☀️ Hello 🌞 June! ☀️
We are so happy to see your radiant face, bringing us the start of summer. Some brightness and warmth and a sunny attitude are definitely what we need to fully recover from tax season, even one that wasn't that bad.
via GIPHY
June 1: Summer conjures dreams of lazy beach days. But for full-time coastal residents, June is less welcome. Today is the start of the Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico hurricane season. While there's a low pressure in the Eastern Gulf, at least we made it to opening day without an official system forming. That gives us time to prepare for hurricane season, a chance some folks got recently thanks to special sales tax holidays.
Uncle Sam's official forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center expect 2023 to bring 12 to 17 named storms, with five to nine possibly becoming hurricanes. As many as four of those storms could reach major status, which is category 3, 4 or 5 with winds of 111 mph or higher. Regardless of the count, it only takes one to wreak havoc. The countdown clock below can help you keep track of how many more days you have to worry about tracking any size or type of tropical storms.
You also might want to check out the ol' blog's special Storm Warnings.
These multi-page collections of posts offer tax advice on preparing for, recovering from and helping those who sustain damages from the many ways that that weather goes wild. That includes claiming uninsured losses from a major natural disaster as an itemized tax deduction.
June 5: With school out, working parents need to make child care arrangements. Consider day camps. Not only do they offer some supervision of your kiddos while you're at the office, the activities' costs also count toward claiming the child and dependent care credit.
June 12: Do you work as a server at a restaurant or at any other establishment where gratuities from customers are part of your compensation? I hope you got lots of financial thanks for doing your job well, but don't forget that those tips are taxable income.
Whether you're dining in or, still COVID leery and getting food delivered to your home, if a tip isn't included on your restaurant or delivery bill, click the image above to calculate how much to tip the person who brought it to you.
And you, as the server or delivery person, must account for those tips. If you got at least $20 in gratuities in May, you must report the amount by today (it's usually the 10th, but since that was Saturday, it moves to the next business day) by using
Form 4070 to let your employer the total of the tips you took in last month.
June 14: Happy Flag Day! It's not a day-off-work federal holiday, but
Flag Day has been an official day to celebrate the Star-Spangled Banner since
1949. If you need to buy a U.S. flag to fly today, you also might get a tax break. Several states
exempt the national symbol from sales tax. Check with your
state's tax department to see if you can save on your patriotic display.
June 15: It's Tax Day, this time for
U.S. citizens or resident aliens living and working abroad, as well as military personnel stationed outside the United States.
This mid-June day also is the deadline for the second
estimated tax payment for the 2023 tax year.
June 18: Happy Father's Day!
Dad might not say so, but he appreciates being recognized, so take time today to let him know you care. And if your father is getting on up in years, take the time when you visit to make sure he doesn't need some
added help from you. If you provide Pop a little, or even a lot of assistance, there's a chance you could get some help from
a couple of tax credits.
June 19: It's
Juneteenth. This date marks when Texans finally received word that all slaves were free. And although it is our newest federal holiday, it is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.
June 21: It's official at 10:58 a.m. Eastern Time.
Summer is here, arriving on this longest day of the year.
Many charitable groups help people cope with the heat. If you itemize, your
gift to such IRS-qualified nonprofits could be tax deductible on next year's tax return.
June 26: If you missed spring cleaning, summer's also a good time to determine what you can do without. If that includes clothing or household items, you also can donate those and
claim the fair market value of the items.
June 30: If you got an extension to file back in April, or by June 15 if you're a taxpayer living overseas, remember that
Free File, the online preparation and electronic filing web page for eligible taxpayers created by the IRS' partnership with the Free File Alliance, is still operational.
You can prepare and e-file as its name says at no cost if your adjusted gross income (AGI) is $73,000 or less, regardless of your
filing status. You should be able to find a software that works for you from the
seven tax prep companies that are participating.
Small Business Tax Calendar: Important
filing, deposit and record keeping dates throughout the year that your company needs to know. You can get more tax calendar information at the IRS'
online calendar page and view the full year's important business and individual tax dates in
IRS Pub. 509.
People who think they've been victimized by H&R Block's Refund Anticipation Loans should check out my blog by clicking on my name.
Posted by: Robert Jenner | Wednesday, May 02, 2012 at 02:15 PM
Just because you get a RAL doesn't mean all clients qualify for earned income credit. Even if the majority of people do receive EIC, so what! What makes it your business? Why would it matter if they get the money in a few days or a few weeks? It's that persons money and how soon they get it and what they pay is none of your business. If you were owed money you would want it ASAP so don't worry about the world until the situation affects you
Posted by: Concerned About My Tax Return | Sunday, January 15, 2012 at 11:24 PM
There are no reasons that a taxpayer needs to waste hundreds of $ on a RAL. Most people who use a RAL do so because they have a large Earned Income Credit refund, sometimes these can amount many thousands of $. If they went to an IRS office they will help them fill out a form where they will have this money added to their paycheck weekly or however they get their pay and not have to wait a year to get it.
Posted by: John | Thursday, February 03, 2011 at 06:05 AM
I can see why refund anticipation loans are so popular, but it isn't just a tax time thing. My wife manages a call center and is often approached by employees who tell her if she can't give them a pay advance they will not come in the following day because they can not afford enough gas for the commute to work. She is confronted with requests and even demands every week. People who have worked for her specifically use tax preparers that offer immediate cash. These people need help not just with managing money, but many of the events that are going on in their lives.
Posted by: Mike | Monday, January 03, 2011 at 03:40 PM