The IRS window for filing 2023 income tax returns opened on Monday, January 29, 2024. Most of you will not yet have received all of your tax documents but that officially kicked off this year’s filing season.
Of course, Congress has decided “Not so fast!” by deliberating a tax bill that would include changes retroactive to January 1, 2023….yes nearly 13 months ago! While most of these changes are targeted to taxpayers with young children and small business owners, there is discussion of other changes that may have more far reaching impact. So we will be on something of a wait and see approach before filing 2023 returns.
Below are a few other items I’d like to bring to your attention as we move into filing season:
Tax Dome
As many of you know we onboarded a new client tax practice management tool called Tax Dome about 15 months ago. We are continuing to leverage that as a client document portal as well as the internal management it provides our team. Tax Dome provides a lot of communication capabilities as well so don’t be surprised to see some correspondence from us via the Tax Dome platform.
Tax Scams
We are seeing a flood of fraud (particularly banking fraud) and the IRS is particularly concerned about tax scams and fraud. As with everything, be careful about online or text message links, don’t hesitate to verify the source of messages and just generally be conscious of potential attempts to steal from you. One last thing: PLEASE RECONCILE YOUR BANK ACCOUNTS FREQUENTLY (business or personal). Bank fraud can often be reversed but only if caught in a timely manner.
Team Members
We added 2 new team members in late 2023 both working remotely. Fernando Carreon has come on board as an experienced Tax Senior. Fernando has over 10 years tax preparation and planning experience and will be an integral part of the tax service we offer. He and his family live in El Paso, Texas.
Kelly Lyons joined the team in November as an Operations Manager. Her role is to work with Emily on the operational aspects of running the firm. She recently relocated to the Mid-Atlantic from New England and works remotely.
You may hear from Fernando or Kelly as we move through the season.
As in past years, Olivia will continue handling client services and Mel is the first contact for most client communications. Joyce continues to work with Emily on client accounting needs and service.
Lastly, I would encourage you to read our blog housed on our website. I have tried to address commonly asked questions and tax/financial planning thoughts that we hear a lot from clients. Recent pieces I wrote address common an oft asked question about real estate investing and tax:
Short Term Rentals and Tax Savings
While a previous article addressed the new Beneficial Ownership Information requirement for any business entities (there will be more on this):
We will be posting new items here as relevant issues come up.
That should do it. We look forward to working with all of you again this year. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or are thinking about something that may have tax implications. As always, we want to help clients make better, informed decisions before it is too late.