New Tax Law Guidance for Small Businesses in 2026

What to do while Treasury and IRS guidance continues to develop

Public Law 119-21 changed several federal tax rules affecting business deductions, investments, research costs, employee benefits, and reporting. Many provisions are already effective, but the Treasury and IRS are still issuing guidance on how particular rules should be applied. Small business owners should plan on using the guidance available now, document the assumptions behind important decisions, and schedule a review before filing or completing a major transaction.

Depending on the business, the developing guidance could affect the timing of equipment purchases, research deductions, financing, employee benefits, information reporting, or planned sales. The practical question is not whether to wait for every open issue to be resolved. It is how to make sound decisions using the law and guidance available today and revisit those decisions when new material is published.

Current status: Notice 2026-23 explains that the 2026-2027 Priority Guidance Plan will cover July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2027. As of September 9, 2026, the IRS Priority Guidance Plan page continues to list the 2025-2026 plan as the current plan. Do not treat the next project list as published until Treasury or the IRS releases it through an official source.

A Priority Guidance Plan Is a Worklist, Not a New Tax Law

Treasury's Office of Tax Policy and the IRS use the annual Priority Guidance Plan to identify issues they intend to address through regulations, revenue rulings, revenue procedures, notices, and other published guidance. The plan helps taxpayers and advisors see where federal tax resources are likely to be directed.

The plan itself does not create a deduction, impose a tax, change an effective date, or guarantee that a project will be completed by a particular day. The official 2025-2026 plan made that point directly: its projects were priorities, but the plan did not provide deadlines for completion.

That distinction matters. A business should identify the enacted rule and effective date, review applicable regulations and published guidance, and then confirm how current forms, instructions, and procedures implement those requirements. A project appearing on a priority list is a signal to monitor, not authority to claim a tax result.

What the Last Published Plan Tells Business Owners

The 2025-2026 plan contained 105 projects, including 40 projects listed under implementation of Public Law 119-21. Several items were directly relevant to closely held and growing businesses. They included guidance on the qualified business income deduction under Section 199A, bonus depreciation under Section 168(k), domestic research expenditures under Sections 174 and 174A, the Section 163(j) business interest limitation, and the new depreciation allowance for qualified production property under Section 168(n).

The list also included projects involving paid family and medical leave, qualified small business stock under Section 1202, Opportunity Zones, the higher information-reporting thresholds under Sections 6041 and 6041A, and other domestic and international provisions. Some items affect a broad range of small businesses. Others matter only in specialized transactions or industries.

The useful takeaway: Do not read the size of the project list as a reason to postpone every decision. Use it to identify which parts of your plan deserve a review point, additional documentation, or a second scenario.

Some Guidance Is Already Available

Implementation did not stop when the 2025-2026 plan year ended. The IRS maintains a Working Families Tax Cuts page with subject-specific guidance, news releases, regulations, forms, and explanations. The page shows that guidance has already been issued in areas such as research costs, Opportunity Zones, health savings accounts, remittance transfers, depreciation, paid family and medical leave, energy provisions, and Trump Accounts.

For example, Revenue Procedure 2025-28 provides transition rules and accounting-method procedures for domestic research or experimental expenditures. The IRS has also issued Notice 2026-11 addressing additional first-year depreciation under Section 168(k) and Notice 2026-28 addressing the employer credit for paid family and medical leave under Section 45S.

The form of the guidance matters. Proposed regulations, final regulations, notices, and revenue procedures serve different purposes and may have different reliance rules. Before acting, confirm that the source applies to the transaction date, tax year, entity type, and filing position involved. An IRS summary can help locate a rule, but the underlying authority and its effective date still control.

Why Planning Should Stay Flexible

Businesses often must make decisions before every interpretive question has a final answer. They may need to buy equipment, sign a loan, hire employees, make an accounting-method election, or close a transaction on a commercial timetable. The goal is to distinguish uncertainty that can be modeled from uncertainty that must be resolved before filing.

A flexible plan identifies the current rule, the assumptions used, and the point at which the analysis must be refreshed. When two reasonable interpretations produce materially different results, avoid an irreversible step until the issue receives the necessary technical review.

Build a Decision File, Not Just a Tax Projection

A tax projection shows the expected numbers. A decision file explains why those numbers are supportable. For each significant position, retain the relevant provision, effective date, guidance relied on, assumptions, calculations, elections, and source documents.

This is especially important for research costs, depreciation, interest limitations, information reporting, employee benefits, and transactions involving a special exclusion or deferral. Good documentation helps the owner and advisors understand what was decided and what still needs to be checked.

It also reduces the risk of relying on a headline or an old article after the IRS publishes a new procedure. A source can have been correct when written and still be incomplete for a later tax year.

Six Steps for Small Business Owners

1. Identify the provisions that actually touch the business. Focus on entity structure, industry, capital spending, research activity, debt, payroll, benefits, investments, and planned transactions.

2. Separate the enacted rule from implementation guidance. Record the statute and effective date first. Then add applicable regulations, notices, revenue procedures, forms, and instructions.

3. Model more than one outcome when uncertainty is material. A base case and an alternate case can show whether an interpretation changes cash flow, financing needs, or transaction economics.

4. Keep contemporaneous records. Save invoices, contracts, payroll and time records, loan documents, placed-in-service evidence, ownership records, and calculations while they are available.

5. Recheck the rule before filing or closing. Review official guidance before a return, election, information report, major purchase, financing, or transaction becomes final.

6. Schedule a review date. Put a specific review point on the calendar for year-end planning, the next estimated tax payment, or the expected filing date.

When a Fresh Review Is Especially Important

A fresh technical review is especially important when the dollars are large, the step is difficult to reverse, the provision is new, or the business is relying on a special definition or election.

Examples include a major equipment or production-property purchase, a research expenditure method change, a highly leveraged acquisition, a qualified small business stock sale, an Opportunity Zone investment, an entity restructuring, or a new compensation or benefit arrangement. Review is also important when a transaction crosses tax years with different effective dates.

What Business Owners Should Avoid

Avoid assuming that a priority-plan item is already binding guidance or that no action is possible until final regulations appear. Either assumption can lead to poor decisions.

Do not carry an old planning memo forward without confirming its date and authority. During a major implementation cycle, ask whether the same rule, procedure, and documentation standard apply to this tax year and this transaction.

The Bottom Line

Public Law 119-21 changed federal tax law, and Treasury and the IRS have already published guidance in several areas. More work remains. Notice 2026-23 confirms that implementation of the law is a factor in selecting projects for the 2026-2027 Priority Guidance Plan. As of September 9, 2026, the official IRS plan page has not posted the new project list.

Small business owners do not need perfect certainty to plan responsibly. They do need a clear record of the current law, the available guidance, their assumptions, and the date the analysis will be reviewed again. That approach keeps decisions moving while reducing the risk that a filing position rests on an outdated or incomplete source.

Planning a major business or tax decision? Brilliant Solutions Group can help connect new tax rules with bookkeeping, projections, cash flow, documentation, and year-round planning. Contact Brilliant Solutions Group.

Sources

Official sources reviewed for this article. Tax laws, regulations, forms, and IRS guidance can change.

Public Law 119-21 (enacted July 4, 2025)

IRS 2025-2026 Priority Guidance Plan (released September 30, 2025; 105 projects and no project-completion deadlines)

IRS Notice 2026-23 (recommendations for the 2026-2027 Priority Guidance Plan)

IRS Priority Guidance Plan page (current-plan status accessed September 9, 2026)

IRS Working Families Tax Cuts resources and guidance (subject-specific implementation resources accessed September 9, 2026)

IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-28 (domestic research expenditure transition rules and procedures)

IRS Notice 2026-11 (additional first-year depreciation guidance under Section 168(k))

IRS Notice 2026-28 (employer credit for paid family and medical leave under Section 45S)

Important: This article provides general information and is not tax or legal advice. Tax results depend on the taxpayer, entity, transaction, dates, elections, records, and guidance in effect. Consult qualified advisors before taking action or filing a return.