Our Financial Blog
Missed the Tax Day deadline? Here’s what taxpayers should do
Taxpayers who missed the recent April filing and payment deadline should know their obligations and the possible consequences if they don’t file or have an overdue tax bill. Taxpayers who owe taxTax owed and not paid by April 18, 2023, is subject to penalties and...
Filing a final federal tax return for someone who has died
After someone with a filing requirement passes away, their surviving spouse or representative should file the deceased person's final tax return. On the final tax return, the surviving spouse or representative should note that the person has died. The IRS doesn't need...
Worried About Getting Audited? Here’s What You Need to Know About Your Chances….
If you've been following the news recently, you're no doubt familiar with the talk about the Internet Revenue Service hiring new agents during a time when they've been critically understaffed for years. Indeed, the IRS is expected to receive approximately $80 billion...
Not Required to File a Tax Return? Reasons You May Want to Anyway!
Generally, individuals are required to file a tax return for a year if their income exceeds the standard deduction for their filing status for that year. But even if they are not required to file it may be beneficial to do so. They could be missing out on huge...
Don’t Get Hit with IRS Underpayment Penalties
Under federal law, taxpayers must pay taxes during the year as they earn or receive income, or they can find themselves falling victim to substantial underpayment penalties. Even worse, they may have spent the money, and when tax time comes are unable to pay their...
Commonly Asked Tax Questions
Those dealing with income taxes only once a year when involved with their own personal tax return often have questions related to tax terminology. The following is a compilation of questions frequently asked by individuals: What is Filing Status? – Everyone that files...
Don’t fall for these federal tax refund myths
Once people complete and file their tax return, many of them eagerly await any refund they may be owed. No matter how a taxpayer plans to use their tax refund, knowing fact from fiction can help manage expectations as they wait for their money. This tip dispels some...
It’s Not Too Late for an IRA Contribution
Most of the time an expense that may be tax deductible needs to be paid by the end of the year for which the expense will be claimed. However, there is an exception to that rule. IRA contributions for the prior year can be made after the close of the year if made by...
Can’t Pay Your Taxes? Here Are Some Options
About 3 out of 4 American taxpayers receive a refund each year when they file their income tax returns, but there are those who for one reason or another end up owing. Of those who owe Uncle Sam many don’t have the means to pay what they owe by the return due date...
False Employee Retention Credit Claims Can Mean Big Problems Later
If you are a business person relaxing at home after a long day’s work, watching TV and a commercial comes on claiming you can get a tax refund of thousands of dollars by filing for the Employee Retention Credit (ERC), it gets your attention, right? What those ads fail...
Taxpayers should know that an extension to file is not an extension to pay taxes
Taxpayers who aren’t able to file by the April 18, 2023, deadline can request an extension before that deadline, but they should know that an extension to file is not an extension to pay taxes. If they owe taxes, they should pay them before the due date to avoid...
Don’t Ignore Household Employee Payroll Tax Rules
If you hire a domestic worker to provide services in or around your home, you probably have a tax liability that you don’t know about – or one that you do know about but are ignoring. Either situation can come back to bite you. When the worker is your employee, your...
Why Quality Bookkeeping Matters
If you had to make a list of all the things that most business owners hate, taking care of accounting and other financial matters is probably right at the top. Yet at the same time, a lot of those same business owners are struggling. Maybe they had a financial goal...
How Employee Stock Options Are Taxed
Many companies, as an incentive to employees to help grow the companies’ market value, will offer stock options to key employees. The options give the employee the right to buy up to a specified number of shares of the company’s stock at a future date at a specific...
Watch out for scammers using email and text messages to try tricking people during tax season
With the filing deadline quickly approaching, the Internal Revenue Service urged everyone to remain vigilant against email and text scams aimed at tricking taxpayers about refunds or tax issues. The IRS again includes a warning about phishing and smishing...
Haven’t Filed Tax Returns for Multiple Years? Here’s What You Need to Do Next
You'd be hard-pressed to find someone who actually enjoys the process of filing taxes. Having said that, it's absolutely something that you're supposed to do like clockwork every single year. Of course, there are a myriad of different reasons why you may have fallen...
Best Practices to Help Guarantee Success for Your Gig Enterprise
According to one recent study, workers who make up the "gig economy" contributed roughly 5.7% to the gross domestic product of the United States in 2021 alone. If you needed a single statistic to help underline what a significant shift this has become in the way that...
Are You an S Corporation Stockholder? Are You Taking Reasonable Compensation in the Form of Wages?
S corporation compensation requirements are often misunderstood and abused by owner-shareholders. An S corporation is a type of business structure in which the business does not pay income tax at the corporate level and instead distributes (passes through) the income,...
Professional Responsibility and the Employee Retention Credit
Since the Fall of 2022, the IRS has issued several warnings to employers to beware of third parties promoting improper Employee Retention Credit (ERC) claims. See IRS IR-2023-40 (Mar. 7, 2023); IRS IR-2022-183 (Oct. 19, 2022); COVID Tax Tip 2022-170 (Nov. 7, 2022)....
What to do when a W-2 or Form 1099 is missing or incorrect
It’s important for taxpayers to have all their documents and information so they can file an accurate and complete tax return. This may mean waiting to file until they receive all their documentation – and it can also mean following up on missing or incorrect...