04/22/2020
First, we hope you are all healthy and staying safe. We feel like 2020 has said to us all --- “Here - Hold my beer, watch this!” and that while the virus is real! (and it has touched family and friends) we feel that things have gotten way, way, way out of control in the world right now, and people should calm down and get back to work as soon as we can, keeping commerce shut down will have more bad consequences. We have flattened the curve and the federal government has somewhat spun up, however, in other ways, it is collapsing in front of our eyes.
We are sorry we have to report that at this point 4/22/2020 we have not yet completed all tax returns that are in our office. These will be turned to by us as soon as possible, as we are going to have to pivot back to tax season from the insanity of this stressful daily changing world we find ourselves.
Mid-March the IRS first moved the filing date to 7/15/2020 for individual taxpayers and eventually moved most other due dates and payment dates to then also. SO GOOD NEWS NO INDIVIDUAL IS LATE IN THEIR 2019 FILINGS and there is extended time for 2020 estimates, so you can keep your money longer without penalty or interest being imposed.
These are indeed crazy times in the tax business, even here in little Union County, Indiana. We have worked every single day this tax season, we have not shut down as we are considered an essential business. We have added additional measures to try and keep traffic into our office down and we, of course, are following CDC guidelines with extra sanitation efforts in our public facing parts of the office. We sent our office help home since that position is not essential.
The past month we have been trying to keep our head above water with all the meetings, phone calls, emails, and texts from folks and we have been in a state of triage for our small business clients, trying to help figure out how to keep folks employed and business ready to emerge when this is all over. We have reached out to many, but we have not gotten to everyone yet. We have participated in CPE during the height of the season – reading the passed bills, learning the new tax law and new labor laws passed in the last month to offer relief. New Regulations and new rules have changed almost daily. We are doing our best to try to stay on top of the news and what is available to help folks. We have gathered and provided loan supporting documentation and evaluated the various new programs against many of our business and self-employed clients.
Unfortunately some banks have proven themselves to fit a negative stereotype. The same effort exerted by the bank to process a 10k loan to earn 5% is essentially the same effort to process a $10 million loan to earn 5%. So, of course, it is possible that some banks haven’t operated as first come first served, but have rather, could have prioritized the loans for those asking for more. I hope the new funding, potentially coming, will have more appropriate rules for processing that allows more of the truly small business to get access to this potential relief, otherwise will we see more of the same? This built in flaw shouldn’t diminish the incredible feat by the Small Business Administration in processing more than a year’s worth of loans in only one day when these loans opened less than a couple weeks ago! We read yesterday that in 14 days the SBA processed 14 years’ worth of normal output! -- However, without a change from what happened in round one, we feel that this relief may be illusory for many small businesses. And for those lucky enough to have gotten processed you need to realize that the rules for potential forgiveness has not been written and clarified yet.
We have assisted a handful of self-employed folks in our community sign up for unemployment benefits (although presently due to the state system being not yet setup to handle this – none of these folks have actually gotten any $$ yet) Maybe the state will have its act together next week? But folks have to initially sign up to be denied and they are required to file the weekly vouchers to hold their places in line. The only way for folks to apply is online, no offices are open at this point to help folks with any of this. The state system is overwhelmed by the number using it, so at this point we have had these folks follow up each Tuesday because the load on the state unemployment system makes the system not really workable on Sundays or Mondays.
Add to this the Economic Impact Payment - that the IRS is trying to send out at this point, and have rolled it out so quickly that there are mistakes (checks sent to dead people and checks sent to the big rapid refund banks and their preparers – inappropriately) and poor communication and a mostly nonfunctional, incomplete website tool that creates more questions than it answers, all at a time when the IRS isn’t even there to pick up a telephone call. So mix in all the “Where is our stimulus?” calls from taxpayers and non-taxpayers who are entitled, from some of our individual clients and just random people asking questions because they haven’t been able to call anyone else. It makes for very busy yet unproductive days to actually turning out our normal work.
We love our Country, with all its flaws, and all of its people whether we believe politically with you or not. This is truly not meant to be a political post, our culture is so politically divided that many folks have a hard time listening to an opposing viewpoint. We want you to know that we care for you and we try to help no matter your political opinions.
Unfortunately the emergency legislation seems to have been written without guardrails and President Trump in defending his extraordinary leadership during these unprecedented times is glossing over the hiccups and misses that would have occurred no matter who is president and touting things are working great and fantastically and therefore is not being 100% truthful. We apologize for the offense I make to those perfect folks out there who seem to hate our president more than they care about preserving our economy. These are extraordinary times, and we know what has been done is incredible and massive and never done before, but we need to remember they don’t have the essential support at the government to actually roll this out with any kind of real controls to prevent the scamming and unfair gaming that is bound to occur no matter who is our leader.
There are real dangers beyond Covid-19.
The IRS focus at this point is not to tax season but rather solely on processing these Economic Impact Payments. They sent the vast majority of their employees (including those that should have been deemed essential and kept working) – because they truly are essential - home. All this because they don’t have a functional properly built system using modern technology but instead they are using computer systems that were in their prime in the 1970s and both political parties have been in charge during these decades since that was top notch technology and have failed to rectify the situation prior to Trump’s tenure even. The IRS is not manning phone calls for anyone, not taxpayers and not for practitioners trying to help taxpayers. Their fax machines were shut off, and presently it is being reported that mail is being returned as undeliverable. In our opinion we are seeing the system failing.
We will be in touch again very soon. We are truly sorry for our present delays, Dan and I are working hard every day to catch up, as fast as we can, as well as take each day as they come and we are still, to the extent possible, taking calls and trying to help our clients and community weather this storm.
Your friend and neighbors, and local Certified Public Accountants,
- Mae & Dan
The meme we added is a little cheeky (LOL) - We do genuinely care about the well being of our clients and our community! We love you all!
