Wednesday, January 18, 2023
Colorado Springs: What is a Doubt as to Collectability (DATC) Offer?
Thursday, December 22, 2022
Colorado Springs: What Did I Learn from the 2022 Tax Season?
In fact, what did I learn from the 2022 tax season? As well
as what do you need to know for 2022? Well, I've been in this business for 20
plus years doing a lot of different tax returns, individual business tax
returns, and 2022 certainly hit some firsts, as we were doing tax returns for
the 2021 tax year, as well as much slow service from the Internal Revenue
Service. All of us know you get on the phone; it takes what takes forever. And
sometimes you don't even get through a very, very low percentage of IRS calls
are actually even answered. I do know that if I have clients, which I had a few
get the little ID verification letters, IRS Call this number or do it online?
Well, I'll tell you what calling the number used to work great. But this year,
you just cannot get through, it says there's just too many calls going on. I've
tried it personally myself a few times, just trying to see how long it's taking
to get through for a client. And guess what, it just takes a while.
So then now we're going to try to do the id.me, which
I haven't personally done that yet. But I'm gonna try to walk some clients
through to try to help them to make sure they get their refunds because they're
still waiting for it. And that's just plain crazy. Now, last year, going into
the 2021 tax season, the IRS had opened up the system to out for everyone to
get what's known as an Identity Protection ID number or an IP pin which was
only previously available to those who had had ID theft problems. Now at the
beginning of each tax season, right in January, you can go on to irs.gov,
verify yourself, get a six-digit number that's assigned to you. And what the
purpose of this is to present misuse of your social security number on someone
filing a fraudulent tax return. So, keep that in mind. That's something you can
definitely do and something I encourage you to do as well. But it's something
you got to go in and do each and every year. That way you can prevent yourself
from basically having a fraudulent tax return. So now a few of the items that
we covered in 2021 tax year are gone.
And that's what I want to kind of touch on now just so you
don't want to think about or be thinking about, well, I got all this great tax
credits. I got these great refunds when I filed my tax return in 2022. But is
it going to happen in 2021? Well, let's see. Well in 2021, keep in mind the
Child Tax Credits, this is perhaps the one that most people really observed
that is gone, is that you got a $3,000 tax credit for those children that you
have from ages six through 17 and $3,600. For those under age six, plus you got
half of that up in advance some individuals, some parent to opt out of that
advance, others did not. And as a result, what happened in many cases, and I
actually had this happen, many actually had reduced refunds at tax time, and I
had to sit down and explain to them. This is why your refund is less, now it
didn't happen with everybody. But it did happen with some daycare, this was
also a huge difference in 2021. With a daycare amount jumping from $3000 per
child and $6000 for two or more up to $8000, and $16000, into for 2021. But
that was only for the tax year 2021.
That's gone. So then if you're planning and looking ahead to
2022, on your daycare, well be keep in mind that the credits $3000 for one
child, and up to $6000 for two children, there's other limits in there. And
it's not fully refundable. That was a difference 2021 credit was fully
refundable, for the tax year 2022 that we're planning for. Now, you're not
dealing with a refundable credit for daycare, if you're having daycare and we
do know that someone, having less daycare just simply because of the pandemic
and there's your daycare providers. Now, one thing to keep in mind with the
daycare credit that you're getting is that it doesn't necessarily have to be a
licensed daycare, but you do have to have a tax ID number for the individual to
whom you're paying for daycare, because they got to turn around and claim it as
income on their tax returns. So, there's a difference there that to keep in
mind as well.
Now, Earned Income Credit was very challenging this year. And
there's some things that are gone with that. So, I encourage you if you're
really depending on the Earned Income Tax Credit, go get a job, go find
employment, because a lot of the past things that happened for 2021 are gone.
One of the common, one of the other deals was is that if you were 19, and not
in school, or part of the foster care system or a homeless youth, if you're 19,
you qualify this year for 2021. You were age 24. If you're a student, you've
qualified for the Earned Income Tax Credit or 18. If you are in foster care or
home with you and you had earned income you qualified for the Earned Income Tax
Credit, that is gone for 2022. It reverts back to what existed before, for 2020
and earlier and for 2020. To keep in mind that need to be between the ages of
25 and 65 to qualify for the Earned Income Tax Credit, which that was actually
kind of nice for those over 65, because it was over 65 for 2021 also qualified
for the Earned Income Tax Credit.
We're previous years they did not but that was once again
exclusive to this tax year that we just did 2021. Now another unique feature
that was on the 2021 taxes is that if you didn't have that much earned income
in 2021, you could have elected to use your 2019 income for calculation
purposes of the Earned Income Tax Credit if it gave you a higher credit amount.
And I did have several clients that took advantage of this and were able to get
them a little bit better refund because of this provision. But that once again,
is gone. And so, for 2022 It is vital if you're using this credit that you go
find qualifying income, wages to help you to be able to get this credit for
2022. And keep in mind things like retirement income, Social Security, also
unemployment, those are not considered Earned Income for the purposes of the Earned
Income Tax Credit. So, you need to have self-employment income, Legitimate self-employment
income, so keep records, keep good records, especially if you didn't pay in
cash, you need to keep records.
Now that cash can be considered but you got to have record
keeping receipts, write out receipts, keep records of expenses, all of those
can certainly help you to get that credit. If you're self-employed, if you're
working at a, at a job, go work, get a job. There's a lot of them out
there. So go find work, get have the wages, so you can qualify for the Earned
Income Tax Credit. One of the headaches that I had as a tax professional was
the Recovery Rebate Credit or what that $1,400 stimulus payment that was sent
out in March April May of 2021. If you didn't get it for whatever reason, you
were able to claim it on your 21-tax return is recovering rebate credit that is
gone as well. So, we're not going to be working to claim that but if you still
had not received it, you're gonna have a couple more you years to be able to
claim that credit because of just the statute of limitations on tax return
filing, so but you don't want to miss out if you didn't qualify for. Also,
through 2021, there are a lot of the payroll Protection Program loans or PPP
loans that many employers qualified for.
I'm not going to go into too much detail on these, but what I
am going to say is that there was first draw, second draw loans, these redirect
incentives for businesses to keep their workers some businesses did very well
took advantage of these programs, if you're a sole proprietor or a farmer, but
you really made out well with these because you took in your tax return. And
basically, it was free money, and several clients that were able to take
advantage of this through their bank. And their bankers were very good about
helping them through these SBA programs, other businesses, if you had employees
that you were providing for and getting the loan for on the first draw, or the
second draw, or maybe you got just the first draw just depends. But you still
needed to use it primarily for wages, but then the rules kind of adjusted as
time went on, but you still needed to go in and apply for forgiveness of along,
basically certifying that you used it for the appropriate purposes.
And as long as you've gotten that certification done, once
again, essentially free money with of course, the provision that was provided
through law changes is that even though the it was essentially tax-free income,
you're able to deduct the expenses that you paid with the PPP loan. And because
many have done this, it's kinds of tax-free income. Now, if you were a partner,
in a partnership, an LLC, or a shareholder, in an S corp, this is basically
considered tax free income to you or other tax-free income. So, it could
actually kind of help with your basis as well. But you'd have to talk to your
tax professional or come in and talk to us to be able to help you see exactly
what we can do to help you there. If you're still needing to file that, we're
definitely available to help you with that. And deducting expenses, as usual
through the PPP loans very, very productive for you.
Now also in 2021, and 2022, this is a unique deduction. In
all prior years, in the longest time, I've been doing tax returns, meals have
always been 50% deduction. But if you're eating in a restaurant, this is the
interesting part of that restaurant meals are 100% deductible for 2021 and
2022. So, if you're on the road, a lot and having meals as a result of business
travel, and you're eating in restaurants, hey, keep those good receipts, keep
good records, you can get 100% of those meals. Now, of course truck drivers,
they got the special provision to get 80% on their meals because of the
Department of Transportation regulations, which is a very nice provision. I
work for several truck drivers on that the over the road truck drivers, there's
even a provision for local truck drivers when it comes to meals and per diem,
which we really do take good advantage of. So, keep these few points in mind of
what is not around for 2021, for I mean for 2022 tax returns. So, you need to
make sure you're using a good tax professional to help you walk through all of
these particular items. Now some important points that I always this talk about
here is good books and records.
I constantly, constantly mentioned to you and mentioned to
the clients to whom I personally work with about a mileage log if you're going
to claim mileage use a vehicle. You need to keep a mileage log in order to be
able to take mileage and automotive expenses because that is what is going to
help you in the event of an audit. And once again, another tax court case came
through. In this case it was a taxpayer who was a heavy equipment operator.
This is for tax year 2014 that this case referred back to this operator work in
several locations. He claimed 32,640 miles on his tax return. He just claimed
the miles. He did not have a log. He did not keep a calendar. He did not keep a
record of work location, even couldn't even provide testimony in the Tax Court
regarding the work locations. What does this happen to him? Well, the court Tax
Court said Nope. You cannot take this deduction for mileage because you do not
have the verification, you do not have the log, you do not have what is needed to
be able to properly claim the deduction, which is why I stress so hard, you
need to make sure you keep a mileage log when you're having vehicle expenses or
wanting to claim vehicle expenses.
And that's even if you're taking actual expenses and
depreciation on your business vehicle, it is a absolute must to do that. And
some way Well, I'm not gonna keep a record, I'm not good at writing it down.
You know, you just got to figure out how to do it. There's apps out there and
one app that I tend to mention to individuals to use to help them Track
business mileage is called Mile IQ is free, you can use it to track business
miles, personal miles, easily an easy app to use from what I understand. So, I
would suggest doing that or keep a paper now, what also can help you in doing
so is that you take your vehicle for new tires, you take your vehicle for
various service work, you get annual maintenance work, you get quarterly oil
changes, or maybe oil changes more often. You need to have those records,
because what happens is that when you take it into the repair shop, they will
record the mileage. And that's actual further verification of your mileage for
the year when you claim it.
So yes, keep those excellent records. So that you can have
that should once again, just you get that unexpected letter from the IRS
because they're, they're trending toward enforcement through Congress right
now, or at least that's what they're trying to push. So, we want to make sure
you as a taxpayer, are ready for that. So, keep your mileage log and keep it
going strong. Now, we want to think about another area, which is your electric
vehicles, I'm bringing this up because many are concerned about the cost of a
fuel, gasoline and diesel and so on. So maybe some of you are looking at
alternatives, such as the electric vehicles, there is a Federal Electric Vehicle
Credit that is still available. Yes, some models like Tesla, and GM, if you go
and buy a new one of those models, you cannot get the Federal Electric Vehicle Credit
and you can't even get the state credit. You might or you might be able to get
the credit in some states, it just has to be a new vehicle. But you cannot get
the federal credit because the Federal Credit for Electric Vehicles phases out
when a manufacturer sells at least 200,000 qualifying vehicles, and GM and
Tesla have already sold more than 200,000 of the qualifying vehicles. Now, once
again, this vehicle has to have a gross vehicle weight under 14,000 pounds. And
the credit is really nice because it's raised anywhere from $2500 to $7500
credit that you get for purchasing of a vehicle. Now there is a very long list.
It's amazing you only hear about a few electric vehicles. But
there is an essentially very comprehensive list that you can get from the IRS
and talks about all the makes and models of electric cars that you can buy that
you can get a new Electric Federal Vehicle Credit on. And certainly, if that's
what you're thinking about doing, you need to take a little bit closer look at
that. Maybe look at one of these vehicles, I mean, there are, there are models
and makes vehicles on there that I had never even heard of before. And then, of
course some of the more common names like there's like some you see advertised,
like the Nissan, a Nissan still qualifies for there's some BMW and some other
makes that are out there that you that you can get a vehicle credit on. Now, of
course, as we always talked about the cost can be the issue for many people on
these new vehicles. So, but you got to examine and see what's worked. But I
just wanted to go ahead and mention that to you. That way, you know that that
credit is out there, and is available if you're considering purchasing an
electric vehicle.
And another area I'm going to touch on is in the planning
session as we look at where we're heading, going into 2022. That's exactly it
is, where are we heading? What am I what are we doing? What am I doing? Many
people are still getting used to the new W-4s that have been out the last
couple years. And they're like, oh my goodness, I mark this and my withholding
just isn't right. While there is a calculator you can use on the IRS website,
wage withholding calculator estimator that can help you to do that. If you have
more than one place where you're working. You may want to use this but I always
recommend and I always think it's best not just to use what the IRS provides,
but use a tax professional. That's why I keep myself available year-around
because I know your situation better than the IRS estimator does to help you
perhaps to realize, you fill out that W-4 form.
And what happens when you fill it out is that it just goes
off of a base calculation. And it may not necessarily be right for you, it's in
essence, it's just kind of guessing. So, if you haven't thought about it, you
need to have an, I call it a mid-year meeting with your tax professional, get
your pay stubs that show your year to date on withholding federal and state and
sit down, have a meeting, whether in person or video conference, have that
conversation so that you're not there. In January, in this case of 2023 going,
what's up with my withholding have that conversation, let's look at it ahead of
time. Now, if you're a self-employed person, or you're operating some type of
entity business, like an S corp, or C Corp, you better get your books on par,
you better not just be relying upon a type of online software to make sure your
books are right. Don't go cheap assets when I say don't go cheap, go with
someone who can really help you, look at your books and don't just depend upon
individuals who you think are getting the job done. Now I know I say this,
because I've encountered over the years, I've encountered people who have come
to me right near the end of tax season in some cases, and say, can you help me?
And I'm like, well, what kind of help do you need? Well, again, I dig a little
deeper and find out that perhaps they have not had some tax returns filed or
maybe their W-2s for the for the year that we're processing haven't been filed
yet.
And so, we work through those little problems to help them at
least get a few tax compliance issues addressed. But then, which is where I've
really working into now is trying to help people to solve tax issues. Because
the IRS, they'll send out a notice to you, for example. And the notice doesn't
always get to you sometimes, or it gets to you years later, or as we see here,
they put off notices going to you, as a taxpayer for maybe a path new tax, some
all the way back, say to 2015 that they're collecting tax on right now are
trying to collect tax on and their whole paperwork and have a whole
miscalculation. Well, then how do we come to know that? Well, what I go in and
do with individuals, as they come see me is I say, first of all, sign this as a
21-form, or 2448, 2848, whichever I need according to this person's
circumstance, so that I can go in and I can take a look and say, here's what's
going on on your tax account. Here's the wages that have been reported. Here's
the income that's been reported. Here's what the IRS says you owe. Not we agree
with this.
Well, that's what we got to go back and see or if we go in
and take a look at that transcript and see that maybe you haven't filed. That's
what can happen particularly with some business owners who put their trust in,
in some type of individual who they send off information to that individual
each month thinking everything is getting done, but they don't really get the
information back or they really don't get the reports back. But they just think
everything is getting done. Well. I'm here to caution you particularly, when it comes to your payroll taxes with a C corporation, S-corporation, partnership, or LLC, any of those
entity tax that you're talking about. It's vitally important that whoever
you're working with, and these are the services that I provide, that they have
to you copies of what has been done, what is being accomplished. That's what I
do for all of my clients, all of them. We all have the web portal set up, where
all of them have access 24 hours a day, seven days a week to their records, all
they got to do is log in with their email, and they have their payroll records
all sitting right there.
They have their
payroll, compliance tax forms all sitting right there. Everything shown that
they have been paid and they're caught up so nobody is behind. So how do you
get caught up? If you're a business? And maybe you discover or I go in and I
discover Well, you know, your federal income taxes for your business haven't
been filed in a few years. It's just kind of good in the sense that the IRS
hasn't caught up with you yet because of the pandemic and other issues going
on. So, then what do we go in and do? Well, first we pulled transcripts, which
is what I go in and do. And then I take a look and see, okay, this is what has
not been filed. But if we discover some years have not been filed, what do we got
to go and do? Well, first, we got to go in and look at your books, what have
you been doing? How have you been keeping it? Well, sometimes I'm coming to
learn sometimes individuals and businesses are doing an okay job on their
books, they're getting expenses put in through whatever type of accounting
software that they're using. But I come to find out, well, maybe their bank
statements aren't being reconciled, maybe their other information isn't being
done. So how do we know what to do? Well, we don't, sometimes we're starting
from just a whole new set of books.
And but we do have to get documentation of course, which what
does that entail, that entails getting bank, bank statements. And sometimes it
means if they don't have them, sometimes they got to go to their bank, and get
those records for two or three years back. And some banks do have those
available without much research, and sometimes they do sometimes they don't
just depend on the individual banks. So that's what we need to go in and take a
look and do. So that's what I'm saying is that if you're working with an
individual, you need to make sure whoever that individual is, which is why I
take a lot of pride in making sure that all my clients know that their stuff,
their financial information, their financial statements, profit and loss
balance sheets, those are there, we get them done. Now, we're not perfect, of
course, but we get them done in the sense that there's a good record there. And
if we make a mistake, we go back and we fix it. Because taking care of the
client is number one, for this business. and for me, as a tax professional,
that's the difference between a tax professional and one who's just a tax
preparer, or one who's just kind of around a little bit, or seasonal. Those are
the really individuals that I'm just not personally too big on because they're
they come in for the first three and a half, four months, jump in, have an
office open, then they close in or maybe open only one day a week or who knows
when they're open actually, then they're gone.
But the How's that, how does that help you if you're an
individual looking to get something accomplished, because one of the issues I
always talk about people is the fact that you need to talk to your tax
professional on so many occasions, if you're considering taking money out of
your retirement plan, you should talk to your tax professional. If you're
considering starting any type of business. If your banker suggests something or
an attorney, suggest something before you do anything, I'm serious before you
do anything, go find a tax person and talk to them. Find out what kind of tax
situation are you going to be in? Because from a tax standpoint, other
professionals don't always understand it. They know their area, which is great,
they're fantastic at it, they do a good job. But sometimes recommendations are
made of a certain type of entity or how you should conduct business. And it's
not necessarily good for you tax wise. So yes, make sure that you talk to your
tax person before you go in, just go to the state and because it's easy,
anybody can go to their state and register as an LLC or register as a
corporation or do all these registrations, like Colorado I mean, go and do it
for like 50 bucks.
But yet, is that the right action for you to take from a tax
standpoint? I don't know. Till I sit down and talk to you and see what your
goals are. I see what you're wanting to accomplish. Maybe from a legal
standpoint, a certain type of entity is good. But yet, is that still good for
you tax wise or what are the tax ramifications of doing that? What's going to
happen? So, you got to be willing to really study, really get that information,
talk to a tax professional, talk to your tax professional, or talk to us, or
talk to me, give me a call here 844-394-4287 to help you to figure that out. So
that your tax situation is not so taxing, come the end of the year, because the
last information or the last person to know you've done a business should not
be your tax person. Because they can help you make good moves, a tax
professional can help you make good moves, so that in that first year of your
business, you're making good tax moves, and not only help you in the first year
of your business, but can help you going forward in your business, make certain
types of elections for your business.
And if your bank or your lawyer, whoever you're talking to,
doesn't say talk to a tax person. I mean, because I always tell people, you should go talk to a bank about this, or you should go talk to an attorney,
it's I'm not licensed to practice law. So, you need to go talk to them about
this particular setup, this particular situation, and then work together with
the bank or work together with the lead tax person, tax professional, and work
together with the attorney so that you are having the best turnout for your
business. Now also, I like to remind business people, are you signing any forms
on a regular basis, there should be some signatures required. I know when I
come in, and I talk to somebody or have a client come in, especially on taxes,
there are certain forms, that they only sign that you only sign once in regards
to payroll, and then we take care of it. But we always provide the
documentation, which is something you should always have from a professional
that's working with you, you should have the documentation showing that your
sales tax is getting paid documentation showing that your unemployment tax is
getting paid and file, I have all those reports available to clients showing
that those items are pain.
When it comes to the income tax, yes, we file the entity, the
corporation, the partnership, the LLC, all those income taxes are filed
electronically. Yet, what I do personally, in my area is that whether it's if
they're close by, of course, somebody that can come in and actually sign the
authorization to transmit the tax return, I have them come in and do it. Now I
have a few clients. And I have more clients developing in a virtual sense,
we'll sit down, we'll discuss and have a video conference meeting with them, or
at least a phone conversation. And then what I do is I send it to them to sign
that form electronically, because we can accept the 8879 with an electronic
signature now and still submit the tax return, you should always be signing
something whether in person, or electronically. And if you're not always
signing something of some sort, then you really need to find out if you don't
have physical copies, which to me some, it really depends on the tax
professional, myself, I'm one that I still like to provide physical copies to
individuals. So, I actually mail out some to my clients that are not in Colorado
or in other parts of the country.
I'll still mail out copies of a physical tax return to them.
But I also provide electronic copies through a web portal. Do they have those
available? I don't know. I do. And that's why I'm so up on this and so much and
wanting to be forceful and just reminding you as the listener to think about
these things. Are you getting these as a business person? Do you know what's
going on with your information? Does your tax professional visit with you about
these items? visit with you so that you know what is going on with your
business? And so, you're not you may not fully understand it. That's why you
have the tax professional. I mean, I don't know how to go and repair a diesel
vehicle or do a lot of different other actions but I am here to help my clients
to succeed on their tax and to make their tax time have a whole lot less
taxing. So, make sure that you are signing forms on a regular basis. Now, many
times during tax season, whether it's individual or business, I'll get one,
I'll get someone calling in saying, he's, how much you charge to do a tax
return.
Well anymore, it's going to happen, it's going to tell people
with depends. And because when you call, make a phone call like that to a tax
professional, you're just shopping around, as a tax professional I'm not really
looking for people who are, who are looking for a low-cost tax preparation
option. But I look for is individuals who want it done, right? Who want to do
the tax return accurately, and who want a good long-term relationship with a
tax professional, to help them to succeed in their taxes, and even help them to
save up a little bit of money and understand their overall financial situation?
And to have that you are going to pay a little bit more to have that available.
Yes, I have some clients that I only do tax returns for. And that's, that's
fine. And some of these I've had for many years, they're great people, I'll
continue to help them out, continue to serve them. But yet I go beyond just
doing those tax returns. If we need additional help, we offer that additional
assistance to them.
They're separate fees. But we also have plans that offer
monthly programs to individuals so that you can come in and talk, no additional
fees, you're just paying a monthly fee that gets you all taken care of for the
year. Now, what many people don't realize when they're trying to find a low-cost
way to do a tax return, is security. How secure is their information? This is a
huge deal for me. I believe in such stringent security measures. I mean, I got
file cabinets locked in here, I have all of my computers are encrypted, the
drives are encrypted. There's a password to get into the windows, of course.
Plus, there's additional security software on each cuz each computer and of
course, I actually help have a third-party service helped me to keep my
computers secure. Yes, it is vital that you ask whoever you're going to use to
do your tax return. How secure is my data? Do you have a security data plan,
which mine is under constant development, but I do have one for software
security, for in office procedures to make sure that people's data is safe?
Now, if you're getting a low-cost tax return, this is
something to think about, how safe is your data, if you're just doing the
lowest cost option, if you're having your neighbor or your individual over,
you're saying you know, I can go on to whatever software and I can do your tax
return. But when you do a tax return, think about it, are you have your tax
return done? How much data do you have to give, you basically give your whole
life story over to somebody, all kinds of private information? Now you don't
know what that individual is going to do with that information. They could be
family. I'm not knocking any family; I'm just saying these are things to
consider. You want certain individuals to have access to all of this
information. I mean, I mean, they may dispose of it. They may not I don't know.
But security, these are things to think about. And so, it all comes down to the
old adage, at least the way that I look at all of this, you get what you pay
for, if you're going low cost, you're gonna have low cost, security, low cost,
protection of your data. So low cost isn't always best for data security. Now,
we all as tax professionals in my office, and in many of the well-respected
ones that I know, take great precautions to protect computers to protect
individual data. I mean, I got a security system in my business as well to help
protect the hard drives how protecting computers and the physical, everything
on a physical sense. So yes, how secure is the data.
So, keep that in mind too, about security. If you're thinking
about your data, and you want to keep it safe. Don't be afraid to pay a little
bit extra to a proper tax professional who is available year-round, who has
proper securities procedures and who really genuinely cares for you, which is
what we do we care for people here, we do what we can to help them to succeed
as best as we can. Because as I've really been going through everything and talking
about what I learned in this last tax year, I learned that there's a lot of
different people Well, there's been a lot of different struggles individuals
have had, in the last couple of years because of the pandemic, I've had to also
look at helping ones to minimize taxes, try to talk to them a little bit more,
try to encourage them, you know, come see me, give me a call. That's why I'm
here. We let let's sit down, let's go over this information. If we need to
discuss about some sales that you're potentially going to have, let's talk
about the potential taxes that can be involved on the sale of some of your
assets, like mutual funds, stocks, those kinds of deals, what's potential
capital gains, let's discuss those ahead of time. That way to learn, do you
want to make those moves are those good moves for you individually, once again,
till we sit down and look at it from a tax standpoint, I can't tell you for
sure.
But when we sit down and will be able to determine if that is
a good move for you. Because sometimes when we make a lot of sales, we have to
do certain attachments, things with a tax return, so that the IRS has all the
information that they need to be able to get it done. And to do it right. And
so that all information is properly done for you. Now, keep in mind that tax
time is over, unless you're on an extension in which we're working on several
extensions at this time. And as we work on those, we're helping ones or we're
reminding was, you know, we don't want to just be thinking about 21, we want to
be thinking about 2022 at this time, and thus, minimize tax liability going
forward, and then help you to stay organized to get organized and stay
organized with your accounting software. As we look to look at your overall
profit for the year to be able to make good plans to help you keep moving
forward and pay as little tax as possible and make media adjustments. Yes,
let's make tax time less taxing, let's review. Let's make a plan. Let's adjust
through the year.
And certainly, as your tax professional, I can help you to do
that. And I really like helping people to do that. Because making tax time less
taxing helping you to pay as little tax as possible, is indeed my goal and what
I want to accomplish, we will need to make estimated payments, we may or may
not. That's why when we're looking at potential sales of some appreciated
assets, we may need to make estimated payments both at the federal and the
state level for you. So just keep that in mind, adjust withholding, maybe we'd
need to make and I got some clients we're looking at meeting with you're coming
up in June and July to just see, okay, they need to make adjustments. So, they
need to have a little bit more held out to make sure they're not paying in
January at least trying to break even. So that's what I want to do want to help
you at least break even that way you're not having a big tax liability, or
we're not getting a big refund, let's find let's, let's find the happy medium.
Also, I know there are so many people today that are just very concerned about
their health.
And that's very understandable. With the virus happening and
a lot of people being concerned a lot of different areas. We are total virtual
as a business. Yes, you want to meet virtually, we'll do that. I'm happy to do
that. I want to discuss that with you make you as comfortable as possible.
Whether you live across the street or across town, here I am, or you're across
the country doesn't matter. I want to visit with you, I want to help you video
interviews always there to help you secure portal, a web portal to be able to
help you to upload your documents very easily and securely. So, we can get it,
so we can review it electronic signatures as I mentioned, so that you can sign
the proper documents sign whatever contracts we need. So, we can move forward
and indeed help you with electronic payment. being set up easily set up monthly
electronic payments to help you to easily make your payments as well as invoice
you so you can pay with your credit card or with a with an automatic check
there. So, we certainly encourage you to think about all these items I
mentioned today the importance of this, keep in mind the differences from 2021
tax, which we just completed to the 2022 tax year which is actually going back
to the rules, essentially, of 2020.
Keep in mind the importance of planning ahead, tax wise and
making adjustments, business owners keeping business mileage logs of your
vehicle. It's just absolutely vitally important. Then of course keeping good
books and records through the year helping to get organized, don't just rely on
software, and that's where I see so many people that are using software that's
advertised online or advertised whatever way you see it, they talked about all
this offer is going to really be great things, but I'll tell you what it is,
you can have issues and I've seen those issues. I got issues right now with
clients I'm working on and then we're going to have to fix and perhaps even
just start all over again, because of the issues within their software, because
they're just plopping things in and they think the software is going to fix,
put it in the right place, and all the software will not. So don't just rely
upon the software, do it yourself software doesn't always make do it yourself easy,
doesn't always make it simple, especially when it comes to tax time. And don't
rely upon Do-It-Yourself tax software either.
Because that does, what's going to just popped it somewhere.
And it's important to know where it goes and how something needs to be properly
classified. So, a good tax professional in your corner, can save you 1000s and
I mean, 1000s of dollars in taxes. So, keep in mind, about a few are
considering an electric vehicle has to be a new vehicle. There's a lot of
different makes and models out there that you can take advantage of. But you
just got to do some research with the IRS. And you can always call me I'll be
happy to share a couple more with you as we go through. And then of course know
what your tax professional is doing. Yes, keep in touch with them. Ask them.
How are you doing? What is up with this? Do you have this record? Then? Can you
have this this completed yet? Can I see a copy of this, can be physical or
electronic? Just see, are you signing these forms? What kind of security does
your tax professional have? These are all good questions.
And I recommend you check with because these are questions that I answer even before ones at us because people will say to me, well, you charge whatever I'm like, you know, this is what you are getting, you're getting all this you're getting experiences because it's not just putting numbers on a form, is putting the numbers on the right place on the form. And it's also the data security that you're paying for I pay to keep your data secure. And thus, that's what you're all included in what you're paying for. So, keep these thoughts in mind. And I really appreciate you listening today. Please once again, visit my website which is www.cashtracksfinancial.com or email me its success@cashtracksfinancial.com. I'm also on Facebook, look up the Cash Tracks Financial page. We're on LinkedIn as well and I got a Twitter feed. Also, there where we put periodic posts just to keep you updated on various tax matters. Sign up for our free a newsletter at cashtracksfinancial.com.
Friday, August 5, 2022
Colorado Springs: Can I Qualify to Pay Less Than What the IRS Says I Owe in Taxes?
We have all heard the advertisements from services claiming to be able to negotiate your back taxes down from several thousand dollars to only a few dollars. Is this really possible for everyone? It depends on the facts and circumstances for each individual taxpayer. According to the Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 7122 the IRS is authorized to accept a compromise from taxpayers. How does a taxpayer qualify for an Offer-in-Compromise(OIC)?
The first step is to find a qualified tax professional such as Marcelino Dodge, EA to consult with you to determine if you are a candidate for an OIC. If you are a qualified to file an OIC, you have to next get fully compliant by filing 6 years of back tax returns. Once the necessary tax returns are filed, then we start the process of completing the OIC, determining the type of offer to make, and how much to offer.
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