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Blog
Welcome Letter
Posted on February 5, 2018 at 10:08 AM |
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TO: ALL SURVIVORS OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT
CLOSURE, THE GA BULLDOGS
LOSING, THE FALCONS LOSING, THE BRAVES
LOSING, AND GOOD OL’ GA SNOW BLIZZARDS FROM: R.
Daniel McNeely, CPA
(770) 594-8796 875 Old Roswell Rd., St F-500 fax(770) 594-7406 Roswell, GA 30076
[email protected]
website: danmcneelycpa.com Here we go
once again! Time for you to panic, run to Walmart and buy file
folders and Tupperware boxes to put piles of tax forms and receipts together.
Then spend your perfectly good evening sorting out forms on your
living room watching “The Bachelor” on ABC! TAX TIME!!! This year,
again, we have made it through quite a lot of good news and bad news, finally
culminating in the news that our wonderful government was taking a small
vacation. Fortunately, they opened back up and will soon be back at full
speed, so go ahead and plan that vacation to the Grand Canyon! Even
through all the bad news, lots of good things happened. We had jobs, we made
money, we might have had kids, we might have gotten married (or
unmarried), we saw kids graduate and get jobs and enter the working world, and
we all survived the best way we could.
Now what? We do our
taxes! Like the last few years, there have been quite a few changes to
our income taxes. Last minute changes, IDENTITY THEFT issues,
and the government shutdown will cause delays in processing our
returns. The IRS will not even start processing returns until the end of January
and not issue refunds until the end of February. Some tax credits for some
folks and GA refunds may even take up to three months to process! Fortunately
for this year’s tax returns, most folk’s returns will look somewhat similar to
last year’s returns. Many of you won't
see many differences in the return for
this year compared to last year. As normal, the more you make, the higher
tax bracket you are in, the less credit you get for having kids and mortgages
and making church contributions. My job is to figure all that out for you,
and try not to make you scream at your kids or dog in the meantime! WHAT MAY AFFECT MOST PEOPLE? The NEW TAX PLAN will not kick in until next year’s return, as most of its laws
kicked in on January 1, 2018 (more later). If you HAD insurance through your employer, or you paid for it all year through
your own individual plan, and you had it all year, the insurance part probably
won’t be a big deal. We dohave to report to the IRS that you did have insurance. If you HAD NO insurance, or you obtained it by logging into
the Insurance Marketplace (the website that was so slow to work last year), we might
have a problem. For those with no insurance, the IRS wants you to pay a small
penalty which may cause you to owe when we file the return or will reduce your
refund. For those who USED THE MARKETPLACE to sign up for insurance last year, and especially
if you received a reduction or credit in
the amount of the monthly medical premiums you had to pay, your refund will probably be affected. If you
underestimated your income when you applied for insurance, your refund could be reduced or eliminated in
some cases. And the government will be sending you a brand new fancy tax form,
a 1095-A, that summarizes all of
your insurance activity, which is needed before your return can be done. IDENTITY THEFT is another big issue this year. The most common problem
related to identity theft and income taxes happens when someone uses your
Social Security
number and files a “fake” tax return. Then, when you file your real
return, the IRS sends me a nice message that we have a PROBLEM. Eventually,
we get it straight, you get your refund, and all is put back to normal but it
normally takes an extra 6 to 9 months to clear it up! So to combat that issue, the
IRS is doing more checkups on addresses, birthdates, employer information,
etc. and all that will lead to delays in you getting your refund and
possible questions from the IRS. In fact, Georgia has already indicated they will
hold up on refunds for up to 3 months to combat this issue! I am
sending you this tax package, with all of this wonderful information, to help
you prepare your tax documents to bring to me. I really do read updates and fancy
tax books and go to boring seminars to understand all the weird rules and
laws that affect most people. I actually probably know more than that guy
you met on MARTA that said you can deduct the cost of your entire
house as long as you store business files there (you can’t by the way)! We do keep
up with the tax changes, and all the new forms, and all the laws that
affect your taxes. One of my goals is to try and legally reduce how much the IRS
keeps of your hard earned money, while making this process as painless and simple
as possible. WHAT DO YOU NEED TO
DO! Right now, you are probably getting in the
mail all of that junk that says “IMPORTANT TAX DOCUMENT”, from banks, mortgage
companies, brokerages, your employer, etc. Start now by keeping all that stuff
in one big file, along with any other documents you may have accumulated over
the year pertaining to your taxes. That
really prevents you from spending a pretty Saturday
morning digging through your pile of Arby coupons, offers from internet
and cable companies, and all those notices telling you that tree companies are in
your area, looking for important documents that ended up stuck between the pages
of that Better Homes and Garden magazine. When you
start assembling your information, just do your best to gather the documents
and shove all the stuff you think might be important into an envelope and bring
it all to me, and I will sort it out. Remember,
my daughter works at a doctor’s office and I get free samples of
aspirin! Many
people simply mail their package to me, or you may just drop it off at
your convenience. If you have questions, or need to go over events and
transactions which happened during the year, please call and set up
a quick drop off appointment. We also have a mail slot for “after hour” drop
offs. Remember , the earlier you bring
your information in, the earlier I can start working on getting you your BIG
PILE OF TAX REFUND MONEY back in your wallet. We do encourage you to drop off
your package before March 15 (earlier
is better!) to assure timely completion before the dreaded date of April 15. Even with
extra staff working here, and my sleeping on the floor at night here, and eating
any leftover food from Subway the night before, it is almost impossible to even
look at last minute returns, let alone finish them on time!!! In
closing, I really appreciate your assistance in this job. I hope I make a
stressful job a little bit easier for you. Please call if you have questions,
unusual circumstances, or if you need to see me personally to tell me about
when you fell down on the ice taking your garbage can out the last time it
snowed! I do look
forward to helping save you time, headaches, arguments, and all
the aggravation of working on an entire year’s worth of paperwork and
confusing tax documents. Maybe, just maybe, I will save you enough money for a
fun dinner at the QuickTrip roller food counter! DAN MCNEELY, CPA |
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