Did you receive an IRS identity verification letter? There is no need to panic; this is not a scam. If you received a 5071C, 4883C, 5747C, 6331C, or 5447C letter, the IRS needs to verify your identity.

A note to our clients regarding improvements made by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to the child and dependent care tax credit for the 2021 tax year, i.e., the credit available for expenses a taxpayer pays for the care of qualifying individual(s) under the age of 13 so that the taxpayer can be gainfully employed.

Earlier this month, the IRS issued notices to approximately 260,000 taxpayers stating they haven’t filed their 2019 federal tax return. These notices, referred to as CP59 notices, are issued yearly to identify taxpayers who have failed to file a tax return that was due the prior calendar year (Tax Year 2019).

IRS will issue new withholding tables (Publication 15) to reflect changes as of January 1, 2021. When available, the new withholding tables can be obtained at the Internal Revenue website, www.irs.gov.

In addition to saving income taxes for the current and future years, effective tax planning can reduce eventual estate taxes, maximize the number of funds you will have available for retirement, reduce the cost of financing your children’s education, and assist you in managing your cash flow to help you meet your financial objectives.

Since the enactment of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), an individual’s federal tax deduction for state and local taxes (SALT) paid during the calendar year is limited to $10,000. The SALT limitation impacted many individual partners and shareholders. Several states responded to this limitation by issuing workarounds to enact entity-level taxes for pass-through entities where the entity pays the tax instead of its owners and then deducts the full amount of state taxes paid, thus avoiding the $10,000 limitation at the individual level. It was uncertain whether the IRS would accept this entity-level tax workaround.

Brinker Simpson was recently named as one of the 2020 Accounting Today’s Best Accounting Firms to Work for. Accounting Today has partnered with Best Companies Group to identify companies that have excelled in creating quality workplaces for employees.

With the Presidential election 9 weeks away, we prepared the following guideline to illustrate where each of the candidates stand on certain tax laws. Biden’s proposed changes would repeal different aspects of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA). Please note, these are proposed changes and Congress often makes the final decision.

Business clients often ask us: Should we outsource our accounting needs? What exactly are the benefits we can expect?