Setup to take 20% tax deduction as 1099 contractor

[srothkin0]

My wife is working on a 3-month computer contracting assignment where she is getting paid hourly on a 1099 to work on site in NJ. The 1099 comes from a recruiter in NJ. We live in NY.

Reading https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/20/us/politics/small-business-tax-cut-pass-throughs.html... it seems that we may be able to deduct 20% of that income starting in 2018. My question is what do we need to do at the start of 2018 to allow this? Does she need to incorporate as an LLC or some other type of corporation to take advantage of that (and if she does so, will that prevent her from collecting unemployment if/when the job ends and she's between contacts)? 

BTW, I just bought TurboTax 2017 Premier. The box says it includes expert answers from CPAs and EAs via phone, but it doesn't include any info on how to actually use that benefit (no phone numbers or web links) and I couldn't find anything on the TurboTax web site to access the benefit either.

[TaxGuyBill]

No, you don't need to do anything special to receive the 20% reduction in 2018.

The 20% reduction only applies to income tax, not Self Employment tax.

[Critter]

The new provision has not been address by IRS yet and probably will not be until March or later when they issue concrete info on how this will work on a tax return ... patience will be required as they try to figure out what congress added at the last minute.

[SweetieJean]

TT Support is closed until Jan 2. However, there are not yet rules or regulations (or even a Technical Corrections Act) for many of the new tax provisions that become effective 1/1/2018.  So please be patient.  There are also legal issues which we cannot address.

As for unemployment eligibility, only your state unemployment bureau can answer that.