what if the partnership s fiscal year is different from the partner s 
this can lead to an unintended income increase for the partner as guaranteed payments made after the end of a partnership s fiscal year but before the end of the partner s fiscal year would get counted as income in the partner s following fiscal year not the one in which it is actually made the bottom lineguaranteed payments to partners are meant to compensate members of a partnership in return for time invested services provided or capital made available the payments are in essence salary for partners regardless of whether the partnership is successful the payments can have various tax implications that must be carefully considered in order for beneficiaries to avoid fines or significant tax burdens 