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Archive for the ‘IRS’ Category

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Millions of Tax Returns Unprocessed by IRS

Posted by taxguru on February 19, 2022

Since almost all of our clients file their returns on extended due dates – normally October 15 – many of them are currently among the 23.7 million return backlog that IRS has admitted to.

Here is what I have had to send to a number of clients who are wondering why they haven’t received their refunds after more than four months.

“IRS is currently dealing with a backlog of almost 24 million 2020 and earlier year tax returns that need to be processed.  There has been a lot of press about this, such as this article.

Is the Massive IRS Backlog Impacting This Tax Season?

The latest news is that they have not processed any returns received after April 2021 and they are asking people not to send in extra copies because that will just make matters worse for them.

It’s a mess on several levels.  Many of us tax pros are hoping IRS delays this year’s Tax Day from April 18 until at least a few months later in order to give themselves time to get caught up with the prior year returns before they receive millions more 2021 returns.

I hope this helps you understand what’s going on.”

Posted in IRS | Comments Off on Millions of Tax Returns Unprocessed by IRS

Tax Day is April 18 for 2021 1040s

Posted by taxguru on January 10, 2022

It’s been a few years since the official tax return deadline has been the classic April 15 we have all grown up with and associated with income taxes in this country. Due to holiday and weekend issues, we aren’t returning to the 15th this year either.

As explained in this IRS news release, the filing deadline is Monday, April 18 for taxpayers in every state except Maine and Massachusetts. Because of their Patriots’ Day holiday, they have an extra day, until April 19.

Not that IRS needs any more help complicating the tax system, but what would the deadlines look like if every State were to come up with their own special holidays around the time of April 15? It would be craaazy.

As we have learned over the past few years, the April 18 date is not cast in stone. It is subject to change if we have more disruptive events happen between now and then.

Posted in IRS, TaxDay | Comments Off on Tax Day is April 18 for 2021 1040s

Looting the Looters

Posted by taxguru on January 5, 2022

There has been a lot of media coverage of the IRS’s Publication 17 tax guide mention of the fact that illegal income is required to be reported on income tax returns. This isn’t anything new – remember Al Capone? – but is getting a lot of attention due to the widespread smash and grab gangs hitting stores all around the country.

It didn’t take long for self identified Rogue Cartoonist Ben Garrison of Grrr Graphics to come up with a great illustration of this.

Posted in Crooks, IRS | Comments Off on Looting the Looters

2022 IRS Inflation Adjustments

Posted by taxguru on November 10, 2021

IRS has officially calculated the various increases for 2022 that are required to be adjusted annually.

IRS News Release with some of the “most popular” changes

Revenue Procedure 2021-45 with all of the details (29 Page PDF)

Not mentioned in either of the above referenced documents is the fact that there should be a huge asterisk with the disclaimer that all of these figures are subject to changes at the whim of the rulers currently in power.  With all of the threats to retroactively increase all tax rates coming from DC, we can only hope that the IRS assumptions of 2022 rates will actually survive.

One noteworthy change for 2022 is the annual Gift Tax exclusion, which can only be increased in $1,000 increments after multiple years of inflation.  For 2022, it will be raised from the current $15,000 per donor (giver) per donee (recipient) to $16,000.  Many people design their long-term gifting strategies based on these annual exclusion amounts.

[Update 11-30-2021]: The good folks at TheTaxBook have produced this handy one page summary of the most popular inflation adjustment amounts for 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Posted in inflation, IRS | Comments Off on 2022 IRS Inflation Adjustments

IRS Spying Negotiations Continue

Posted by taxguru on October 19, 2021

Mallard.Fillmore.Perpetual.IRS.Audit(10-15-2021)

When the Dims proposed allowing IRS to spy on everyone’s bank account that has at least $600 in it, I had a sneaking suspicion that using such an insanely low threshold so as to encompass everybody was a negotiating tactic. It would eventually lead to people feeling a sense of relief when the break-point for IRS spying was raised to a higher level.

As this news story shows, the second phase of this “negotiation” with the public has been announced by the Dims, raising  the “spying is acceptable” threshold to $10,000. This actually isn’t as big a compromise as it may seem at first blush. It doesn’t mean balances of $10,000 or more, which would exempt a lot of accounts.  It is $10,000 or more total deposits and withdrawals during a year.  That works out to a little more than $192 per week.  That would put a lot more accounts into the IRS crosshairs.

IRS.Spies.On.Banks(10-26-2021)

Their ultimate goal is to make everyone comfortable with the concept of IRS examining every aspect of all of our finances. Once the spying mechanism is accepted as a valid government procedure, even if it begins at $10,000, it will then be an easy step for that number to be lowered.  The camel’s nose under the tent cliché fits here.

This process reminds me of the old joke about negotiating a price for sex.

Current Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other wacko Dims can’t stop screaming about the fact that every single person in this country is a dastardly tax cheat and the only way to close the wildly exaggerated Tax Gap is to give IRS even more powers to ignore the Constitution and do whatever it takes to squeeze more money out of everybody.  Dims have never been shy about their guiding philosophy of the ends justifying the means approach to accomplishing their goals, even if those are flagrantly unconstitutional.

Lisa Benson cartoon

Posted in IRS | Comments Off on IRS Spying Negotiations Continue

More IRS Spying–What Could Go Wrong With That?

Posted by taxguru on October 8, 2021

There has been plenty of news coverage over the Dims’ plans to increase the IRS’s powers to spy on every aspect of everyone’s finances.  While text and audio can explain the pitfalls of such an insane and unconstitutional  scheme, nothing can convey the upcoming horror better than an illustration like this one from Ben Garrison of GrrrGraphics.

    Ben.Garrison-IRS.MOnster(10-8-2021)

Posted in Big Brother, IRS, spying | Comments Off on More IRS Spying–What Could Go Wrong With That?

Tax Day is Now May 17 For Individuals

Posted by taxguru on March 17, 2021

After a lot of teasing us with “will they or won’t they,” IRS has decided to give most of the country until Monday, May 17 to file 2020 tax returns or extensions.

Tax Day for individuals extended to May 17: Treasury, IRS extend filing and payment deadline

While we should all appreciate any extension of the filing deadline, just moving it back by one month seems a bit half-assed.  While most people were expecting another July 15 Tax Day, I was betting on June 15, which would have brought everyone else in sync with Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma,

Of course, there is a possibility that one month from now, IRS may move Tax Day out by another month or two, adding even more confusion to the process of preparing and filing tax returns.

It’s another crazy Tax Season.

Update 3/19/21:  There are a lot of critics, such as the AICPA, of this limited filing delay because it doesn’t cover businesses, which have a lot of new confusing issues to deal with from the pandemic, and the fact that IRS supposedly still wants people to send in their first estimated (ES) tax payment for 2021 by April 15.  Again, this is very much like the confusion we went through at this time last year, when for a while, IRS was requiring the second ES payment for 2020 to be made by June 15, while the first wasn’t due until July 15.  IRS is a master at complicating what should be a simple across the board delay for everyone.    

Posted in IRS, TaxDay | Comments Off on Tax Day is Now May 17 For Individuals

Delayed Tax Day for Three States

Posted by taxguru on March 12, 2021

While we are all waiting for IRS to announce a nation-wide extension of the filing deadline for 2020 tax returns, they have officially given a two month delay – until June 15 – to three States which had some nasty weather recently.

Victims of Texas winter storms get deadline extensions and other tax relief

IRS announces tax relief for Oklahoma severe winter storm victims

IRS announces tax relief for Louisiana severe winter storm victims

 

The insane two trillion dollar “stimulus” bill that was signed into law yesterday has some tax related items that will require modifications to the IRS’s computers, as well as to the software we practitioners use.  Trying to get all of that up to speed with an April 15 filing deadline will just make an already crazy Tax Season even more so.

While everyone will still have the option to file for their own extensions, until October 15, there is a big difference between that approach and IRS delaying the initial filing deadline.  If IRS doesn’t give us all extra time, we will have to do some tax calculations and submit payments for any expected taxes due by April 15. 

If IRS gives us the extra time like we had last year, those payments won’t be due until the new Tax Day, which will hopefully be July 15 for everyone.  It would also delay the deadline for some other tax return related events, such as when money could be deposited into an IRA account and be deducted on the 2020 returns.

Posted in IRS, TaxDay | Comments Off on Delayed Tax Day for Three States

Another Uncertain Tax Season

Posted by taxguru on March 10, 2021

It’s impossible not to have déjà vu feelings related to last year, when at this same point in time, there was a confusing “will they or won’t they” tension in the country in regard to IRS extending the official filing deadlines for 2019 tax returns.  We are currently in the midst of exactly that same debate for 2020 returns, with calls for July 15 to be Tax Day again this year.

Of course until IRS makes its official declaration of a later tax filing deadline, we have to operate as if the normal due dates of March 15 and April 15 are still our targets.

Very interesting analysis of the current status of how behind IRS currently is in this article from Accounting Today:

Momentum builds for delaying tax deadline

Posted in IRS, TaxDay | Comments Off on Another Uncertain Tax Season

IRS Mileage Rates For 2021

Posted by taxguru on December 23, 2020

With plenty of time for employers to adjust their employee reimbursement rates for next year’s business trips, IRS has published what the standard mileage deductions will be for 2021 tax returns.

Beginning on January 1, 2021, the standard mileage rates for the use of a car (also vans, pickups or panel trucks) will be:

    56 cents per mile driven for business use, down 1.5 cents from the rate for 2020,
    16 cents per mile driven for medical, or moving purposes for qualified active duty members of the Armed Forces, down 1 cent from the rate for 2020, and
    14 cents per mile driven in service of charitable organizations, the rate is set by statute and remains unchanged from 2020.

 

My normal comments on this subject still apply.

It’s a good idea to keep track of actual vehicle expenses during the year, because there are plenty of times when they will exceed the IRS’s calculation of average operating costs.

I have yet to hear an explanation from the wizards in Congress who write our tax laws as to why they believe that it costs so much less to operate a vehicle when it is being driven on non-business trips, such as for charity, medical or moving.  Just another oxymoron, Congressional Logic.

Posted in Deductions, IRS, Vehicles | Comments Off on IRS Mileage Rates For 2021

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