A general partner is taxed on partnership income that comes to him or her in the form of guaranteed payments and profit distributions. Profit distributions are qualified business income (QBI) for the Section 199A 20 percent tax deduction. Guaranteed payments and Section 707(a) payments are not QBI.
To increase QBI, you need to increase the profit distributions and reduce the guaranteed and Section 707(a) payments. Getting to this simple solution is not so easy; after all, this is tax law.
Two points to consider: First, are the guaranteed payments really guaranteed payments or simply a lazy man’s way to distribute profits? Second, should you use the more sophisticated Section 704 partnership allocation rules to get the results you want?