Our Blog

Lena Rozzi, CPA •

​So you’ve prepared your return and you owe the IRS but you don’t have the money to pay. Now what? 
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The feeling of having to pay taxes, especially when you owe more than you were expecting, can be a dreadful feeling and can leave some taxpayers in a financial bind, but there are steps that you can take to reduce the burden and the stress of owing money to the IRS. First off, don’t panic. Instead consider these steps for settling your tax debt and getting yourself back on track with the IRS.

Yesterday, the IRS issued News Release 2021-71 in which they confirm that most taxpayers who filed their tax returns before the excludable unemployment compensation tax change should not amend returns that were filed before the change.
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The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 was signed into law on March 11, 2021 and included changes to the law that impact 2020 taxes. As some tax returns have already been filed, there are many questions about how resolve or when to file affected tax returns.
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Yesterday, the American Rescue Plan Act (HR 1319) passed in the US House of Representatives. The bill now goes to the president for signature. There are many tax components included in the act, some of which are coming  as a surprise as the were added late to final versions of the bill. 
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Yesterday, the IRS announced that all first and second round Economic Impact Payments (EIP) have been issued. For those who should have been eligible but did not receive payments, you can now take the Recovery Rebate Credit on your 2020 tax return. You can also take the credit on your tax return if you received payments that were too low.

Due to the increased unemployment amounts being paid out during 2020, there was an uptick in identity theft related to unemployment benefits. If you receive an erroneous Form 1099-G reporting unemployment benefits you should contact your state unemployment agency to get a corrected form showing $0 paid in benefits.
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Alyssa Hodges, CPA •

You may have recently heard the news that the IRS will not be accepting tax returns until mid-February. While that is true for Individual/Personal tax returns, this does not apply to businesses. This also does not mean you should delay sending your tax information to your tax preparer because we still need time to prepare your return. We also hope that by getting information in early we can avoid a bottleneck situation once the IRS does allow returns to be filed.
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So when should you send in your information? It depends on a few factors including the type of return (business or individual?), the information you need to be “ready”, and/or the type of tax forms you are waiting on.

Yesterday the IRS began depositing the second round of Economic Impact Payments (EIP) to qualifying individuals. Although they should have begun making direct deposits as early as last night they indicated that direct deposits will continue to be processed into next week.
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This week the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives passed the second round of COVID relief, the Consolidated Appropriations Act. The legislation provides another round of economic impact payments to individuals as well as additional funding for small businesses. Certain eligible small businesses who received the first wave of the PPP loan may be eligible to apply again. The legislation also opened the applications to non-profits, independent contractors, sole proprietors and the eligible self-employed. Additionally, the most anticipated guidance on the tax treatment of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan has been made clear.

Now, as year-end approaches, is a good time to think about planning moves that may help lower your tax bill for this year and possibly next. Year-end planning for 2020 takes place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which in addition to its devastating health and mortality impact has widely affected personal and business finances. New tax rules have been enacted to help mitigate the financial impact of the disease, some of which should be considered as part of this years' planning, most notably elimination of required retirement plan distributions, and liberalized charitable deduction rules.