OMG … It’s crunch time! Or, if you’re a tax preparer, will this tax season every end?! The IRS says “maybe not”, but for now we have to go with their announced tax deadline of July 15. That gives you about 2 weeks if you’re one of the many procrastinators. If you don’t think you’ll be ready by the July 15 deadline, make sure you call or email us for an extension (until Oct 15). You’ll still get charged interest starting July 16 if you end up owing, but the extension gets you out of nastier penalties (bonus tax!).
In other news, the IRS wants us to remind you to keep the Stimulus Notice (Form 1444) that you received in the mail and promptly threw out (at least I did) weeks ago. They say you may need it to confirm the amount of stimulus you received when you file taxes next year. So, thanks for that way late reminder, eh? I figure they’ll have to resend those notices next January when we all actually care about what we need for taxes next year…
On retirement account withdrawals, this year only, you can take up to $100,000 out of your traditional retirement accounts without an early withdrawal penalty of 10% (you still have to pay taxes on the income). Even better, you can opt to pay the taxes on that withdrawal over 3 years instead of all this year. We still recommend you avoid doing this if at all possible, but at least they aren’t penalizing you if that’s your last recurse while our economy putters.
Time is getting tight, so please call or email if you want an appointment or forward your documents to us ASAP for TeleTaxPrep!