Hello July, which according to this year's goofy tax calendar is April. That means instead of heading to the beach, which is closed anyway due to COVID-19, or taking a longer trip to Europe, which isn't letting U.S. residents in, again due to COVID-19, we're spending mid-summer focusing on taxes. The main one, of course, is filing 2019 returns by the new Tax Day 2020: July 15. That date also is key for several other tax tasks to take care of in July. Here are six that you need to deal with in these two weeks before the 2020 tax... Read more →
Healthcare Medical
Internal Revenue Service has offices nationwide, like this one in New York City. They were closed, at least partially, earlier this year as the agency took steps to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Now the IRS is calling back more of its workers to deal with the impending July 15 Tax Day. (Photo by Matthew Bisanz via Wikipedia Commons) As Tax Day 2020 nears, the Internal Revenue Service is bringing back more staff — thousands are expected back at their desks on Monday, June 29 — to deal with the added tasks that have been given the agency in... Read more →
Thousands more Internal Revenue Service employees are will be back in their offices this month, starting Monday, June 15. They're the second wave of IRS staff to return to work after the agency in mid-March sent more than half of its 81,000 staff home as a way to help slow the spread of COVID-19. More than 10,000 IRS workers in Kentucky, Texas and Utah were called back on June 1, primarily to deal with the million-plus pieces of U.S. Postal Service mail that had piled up in their absence. Those returning to their offices tomorrow are IRS personnel in Georgia,... Read more →
You're following all the recommended pandemic precautions. You stay home. You have your groceries and meals delivered. If you must go out, it's for drive-through or curbside pickup of necessary items. You always wear a mask when you leave your home. But you still might not be safe from the latest iteration of the coronavirus outbreak. This time, though, it's not medical, but financial. Scammers are coming to us via emails and phone calls, using a variety of tricks to get their hands on our COVID-19 economic impact payments (EIPs) and other funds. The Internal Revenue Service's Criminal Investigation (CI)... Read more →
Yes, that a 20-something me in that photo, lighting up a cigarette. I was a smoker for way too many years when I was a young adult. I finally quit cold turkey as a birthday gift to my husband during our first year of marriage. And despite nicotine's addictive properties and a 2½-pack-a-day habit, I never suffered any withdrawal symptoms. I smoked back then not because my body or brain demanded it, but because I enjoyed it. That and, as I revealed in a social media conversation with some #TaxTwitter pals that started as a discussion about coffee, it was... Read more →
June has arrived. But the coronavirus pandemic and its effects on our lives, including our tax lives, mean that in 2020 we likely won't be able to enjoy our usual summertime living is easy lifestyles. (Photo courtesy City of Clearwater, Florida) Hello weird, scary, frustrating June 2020. We're sort of glad you're here, even though the coronavirus means many of us aren't going to be taking a summer vacation and many more of us will still be messing with 2019 taxes until mid-July. Yep, as everyone knows by now, COVID-19 precautions by the Internal Revenue Service have pushed this year's... Read more →
Many employees have not been at their workplace cubicles for weeks. Now some, including IRS staff, are starting to return, but under dramatically different arrangements. Most taxpayers deal with the Internal Revenue Service electronically. That's the method that the agency has been encouraging for years. But some things still are handled the old-fashioned way. These are paper documents that are mailed by the IRS to taxpayers — like notices you get as an initial contact, not the money-demanding calls from con artists pretending to be IRS employees — and vice versa. Those paper communications, especially those from us to Uncle... Read more →
Can't sleep? You're not alone in these trying, tax and otherwise, times. (Photo by Andrea Piacquadio via Pexels) 2020 has been, at best, a difficult year and we're not even halfway through. For these first five months, millions of us have been facing each day a barrage of concerns that are producing a continual level of extraordinary stress. In addition to our normal day-to-day anxieties, we've been dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, its unemployment and financial fallout, the recent deaths African Americans at the hands of individuals and while in law enforcement custody, heated and escalating political messaging in a... Read more →
I've been rearranging some upcoming doctors' appoints that I made months ago, well before anyone had heard of COVID-19, much less watched as it overtook our lives. A couple were able to be conducted as teleconferences with my physicians. Some, however, require actual in-office visits. Like getting jabbed for blood work. I'm also rescheduling some appointments originally set for June. These are being changed not because of the coronavirus pandemic, but because of new medical insurance. The dates are now late instead of mid-summer in the hopes that the new policy transition goes smoothly and I won't have to hassle... Read more →
The delay this year of Tax Day until mid-July also means you have time to make the most of the 2019 health savings account (HSA) limits. One of the distressing health-related side effects of COVID-19 is that many of the millions who have lost jobs due to the pandemic also lost their medical coverage. A new analysis says that here in Texas alone more than hat 1.6 million Texans could become uninsured following job losses. Many who are able to replace employer-provided coverage will turn to a high deductible health plan (HDHP). As the HDHP name indicates, these policies require... Read more →
The child care workplace benefit, as well as medical ones, are enhanced under two just-issued Internal Revenue Service notices. If your job doesn't offer child care benefits, you might be able to get other tax help in taking care of your youngsters via a tax credit. This mom is representative of many parents, who are starting to feel the pressure of weeks of quarantining with and homeschooling their children during COVID-19 stay-home orders. Earlier this year as the coronavirus was surreptitiously infecting Americans, lots of parents were going about their usual business, which included making summer plans for their children.... Read more →
Photo by Gustavo Fring from Pexels Interstate tax matters are difficult in the best of times. During a pandemic, they can be particularly confusing, infuriating and for the state hardest hit by COVID-19, a tax public relations nightmare. Health care heroes from across the country who came to work in overwhelmed New York hospitals and other medical facilities have learned that in addition to the eternal gratitude of Empire State and Big Apple residents, they also are getting tax bills. The issue was first reported by a New York City television station that spoke with medical staff at the temporary... Read more →
GivingTuesday.org Hello Giving Tuesday. No, the world has not gone so thoroughly whack that we've jumped to the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Rather, because of the unprecedented, and unexpected, need caused by the coronavirus pandemic, the creators of Giving Tuesday are encouraging those who can afford to give to participate in Giving Tuesday Now. As in today. This new global day of giving is in addition to the fall event, which has been around since 2012 and is scheduled this year for Dec 1. Potential charities, philanthropic activities:"We believe that generosity has the power to unite and heal communities in good... Read more →
Some suddenly out-of-work people are taking a double hit. Not only must they deal with the loss of income, but also the loss of their workplace-provided medical coverage. This week's relatively good COVID-19 pandemic economic news is that the latest count of folks who filed for unemployment benefits was down. The bad news? The U.S. Department of Labor reported today that another 3.8 million people filed claims for jobless benefits last week. While that's a drop from the previous week's 4.4 million unemployment claims, overall more than 30.3 million have applied for state help to make ends meet now that... Read more →
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night nor a global pandemic stays protectively-masked U.S. Postal Service carriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. The COVID-19 economic relief payment checks really are in the mail. That means a whole new slew of coronavirus scams also are showing up via phone calls, as well as in people's mail boxes, both electronic and real-life curbside ones. Since millions of actual paper COVID-19 relief checks are being snail mailed, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS) is involved in the scam-fighting efforts. These law enforcement officers are joining other federal... Read more →
The hubby and I are self-isolating, meaning I only get out of the house every 10 days or so to pick up some perishables. This week, though, my grocery list was a bit longer. On top of COVID-19 concerns, it's been a bad allergy and sinusitis season for me. I'm relatively lucky, though. Most of the time over-the-counter (OTC) medications do a decent job of stifling the sneezing, sniffles, headaches and itchy eyes. So I loaded up on the shelf ready antihistamines, as well as cold and flu meds that treat many of the same symptoms without as much drowsiness.... Read more →
The Internal Revenue Service said this afternoon that its new Get My Payment online tracking tool is "operating smoothly and effectively." OK. Maybe I just caught Get My Payment, which is supposed to let taxpayers check on the status of their COVID-19 economic relief payment or add banking information so it can be directly deposited, at a brief glitchy moment. Apparently, according to the tax agency's statement, my experience, which I recounted earlier today in my tracking tool troubles post, was not the norm. But then again, what is normal in coronavirus tax time? IRS says things are A-OK: "As... Read more →
Happy Tax Day 2020! But it really isn't, thanks to the coronavirus delay of deadlines to July 15. So it's Happy COVID-19 Payment Day! But apparently, it really isn't that either. While the Internal Revenue Service says that it already has delivered some of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act created payments via direct deposit — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said earlier this week that would be the case today for 80 million of us — many of us are still waiting. And, after checking out bank accounts and finding nothing new from Uncle Sam, we eagerly... Read more →
The Treasury Department says it's on schedule to get coronavirus economic recovery payments to folks' bank accounts next week. There's even better news for those who want to change the payment's delivery method from snail mail to direct deposit. Politico's Morning Tax newsletter reports that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Capitol Hill lawmakers that the online tool that could speed up delivery of the COVID-19 money also will up and running next week. That's the mechanism that, as I noted in yesterdays' post, whereby folks who've previously received refunds as paper checks sent via the U.S. Postal Service or didn't... Read more →
Just can't get motivated to do your taxes? You are not alone. It's April, but the pandemic has shifted the tax focus this year from filing, which has a new July 15 deadline, to the coronavirus economic relief payments. Still, if you're due a refund — and yes, some folks who get tax money back still dally when it comes to sending in their returns — you might want to go ahead and get to work on that 1040. The main reason to file is that you'll get your 2019 tax year refund. That's not going to happen until the... Read more →