There is a point (or multiple points) every year when I write about how it is a good idea to stay on top of your tax picture. Yet, there are so many people who never do this. On one hand, it is understandable why this happens because many people have the same tax situation year after year. Even those people, though, tend to have some point in their life when things change, even if it is a change that just leads into another extended period of normalcy. In this year that has been anything other than normal, though, I think it is again time to bring up this idea.

For those of you out there who have not experienced any financial changes, I am so happy to hear that and hope you have gratitude for your thankful situation. For everyone else, though, it may be time to get on top of things so that another unpleasant surprise doesn’t enter your life in six months.

As always, life changes such as marriage and new children can change how much you will have to pay in taxes. In a lot of these cases, too, it means you will have to pay less. So wouldn’t making some adjustments now and getting more money be a good idea?

This could also be the case for many people who are making less money than they were at the beginning of the year. Sure, we hear about lots of people unfortunately trying to get by on unemployment benefits, but there are also many people working less than they were in January. There is just a huge chunk of people who could do with a little extra money in their take-home pay.

Even in the best of times, we can only get a best guess as to answers when it comes to these matters. The numbers we estimate now will not be the actual ones come the end of the year. It is still much better than going into things blind, though.

The best place to get a start on this is with the IRS’s own tax withholding estimator - https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator. This is a more powerful tool than it was in recent years as it attempts to take in more of your whole tax picture than just how much you are paid in one job. With its answers, you can see if you are withholding enough for tax purposes or withholding too much for tax purposes. With that knowledge, you can then speak to your payroll provider and go about making adjustments to bring things in line with where you want them.

Granted, the chances that this makes any huge week-to-week difference is slim. But small changes can still be positive ones, especially in this time when pertinent knowledge can feel tough to come by. So, grab onto it when you can in the areas where you can.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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It is very fulfilling to work in a profession where we can be the go-to place for someone to come to when they have questions about their finances – one of the most important and potentially difficult facets of life. It can also be very disconcerting, as well, to be helping people with their financial picture in a time when that part of one’s life feels as precarious as it ever has.

With so many people currently in such a difficult position, it is no wonder that so many are paying close attention to Congress as it attempts to hash out another round of stimulus funding. It is great to hear the amount of a trillion dollars being thrown around as a starting point, but it feels like it does not help much if it does not affect you personally and debate overshadows action. This feels especially strong as the $600 federal unemployment enhancement runs out this week just as a federal moratorium on evictions also ends. It then becomes all too easy to see this becoming a tragic situation for people affected by a situation completely beyond their control.

In situations like this, there are no winners. The most that many are hoping for is just to get by. So policy aside, I want this writing to stand as a hope for wellness, financial and otherwise, for as many people as possible as we continue to push through a difficult situation. From our end, we will continue to monitor the situation as legislation is passed and do all we can to be able to give the best advice for your personal situation to try to help you find that positive place.

To reach that end, this is also a plea for those who have been less adversely affected to do what they can to help others who are suffering. A lot of the discussion concerning this next round of stimulus includes another round of individual payments. For those in desperate need of that money, please take it and help your family keep pushing through. For those still afloat, though, please consider donating some of it (if and when it happens). If everyone in such a position passed along just a small portion of that money, we can continue to help push things in that needed positive direction.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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Now that (nearly) everyone has filed their taxes, it is a good time to look back and find out what you could have done better. After all, I have many tax prep meetings with business owners during which they come to the realization that they could be deducting more expenses than they are.

The best way to keep this from happening is to be diligent about recordkeeping. After all, it’s one thing to have a receipt from a meal that you claim is for business, but if you can’t tell someone who you dined with and what you discussed that was business related, the IRS could disallow it as a deduction.

Even though tax season had me thinking about some of these things already, this recent article also highlighted some of the same issues  In that story, a taxpayer believed he was keeping good track of his mileage by having a Microsoft Outlook calendar where he recorded his travels. And on the surface, this sounds great. It is a living document that he can both add to and look back upon when needed. Unfortunately, the purpose of all those travels was not also recorded, instead making it largely useless.

When thinking about best practices here, there is no clear answer. After all, the digital calendar idea sounds great, but failed. It would have been outdone by a notebook in a car’s glove compartment with a log of dates, odometer readings, and purposes for the trips. Digital records may seem safer and more ready-to-use, but they are no good if not used correctly.

Start then with thinking of a system that you can diligently follow. If the immediacy of the notepad in the car works for you, use it. It still may be a good idea to convert it to something digital on a regular basis, but taking information down as you actually do it helps make sure you are recording all of those possible deductions and not missing anything. If you can’t imagine being so analog, though, your phone has a spot for notes on it, too, and you can use that as a notepad.

Granted, if you are doing a lot of business travel, you are not going to want to hand a notepad to your tax preparer as a final document. This information can be moved to a spreadsheet or other financial software, though, to become more manageable and usable. A lot of the breakdowns I see, though, are due to a lack of that immediacy in recording so that middle step can still be helpful. When you are attempting to recreate travels through receipts, you are bound to miss something.

And sure, this all sounds like a pain.  But what causes more pain, doing some good recordkeeping (and once you establish a habit out of, it won’t even feel that bad) or seeing a bill come tax time that you know you could have lessened? 

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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We have finally arrived at the end of tax season, even if three months later than usual. This first requires some quick-hits style notes:

1. If you intended to file an extension and gain three more months to file your taxes, you can do so fairly easily via this link. But remember, an extension to file your taxes is not an extension to pay your taxes. If you owe taxes, you will start gathering penalties and interest if they’re not paid by the deadline.
2. If you have filed your taxes and are wondering where your refund is, I assure you that we have no secret doors through which to access this information. We also have no ways to make your refund appear faster. You can visit this webpage, though, and check the status of your refund.
3. As a bit of a warning, though, even government agencies have been a little spotty lately with how much and what work they have been able to accomplish due to various restrictions and safety measures. So if it takes a little longer to get your refund than you were expecting, this would not be terribly surprising.
4. Finally, just as July 15 marked the time when your taxes had to be filed, it also marks the time when all the taxes whose deadlines have been pushed back start up again. So remember that if you owe the IRS money and have received some payment leniency, or if you are to begin a new payment plant, keep an eye for those to kick back in.

Beyond those, I also like to give a thank you note to my clients at the close of the season, and it may be more necessary now than ever before. Taxes are rarely a fun time for people (although it is fun to show people the way to an unexpected refund), but it is even less fun when they come with unexpected pain. This year, though, everything has come with new pains, and that also includes tax planning and filing.

So for those who did not get in early in the season and had to deal with the discomfort and inconvenience of virtual meetings and no set office hours, thank you for working around it. It is heartwarming to know that the work we do here was worth clearing those hurdles. Hopefully, the work we did will continue to prove worth it, and hopefully next year things will feel a little easier.

Until then, though, we continue to stand by your side no matter where the paths lead.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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In general, I try not to go super in-depth in these blogs at any time, and that is more due to attention restraints than anything else. I mean, those who care to get into the weeds into issues such as taxes know where to find that information. I instead want to bring some general knowledge to a larger number of people (and hopefully stay easy to follow at the same time because of it).

Since the COVID-19 outbreak, much of my writing has become even more general, as everything felt like it was changing all the time. This made any advice or news short-lived, so I instead sought to provide information that could be more of an anchor in a time where nothing was steady.

Today I will have just a bit more of that depth, but it is coming in the form of good news. First, there was a recent summit held by ADP to look into some recent job research. The overarching take was that the PPP program did help return some people to the workforce and it looks like that will continue throughout the summer. Getting back to where we were before all this madness will take longer, but this does offer hope that we are not just spiraling into the abyss. And for those who do like to get even deeper into the numbers, you can read more about this here.

This good news seems to largely be coming across the board, too, as Paychex released numbers last week that said small businesses essentially held steady when it comes to number of jobs, but saw an uptick in hours worked. Even something like that, which is neither grand nor wonderful news, is still good news, as any increase in the amount of the hours worked is a positive. Again, for you deep number crunchers, click here for more.

Also last week came an extension of the PPP program in general. The deadline for the program was to have come last week, but both houses of Congress passed a five-week extension that the president signed, so the program will now remain open for applications until August 8. It is able to keep going because all of the money allocated for the program has not yet been doled out. That can even be seen as the best news of all after how quickly the first round of funding was divvied up, leaving many to feel like they missed out.

So yes, there may not be much in this blog that is something you can think about in your own life and you may not be interested in more than the headlines, but hopefully you can forgive me good news blather for a week.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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