The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act provides a tax break for businesses conducted by pass-through entities (partnerships, LLCs and Subchapter S corporations) which will allow a deduction of 20 percent of the business income, so that the owners will pay tax on only 80 percent of the business income. But this tax break is not available to the owners of professional service businesses, like lawyers, accountants, physician, dentists and consultants, unless their total taxable income is less than $157,500 (or $315,000 for married taxpayers). Many tax advisers around the country are telling their professional service clients to spin-off the real estate used in their practice that is owned by the business, and charge rent to their practices. This would shift income from their professional practice (not eligible for the 20-percent deduction) to their separate office leasing business, which would be eligible for the tax break. Although this technique will be viable in most every state, it will not work in Florida because of the structure of our sales tax here.

Florida is one of the only states in the U.S. which imposes its sales tax on commercial real estate leases (Arizona is the other notable exception). The sales tax is due on all leases, even on a lease to related parties. The sales tax due on the lease will likely exceed the potential income tax savings resulting from the 20-percent deduction.

For example, let's say a lawyer with an associate and paralegal working for him owns his own office unit in an office condominium project, and nets $600,000 in taxable income. Since his taxable income is well above the $315,000 threshold amount for a joint filer, he will not be eligible for the 20-percent deduction because a law practice does not get the benefit from this tax break. However, if he spins-off the office condominium into a separate Subchapter S corporation (which is generally not a good idea anyway) and charges a reasonable rent, the office condominium unit company's profit would be eligible for the 20-percent deduction.

Let's assume he can charge $100,000 rent to his law practice on a triple net lease basis. In this case, he could shift $100,000 in income to the real estate business, which would be eligible for the 20-percent deduction. This would result in a $20,000 deduction on the income from the office leasing business, saving $7,000 in tax at the 35-percent marginal tax rate for this income bracket. Not a bad income tax result.

But the Florida sales tax due would be nearly as much or greater than the income tax savings. The sales tax would be due not only on the $100,000 in net rent, but also the real property taxes, maintenance and insurance paid by the law practice on the triple net lease. Let's assume these other charges are $20,000, the sales tax would be due on $120,000. Depending on the county, the sales tax would be between $6,960 (5.8-percent rate) and $8,160 (6.8-percent rate), potentially exceeding the income tax savings in this example.

In addition, transferring the office condominium to a related company would trigger stamp tax on the deed if there is a mortgage on the property, and a new set of mortgage tax if the bank wants the new real estate company to sign onto the mortgage. The transfer might also result in an increase in real property taxes if the property has been subject to the annual 10-percent cap on increases in assessed value.

So although this technique will be viable in other states, this is not the case in Florida. On the plus side, we don't have a personal income tax in the Sunshine State, and we also save money on snow removal costs. Some might say that's a fair trade-off.

Marvin A. Kirsner is the administrative shareholder of Greenberg Traurig's Boca Raton office, where his primary areas of practice deal with corporate, transactional and industry specific tax issues. He serves as the co-chair of the firm's state and local tax practice.