and what they needed to do as they looked forward to 2018. The real challenge for taxpayers and tax practitioners was, and is, the lack of clarity on some of these rules. Q. Broadly speaking, how did the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act impact this tax season? A. It was nuts. We had our normal tax season work, reviewed hundreds, if not thousands of pages of federal tax language, explanations, and history and tried to fill in the missing pieces, educate our staff on all the changes, and then worked with our clients to ensure they were informed about what mattered to them. And, just when you thought you were caught up and understood the domestic federal tax rules, the inter- Patrick Duffany Tax Practice Managing Partner, CohnReznick By Joe Cooper jcooper@HartfordBusiness.com A fter gaining significant experience mountain- eering during his two tours in Iraq, U.S. Army infantry officer Jon Norton discovered a need and possible business opportunity. Norton discovered that mountain- climbing ropes can tear on sharp rocks during a climber's sojourn, so he created a protective device made of Cordura ballistic fabric and nylon webbing that covers part of the rope. He thinks his product, known as the Rope Protective Device, will be popular with civilian and military climbers and he plans to eventually sell it online. But before he can do that, Norton knows he has to legally protect his inven- tion, so he sought out assistance from the Intellectual Property and Entrepre- neurship Law Clinic at the UConn School of Law, which allows students, working under supervising attorneys, to counsel entrepreneurs across the state in a vari- ety of intellectual property law issues. Norton, 39, said the clinic's legal team contributed countless hours to his product, conducting patentability searches and writing patent applica- tions. The group assisted Norton in filing provisional and non-provisional patent applications with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which recently published the rope protector's patent and will review the device over the next six to eight months, he said. Norton, a graduate of the UConn ROTC program, is confident his prod- Invention Protection Entrepreneurs, students find guidance at UConn's intellectual property law clinic FOCUS: Professional Services Jon Norton cradles his invention, the Rope Protective Device, at the UConn School of Law, where he sought help to legally protect his product's intellectual property. HBJ PHOTO | JOE COOPER

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