Message from Your CPA What is our Client Portal? You probably receive email from our Client Portal as we have worked on a job for you. And you may be wondering--Just what is the Client Portal and how can I use it? What our Client Portal IS: Our Client Portal gives you an inside view of where your job is in our work process--saving you the trouble of calling to ask us for updates. You can log in and view the current job status anytime, 24/7. It will even give you an expected date as to when your project will be complete. When your job is “In Process” that means a tax pro is working on your job. If the status is “Waiting on Material” you’ll know we can’t do any work on the job until you provide us with documents or additional data. (We also always request such data over the phone or via email). When it says “In Review” you know that a tax pro and Greg or Hanna are reviewing the documents. When it says “Ready to Be Picked Up” it is in our front office waiting for you. What our Client Portal is NOT: It’s NOT a place to view your tax return. (If you need a digital copy of finished work, we can provide that. Just let us know.) Nor is it a place to upload or send data to us. (Please email or call so we can determine the best way to receive your data.) And sadly, it doesn’t tell you when you will receive your IRS refund. (Only the IRS website can provide that.) We hope the information from the Client Portal eases your mind about your projects in our office. --Hanna Message from Your CPA By far, the most popular question asked this past tax season was, "How is the new tax law going to impact my taxes?" Some of you were happy with the changes and others of you were not, usually depending on your political beliefs and tax situation. But, with all politics put aside, we have some answers. I ran an analysis of all of the tax returns we prepared this past tax season and compared those to the tax returns prepared the tax season before. Here is what I found: (Note that there is nothing scientific about this. These are just averages from our clients.) - The average refund went down by $678. - Average earnings were up by 10.5%. - The average effective tax rate dropped from 18.3% to 15.4%, a tax decrease of 15.8%. Our conclusion: - Our clients prospered this year! We didn't need an analysis to determine that. We saw it daily as we talked to you and worked on your tax issues. - Our clients' tax rate went down by 15.8%, which is a significant savings. The savings was realized over the entire course of the year, primarily in larger take-home pay. - Lower refunds were a result of not having as much tax withheld during the year due to higher earnings and/or the tax withholding tables being inaccurate. The IRS struggled with updated withholding tables and still does struggle with new tables. Of course, these are averages, and your individual result will vary. Still unsure of what happened? Call us today for a review of your tax return and some tax planning, if needed! -- Greg Message from Your CPA Do you like eating vegetables? They are good for you! But yet, even knowing that, many people still don’t want to eat them. A review of your tax withholding or other payments for the year might not be your favorite thing, but it IS very good for you! Recently we have seen a 40% increase in Late Payment Penalties from the IRS. Since our tax system is a Pay-As-You-Go system, to avoid those IRS penalties you are required to pay the tax during the tax year, not later when you file the taxes. We will customize our review of your withholding/tax payments to exactly what you need—a new W-4 and/or Estimated Tax Payment vouchers, a tax saving strategy to save you money, and answers to your concerns. Even small changes in your family, job, education, or other details can have a BIG impact on your taxes. Call us today to learn how we can help you avoid those nasty IRS penalties! --Hanna This year, 28% of our clients own rental property. You may be asking yourself why someone would need a CPA to prepare a rental schedule? I mean, don’t you just type in the rental income and then type in the various deductions like interest and taxes? Actually, there’s A LOT more to it than that! The list of possible deductions (which most people that prepare their own taxes usually miss) is long and extensive. Over the past couple of years as the real estate market has taken off, we have had countless new clients hire us to properly report the sale of their rental home. And we have found literally is a mess of an attempt to do it themselves in prior years. The most common issue is failing to calculate depreciation appropriately, or even at all! And the tax law states that upon sale, you must recapture the depreciation allowable, whether it was deducted or not. The cost of fixing the problems far exceeds the costs of paying to have it done right in the first place. We specialize in real estate. Rental homes. Flips. Sales. Section 1031 Like-kind Exchanges. If you have friends or family who are trying to file their own taxes on real estate, send them our way. We’ll save them! And it will get done right! --Greg | | |