Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Taxes: August-December 2020

And 2020 is still the year of COVID-19. In fact, the deadly coronavirus has been so persistent and there have been so many pandemic-related tax matters, that the original special Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Taxes page was overwhelmed and overflowing.

So I renamed it Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Taxes: March-July 2020 and created this page to finish out the year.

Then 2021 arrived and COVID-19 was still here. Actually, it picked up steam after people decided they were going to escape their self-isolation pods and visit family and friends over the December holidays. So now there's a third special coronavirus tax page named marking COVID/tax posts from for January 2021 until … who knows? Here's hoping we don't need any 2022 versions!

UPDATE, Jan. 1, 2022: This is one time I am not pleased with my prognostication powers. There is indeed a fourth COVID and taxes page, since the coronavirus just will not freakin' let go! Posts in which taxes and the pandemic are connected in 2022 will be found there, Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Taxes: January-... 2022.

A couple of things stay the same on all three pages. First, the items are listed with the most recent post first.

Secondly, this page, like its COVID counterparts, starts off with COVID-19 posts from Don't Mess With Taxes because, well, it's my blog! Then the other sections with coronavirus links from official government websites, professional associations, law and accounting firms, and tax policy think tanks follow.

So enough with the housekeeping. Here's the second collection of coronavirus tax+ matters.

8 Q&As about the $600 COVID-19 payments that already are on their way (Wednesday, Dec. 30, 2020)
Full 11 weeks of unemployment assistance will be paid even after COVID relief delay led to lapse (Sunday, Dec. 27, 2020)
Special COVID pandemic tax benefits for charitable help (Monday, Dec. 21, 2020)
IRS goal: Issue most 2019 tax refunds by Dec. 31, 2020 (Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020)
Tax reform is a global concern in wake of COVID-19's costs (Sunday, Dec. 6, 2020)
IRS and FBI warn about business cyber scams that target COVID teleworkers (Friday, Dec. 4, 2020)
COVID relief 2.0 could offer some donors a bigger charitable tax deduction (Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020)
Use Form 8915-E to report, repay COVID-related retirement account distributions (Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020)
IRS won't provide blanket tax relief for penalties assessed during COVID-19 (Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020)
Didn't get COVID-19 stimulus money? Nov. 21 is the last day to register for it (Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020)
Watch out for continuing COVID-19 tax (and more) scams (Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020)
IRS offers tax help to those facing COVID money troubles (Sunday, Nov. 8, 2020)
Deductibility of PPP loan expenses: Tax issues remain at federal and state levels (Friday, Nov. 6, 2020)
IRS is resuming issuance of tax balance-due notices (Sunday, Oct. 25, 2020)
In the wake of disasters & COVID-19, will the IRS be ready for the 2021 tax season? (Saturday, Oct. 24, 2020)
Nov. 10 is national COVID economic relief registration day (Friday, Oct. 23, 2020)
10 ways FSA/HSA funds can help you cope with COVID-19 (Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020)
COVID-19 relief payment deadlines are just days away (Monday, Sept. 28, 2020)
COVID EIPs await non-filers nationwide, especially in some NY ZIP Codes (Sunday, Sept. 27, 2020)
COVID tax credits highlighted by IRS during National Small Business Week (Thursday, Sept. 24, 2020)
No 1099-C for forgiven PPP loans, but this tax form still issued in other taxable canceled debt cases (Wednesday, Sept. 23, 2020)
State revenue loss due to COVID-19 not as bad as feared (Sunday, Sept. 20, 2020)
1 million+ Californians top list of missed COVID payments (Thursday, Sept. 17, 2020)
Senators push for end of forced deferral of federal employee payroll tax (Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2020)
IRS special letter going to non-filers with info on how to get COVID tax relief payments by year's end (Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2020)
Federal workers are forced payroll tax deferral guinea pigs (Thursday, Sept. 3, 2020)
Treasury clears up Trump's payroll tax order. Just kidding! (Saturday, Aug. 29, 2020)
IRS approves e-signatures for 10 tax forms, temporarily (Friday, Aug. 28, 2020)
Tax injured spouses to get catch-up COVID-19 payments (Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2020)
IRS waives some bad check charges (Monday, Aug. 24, 2020)
COVID-created tax refund interest payments going to nearly 14 million filers (Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020)
IRS stops sending nonpayment tax notices until it clears COVID snail mail backlog (Saturday, Aug. 22, 2020)
W&M chair to IRS: Stop sending COVID-delayed notices (Thursday, Aug. 20, 2020)
IRS knows some recently issued nonpayment notices are wrong. Now what? (Sunday, Aug. 16, 2020)
Get government benefits? Have kids? You get one more chance to claim added COVID cash (Friday, Aug. 14, 2020)
IRS now sending some erroneously denied COVID-19 dependent relief payments (Monday, Aug. 10, 2020)
Trump COVID executive actions sidestep stalled Congressional relief talks (Sunday, Aug. 9, 2020)
Home office tax deduction still available, just not for COVID-displaced employees working from home (Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020)
4 August tax moves to make during pandemic Dog Days (Monday, Aug. 3, 2020)

There also are some posts since the beginning of the pandemic that tangentially reference COVID-19's effects on taxes, but not enough so to make the official coronavirus cut for inclusion on this page.

If you're interested in seeing those, you can browse the new Coronavirus COVID-19 category. The posts above (as well as those on the other coronavirus pages) will show up, too, but just keep scrolling to find others that didn't make this coronavirus tax specific list.

Now to other off-blog resources.

First, there are the official government sites. The image above recommends Coronavirus.gov, which basically is a landing page (like this), so below are my suggestions.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS): Coronavirus Tax Relief and Economic Impact Payments

Treasury: How the Treasury Department is Taking Action

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Social Security Administration (SSA): Social Security & Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19)

Federal Trade Commission (FTC): Coronavirus - What the FTC is Doing

Health and Human Services (HHS): COVID-19 Portal

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB): A guide to COVID-19 economic stimulus relief

Department of Education (Ed): COVID-19 ("Coronavirus") Information and Resources for Schools and School Personnel

Food and Drug Administration (FDA): Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Frequently Asked Questions

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): Coronavirus (COVID-19) Response (note the rumor control section)

U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS): Coronavirus/COVID-19 Related Scams

USA.gov: Government Response to Coronavirus, COVID-19

And, of course, there are other sites following the pandemic's tax effects.

Many of my fellow tax bloggers are doing great jobs tracking the intricacies of COVID-19 tax changes. So are the members of the great #TaxTwitter community.

But in order to keep this page from following the excessive pieces of coronavirus legislation when it comes to length, I've focused below on web pages posted by professional firms, associations and other taxcentric entities that are providing valuable coronavirus-related tax information and advice.

National Association of Tax Professionals (NATP): COVID-19 Tax News & FAQ

American Institute of CPAs (AICPA): Coronavirus (COVID-19) tax resources (n.b., the state tax roundup)

Thomson Reuters: COVID-19 resource center

Wolters Kluwer: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Resources for Tax & Accounting Professionals

KPMG: Coronavirus (COVID-19) tax developments

Deloitte: COVID-19 tax policy updates

EY US: Responding to COVID-19

Grant Thornton: COVID-19 Resource Center

RubinBrown: Coronavirus Preparedness Resource Center

EideBailly: The New Coronavirus (COVID-19) Organiational & Individual Impacts

Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP): COVID-19 Tax Policy Resources

The Tax Foundation: Tax Policy And The Coronavirus (note the state-by-state legislative and global country-by-country fiscal measures trackers)

Avalara: COVID-19 Tax Relief Roundup

Employee Benefit News (EBN): Coronavirus Impact

But wait, there are more: Naturally, things will change as the virus itself and our tax reactions to it evolve, so I'm asking for your help.

I know I've missed some good sites. Please let me know. I'll probably see your suggestions sooner if you let me know via Twitter where, in case you don't know, I'm @taxtweet. You also can drop me an email note.

I'll update this page as regularly as I can. You'd think that I'd have more time by essentially being on house arrest during Austin's coronavirus stay-home order, but it seems that the hours in the days also are affected by these bizarre circumstances (and my discovery of new things to stream).

Thanks for your assistance and patience. And, of course, be safe!

Taxes are important, but they are just taxes. The well-being of everyone and your families is everything, the only thing.

Original post began April 4, 2020

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Today's Tax Tip

Beware post-disaster relief, repair scams — Two things are for sure after hurricanes. First, the doctored social media posts of sharks swimming along flooded roads, and second, land sharks, aka predatory scammers, show up trying to take advantage of folks who just endured a disaster. Don't fall for either. Get real help, tax and otherwise. (Oct. 1, 2022)
The 2022 Tax Tips offer ways to file your annual return, along with post-filing advice, important tax news and, of course, ways to cut your current tax year bill. You'll find the monthly assemblages on their own respective pages: January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November and December. Remember, tax tasks and tips don't stop after you file your annual return!

COVID-19 & Taxes

Coronavirus has wreaked havoc
on the 2020 and 2021 tax seasons.
These three Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Taxes pages have details:
March-July 2020,
August-December 2020,
January-December 2021, and
January-… 2022
You can find medical coronavirus resource links further down this column.

All About Kay

OK, some about Kay

Kay Bell — Native Texan (the blog title totally makes sense now, right?). Professional journalist. Tax geek.

My Other Accounts

*************

Tick ... Tick ... Tick

Tax Season 2022 continues!

Tax Day 2022 is finally over … unless you're one of the millions who have more time to file — looking at you taxpayers abroad and those in major disaster areas — or you got an extension to file your 2021 tax year return. That's fine. In fact, the Internal Revenue Service appreciates some of us spreading out our filings, especially when we and the agency still are dealing with all the complications of COVID-19 and taxes.

That's why the ol' blog's focus now is on all y'all still working on returns. But I haven't forgotten my organized taxpayer readers, who are already looking for ways to reduce their 2022 tax year bills. Yep, that amount is adding up, but there are moves you can make. The monthly tips and reminders a little further down this column can help everyone, regardless of which tax year you're working on.

Those on extension should keep a keen eye on the countdown clock below. It will help you track the days tick, tick, ticking off toward that absolutely final fall filing due date of Oct. 17. Yep, it's a few days later this year.
Note: I'm in the Central Time Zone, so adjust accordingly for where you live.

Time for Tax Tasks

Hello 👻 👻 👻 Ghouls
Spooky October is here!
Halloween, of course, is one reason that October is the most BOOtiful month of the year.
But the impending mid-October extended tax filing deadline, which is on the 17th this year, also is pretty darn scary!

Read about the history of jack o'lanterns

And, yes, some of us are still spooked a bit because of this season's new COVID-19 variants and monkeypox. But the October tips below should help at least ease our tax fears this month.

Oct. 1: While not technically today, the U.S. Department of Education says that it will make available a simple application for student loan debt relief by early October. While canceled debt usually is taxable income, that won't apply in this case at the federal level. However, several states are likely to tax any forgiven student loan amounts.

Oct. 5: OK. With less than two weeks until your extended 2021 tax return is due, you're finally ready to finish up that Form 1040. Great! Now make sure you don't overspend to do so. Check out Free File, the online no-cost tax preparation and e-filing partnership between the IRS and the Free File Alliance. The official electronic filing webpage is Free File on IRS.gov is available to qualifying taxpayers until midnight, Eastern Time, on Oct. 17.

Taxpayers whose adjusted gross income is $73,000 or less can use this year's Free File. That income level applies to all filing statuses. There are 8 software programs participating this year.

And while the tax software will walk you through the process, you also might want to check out the ol' blog's tax tips. Near the top of this column, you'll find links to the special pages of tax tips for each month this year, with those earlier in 2022 offering advice for folks who met the original April 17 deadline, and now for you!

Oct. 10: So we're heading into another week and you've still not finished your extended tax return. No judging. I've been there. The good news is that today is the federal Columbus Day holiday or, in many states and cities, now designated Indigenous People's Day. If you don't have to head into the office or check in on some work from home Zoom calls, this is a great day to deal with your tax return.

Oct. 11: 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 remember that those tips are taxable income.

Whether you're dining in or 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.

If you got at least $20 in gratuities in September, you must account for the tips today by using Form 4070 to report last month's tips total to your employer. And yes, for all those tax-savvy servers, the reporting date usually is the 10th of each month, but since that was a legal federal holiday, the due date moves to the next business day, which is today.

Oct. 17: This is it! The absolutely final deadline to file your 2021 tax year return. Not to belabor things, but in addition to the filing tips mentioned earlier in this October tax to-do list, the IRS has some suggestions on getting the job done electronically. Or if you're old-school and mailing a paper return, get to your local U.S. Postal Service branch in time to have your envelope postmarked today. That's proof that your paper filing was on time.

Oct. 24: Now that your 2020 return is finally done, it's time to work on reducing your 2021 tax bill. One easy step to take now is to review your payroll withholding. If you find, whether you filed this month or back in April, that you owed a lot or got a big refund, you should use the IRS' online withholding tool to make sure a more appropriate amount of income tax comes out of each of 2022's remaining paychecks. If your withholding tweak gets you more money each payday, consider putting some of it into retirement savings, either your workplace 401(k) or a traditional or Roth IRA .

Oct. 31: Sure, it's Halloween. But even scarier than the ghosts and monsters wandering your neighborhood tonight is the knowledge that we still have another month of the Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico hurricane season ahead of us.

Horrific Hurricane Ian, which came ashore well south of the projected Tampa landfall, underscored how, despite modern forecasting tools, tropical systems have a mind of their own and can change at any time. The best we can do is be ready for the next system. And we're likely to get one, since the season officially runs through November. The countdown clock below can help you keep track of how many more days we have to worry about tracking any size or type of tropical storms.

And while it looks like (we hope!) we won't get near the original number 20+ storms forecast by the NOAA Climate Prediction Center, remember that it only takes one to wreak havoc. So if you haven't yet prepared — physically, financially, and tax wise — it's time to do so.

The ol' blog's special Storm Warnings pages also can help, whether you're preparing for, recovering from, or 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.

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.

State Tax Help

Don't forget your state taxes!
Forty-three states and D.C. collect personal income taxes. But even if you live in of the seven states without an income levy, you still face other state (and local) taxes.

State Tax Departments provides links to your state's Web page. The companion page, Tax Tidbits, is the compilation of blurbs about each state's tax laws. And for more state tax news, check out all our state tax bloggings.

Tax Forms

Thanks to our increased use of tax preparers and computer software, many of us don't see our tax forms until we sign and file them. But knowing what's on these documents, either in paper or digital form, and why the IRS wants it is key to understanding our tax system. And knowledge definitely is power, especially when it comes to tax savings. Find this valuable information in the ol' blog's special Talking Tax Forms page.

What are you looking for?

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Kudos Et Cetera

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I gotta tell ya ...

AKA Disclaimer:
I am a professional journalist who has been covering tax issues since 1999.
I am not a professional tax preparer.
The content on Don't Mess With Taxes is my personal opinion based on my study and understanding of tax laws, policies and regulations. It is provided for your private, noncommercial, educational and informational purposes only. It is not a recommendation of any specific tax action(s) you should or should not take. Similarly, mentions of products or services are not endorsements. In other words, my ramblings on the ol' blog are free advice and you know what they say about getting what you pay for. That's why when it comes to filing your taxes, I urge you to get additional, professional, paid-for guidance from an accountant, Enrolled Agent or other qualified tax preparer who is familiar with your individual tax circumstances.

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October 2022

Tell it to the Hill

While it's easy to rail at the IRS, for the most part we can thank — or blame — our tax laws on Congress and the White House. So if you have an issue with tax legislation or want a tax bill passed, you need to let your federal legislators and the White House occupant know of your concerns. You can find out who in Washington, D.C., to contact (and how), as well as get information on your local lawmakers for matters, tax or otherwise, closer to home, at USA Gov.

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