Our favorite EAs, Ty and LuSundra have come out of hiding after a grueling tax season and are ready to dive back into the tax news with you! If you’ve never tuned into our Facebook page to hear Tax News Live, you’re missing out! Ty and LuSundra are quite the pair and love sharing their tax knowledge with viewers. Once a month, they go live from The Income Tax School to talk about updates and news in the industry. It’s a great way to catch up and get your questions answered! Any viewer can type a comment on the live feed thread and they will answer it during the broadcast.
Here’s a quick recap of things they saw this tax season, and things you should be looking out for now that the season is over.
This season was brutal
This tax season was crazy between the uncertainties, the changes, all the forms, trouble with tax software, and not having the information at the start of the season!
According to Ty, “It was a very manual tax season.” It required triple checking, asking each other, “Does this make sense?”, switching back and forth between schedules… Both taxpayers and tax pros were left wondering, “What happened?”
Tax season is not over
Let’s be clear, tax season is still going. There are tons of people who still need to file, clients who started the process but are missing information, clients who received letters from the IRS… It’s a mess! What that means for tax pros is that there is still an opportunity to bring in business with all the uncertainty and late filers. Reach out to people, keep your marketing going, send email, get those late filers in your door!
Withholding is still an issue
Despite the notices sent out from the IRS, millions of taxpayers did not know they needed to revisit their W4 to make sure their withholding was correct. The point of the W4 is to make sure you break even at tax time. However, the changes and the complexity of the tax law, it never works out that way. This year, the IRS actually paid out less because people paid more. Time to gently remind your clients that if they haven’t already, they need to review their withholding. Also, look out – there’s a new W4 coming from the IRS.
Deductions
Deductions that really affected clients this season were unreimbursed expenses – which mostly affected the sales and service industry, and SALT, which affected high and middle-income taxpayers.
Tax planning should be a high priority
The work to reduce your tax liability happens throughout the year, which is why tax planning is so important. After the tax season we just had, more taxpayers are realizing how important it is. Now is the time to reach out to clients and push the importance of tax planning. There are tax moves that need to be made now to prepare for next season.
If you missed Tax News Live, you can watch it below. Be sure to join us for the next one!