It is here – tax season has officially begun.

Not that you really needed me to say that because you have probably been receiving some forms in the mail that remind you of the fact.

But what have you done with those forms?

Good tax preparation can be done in small places, and this question highlights one that you get right at the beginning of the process. If you bring your pieces of mail in and toss them on the counter, it may look like a manageable pile to start, but if you wait until sometime in March to really start putting them together, what are the chances things will remain neat and easily accessible?

But wait, you say, you’ve been getting most of your stuff via email, so you don’t have to worry about tracking it down again. Just how well do you have your inbox set up, though? If you’re going to be able to return in six weeks and find all your forms exactly where you want them to be, then you may be a better human than most. Many, though, will be trying to figure out just who sent something they are now trying to track down.

Either way, where these plans start to fall apart is in the idea that you can only do anything with the forms when you’re ready to move forward with your tax return. For no matter how good a human you are, many people are just not ready on February 1 to start putting all the real numbers into their return. In fact, many people won’t even have received everything they need at that time to do so.

At TSBAS, we have a portal for our clients where they can upload their tax documents and when they do so that doesn’t mean that it trips some wire where they are completely ready to go. Sending documents as you go, though, offers the comfort that you know exactly where the information you need is going to be when you are ready. And just imagine, that way, as soon as you do get that last bit of information you need, you only have to send one document to us and know in that exact moment you’re good to go.

That one small change will keep ahead of the game, can give you a significant leg up and make things feel much better when we are standing at the end of the tax season and not the beginning. So even if it’s still really early, don’t start procrastinating now.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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​And now here we are.

We have spent the last couple months with a lot of what-ifs dominating the tax landscape ahead of President Donald Trump’s inauguration. And now … well, Trump is the president and we are still full of the same questions.

This certainly is not to say that now nothing is going to happen, there is just a time element here that we must let play out. It takes no more than a one-day look after the inauguration to see how promises and rhetoric can both come right through but also be kicked down the road. Pardons certainly got some immediate mention but those day-one tariffs got a few more days attached to them.

And taxes, well, we can at least be more certain now that the IRS isn’t going to get pumped up with new funding and employees. Beyond that, policy is probably going to still take some time before it even creeps its way to the top of the to-do list.

So yes, we are here, but as we have been saying for a while now, we can’t take sweeping actions before more is known. So at least now hopefully some of the waiting jitters can ease as we settle into a new cycle and see where it takes us.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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I have recently written a bit on how it is difficult to know what may be coming with tax changes with the new Trump administration, but that we can be sure there will be political moves to at least try to make something happen. In all this, though, I may have been overlooking a bit of crucial information – just whose job it is to administer anything that does happen.

Yes, it will still be the IRS, and this got pushed to the front of my mind last week when National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins released her annual report to Congress. "For the first time since I became the National Taxpayer Advocate in 2020, I can begin this report with good news: The taxpayer experience has noticeably improved," Collins wrote, letting you know just how enjoyable dealing with the agency tends to be for people. But then, she also had to go on and spend some time discussing how there have been ongoing delays with getting Employee Retention Credit claims processed – which you’re very aware of if you submitted one and weren’t really early in the process. She noted that there are legitimate claims that have been waiting to be processed for over a year.

Then there is the fact that one of those things we can be pretty sure of is at least going to proposed with the new administration is taking away some funding from the IRS. That certainly isn’t going to make those who are still waiting for ERC money feel good.

It could also mean that even if new tax laws are passed, there could be some delays and uncertainty in how and when they will be implemented. So even once we have a handle on what’s going to happen, that still doesn’t mean that it happens immediately.

And that brings us back to that first point I mentioned and the one I’ve been making along the way in these discussions – it doesn’t do much good to get ahead of ourselves. We can’t know what’s coming and even when it does, we may not be sure exactly when. So … stay tuned.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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As I said a few times at the end of last year, it looks all but inevitable that there will be some tax changes coming with the new Trump administration. There are many good guesses at what this could involve since we have seen what Trump pushed for in the tax reform arena during his first term, as well as what he has expressed as hopes since. None of this, however, means that anything is a slam dunk.

I also appreciate that politics can be a super-heated area for many. This comes from both sides, too, from those who may think that whatever can be implemented under Trump is bound to not be enough, to those who think that anything he will accomplish will need to be repealed as soon as possible. And there are bound to be good arguments on both sides, as well, as what much of these debates come down to are extensions of economic discussions that have been carried out for decades.

The heat that many feel, though, still can’t be denied and with that some people have chosen to limit how much political news they expose themselves to for their own mental health. And if this is something that makes you feel better overall, it is something I fully support.

When it comes to questions about taxes and your own finances, though, I would like to caution these people, though, that it moves things into areas where you may want to put some attention. This does not have to involve any partisan discussions, just if tax laws are passed, then there’s a good chance it will change what you were expecting to see at the end of your tax return.

Whether or not you agree with policies that are passed, we become obligated to follow them. We are not allowed to file the tax return we wish we could, but rather must file the one that is legal under the current rules. Whether or not you agree with what was passed then, it does you well to know what it was because they could result in a final tax return number that is thousands of dollars different than what you expected – which could either be a very good or a very bad thing.

Either way, preparation is key when it comes to tax returns for it helps avoid surprises. By knowing what’s coming, you can claim a little personal power and do something good for yourself while still keeping the distance you need for personal health. We should embrace all the things that are good for us. 

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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