Jan 28

Unusual Refund Patterns at IRS

As of 7am Eastern this morning, the IRS has still only released a small trickle of refunds so far this year. Never in the history of e-file have most early filers waited this long to receive their refund.

Wheres My RefundBy the end of today, the IRS is scheduled to release approximately 10% of refunds under $1000 which were filed prior to 1/23/2016. Tomorrow, the IRS is slated to release some additional refunds which were filed on 1/23 and 1/24. However, as is the case today, our information shows that the IRS will again release only approximately 10% of refunds under $1000 during that time period. Put another way, for the most part, the IRS has not yet released ANY refund over $1000.

This situation is nationwide, affecting all taxpayers and all tax preparers throughout the country. Based on our records, never in the recent past has the IRS waited this long to release the initial large batch of refunds related to early filers.

Keep in mind that it is still possible that additional refunds will be released by the IRS today or tomorrow other than those mentioned above. Also, it is likely that we will receive additional information over the next two days on when the remaining refunds will be released. If that occurs, I will let you know.

Dec 22

e-filing will open on Tuesday Jan 19th

 

Tax Time Approaches
Tax Time is Approaching!Zip refund

Are you ready?


The IRS announced that e-filing will open on Tuesday Jan 19th.

Tell your clients and get ready for another great tax season with Zip Refund.
Zip refund

 

Dec 18

PATH of 2015

Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes Act of 2015

Zip refund

(the PATH Act) – 12-18-2015

 

Here is a list of key provisions.

Made permanent:

  • Enhanced Child Tax Credit
  • Enhanced American Opportunity Tax Credit
  • Enhanced Earned Income Tax Credit
  • IRA-to-charity — California automatically conforms
  • R&D credit
  • IRC §179 — enhanced
  • Above-the-line educator deduction
  • Sales tax deduction
  • Built-in gains holding period
  • Enhanced mass transit and parking pass benefits
  • Enhanced exclusion of gain on sale of small business stock

 

PATH

Extended through 2016:

  • Qualified tuition deduction
  • COD principal residence exclusion
  • Mortgage insurance premium deductible as interest
  • Nonbusiness Energy Property Credit

 

Extended through 2019:

  • First year bonus depreciation on automobiles
  • Bonus depreciation — phases out
  • Work Opportunity Tax Credit

Dec 14

Identity protection tips

 

Seven Steps for Making Identity Protection Part of Your Routine

Zip refund

IRS Security Awareness Tax Tip Number 3, December 7, 2015 Español

 

The theft of your identity, especially personal information such as your name, Social Security number, address and children’s names, can be traumatic and frustrating. In this online era, it’s important to always be on guard.

The IRS has teamed up with state revenue departments and the tax industry to make sure you understand the dangers to your personal and financial data. Taxes. Security. Together. Working in partnership with you, we can make a difference.

Here are seven steps you can make part of your routine to protect your tax and financial information:

  1. Read your credit card and banking statements carefully and often – watch for even the smallest charge that appears suspicious. (Neither your credit card nor bank – or the IRS – will send you emails asking for sensitive personal and financial information such as asking you to update your account.)
  2. Review and respond to all notices and correspondence from the Internal Revenue Service. Warning signs of tax-related identity theft can include IRS notices about tax returns you did not file, income you did not receive or employers you’ve never heard of or where you’ve never worked.
  3. Review each of your three credit reports at least once a year. Visit annualcreditreport.com to get your free reports.
  4. Review your annual Social Security income statement for excessive income reported. You can sign up for an electronic account at www.SSA.gov.
  5. Read your health insurance statements; look for claims you never filed or care you never received.
  6. Shred any documents with personal and financial information. Never toss documents with your personally identifiable information, especially your social security number, in the trash.
  7. If you receive any routine federal deposit such as Social Security Administrator or Department of Veterans Affairs benefits, you probably receive those deposits electronically. You can use the same direct deposit process for your federal and state tax refund. IRS direct deposit is safe and secure and places your tax refund directly into the financial account of your choice.

To learn additional steps you can take to protect your personal and financial data, visit Taxes. Security. Together. You also can read Publication 4524, Security Awareness for Taxpayers.

Each and every taxpayer has a set of fundamental rights they should be aware of when dealing with the IRS. These are your Taxpayer Bill of Rights. Explore your rights and our obligations to protect them on IRS.gov.

Additional IRS Resources:

  • IRS Commissioner Koskinen’s Statement on the Security Summit Group Public Awareness Campaign
  • Taxpayer Guide to Identity Theft
  • Publication 5027, Identity Theft Information for Taxpayers
  • www.irs.gov/identitytheft — Identity Protection: Prevention, Detection and Victim Assistance
  • IR-2015-129, IRS, States and Tax Industry Announce New Steps to Help Public to Protect Personal Tax Data
  • Fact Sheet 2015-23, IRS, States and Industry Partners Provide Update on Collaborative Fight Against Tax-Related Identity Theft
  • IRS and Partner Statements on the October 2015 Security Summit Meeting

lock_over_cards

 

 

Oct 30

IRS Lowers Amount for PTIN Number

The IRS recently announced that it will be charging less for PTIN (Preparer tax identification number) registration and renewals. The PTIN is required to be a paid tax preparer so this is good news for all tax preparers. Instead of the usual $63 it will now only cost $50 for the upcoming 2016 tax season.

Learn more about this and other upcoming changes at the IRS site for tax professionals.

irs lowers ptin cost

Aug 05

Tax filing problems could jeopardize health law aid for 1.8M

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Mail-com

Feb 21

800,000 Taxpayers Received Wrong Tax Info from Health Insurance Marketplace

800,000 Taxpayers Received Wrong Tax Info from Health Insurance Marketplace

454 WASHINGTON, D.C. (FEBRUARY 20, 2015)
BY MICHAEL COHN
Approximately 800,000 taxpayers who received health care coverage through the federal insurance marketplace Healthcare.gov were sent the wrong information on their Form 1095-A and are being urged to wait to file their taxes until the first week of March when they receive the correct information from the federal government.

Diane Black

Diane Black

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Jan 19

IRS Cuts Back Help Desk Hours for Tax Pros

IRS Cuts Back Help Desk Hours for Tax Pros

77 WASHINGTON, D.C. (JANUARY 16, 2015)
BY MICHAEL COHN
The Internal Revenue Service is eliminating the extended weekday hours, Saturday and President’s Day availability of its e-help desk service due to budget cuts.

John Koskinen

John Koskinen

 

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Dec 18

Tax Extenders Bill Should Keep Tax Season Opening On Track

The President is expected to sign the tax extenders bill which will extend the tax breaks until the end of 2014, but will force Congress to have to take up the issue again in 2015. Maybe they will do it sooner than the end of the year next year…

This should keep the tax season opener at regular time at the end of January. The date the IRS will start accepting e-files has not officially been announced yet, so stay posted. Hopefully the Tax Extenders passage will allow for them to make a decision soon.

In the meantime- see below what was affected in this decision.

 

Passage of Tax Extenders Contains Key Tax Breaks

WASHINGTON, D.C. (DECEMBER 17, 2014)
BY MICHAEL COHN
Congress’s long-awaited passage of tax extenders legislation provides a short-term extension through only the end of this year of dozens of familiar tax breaks for businesses and individuals, along with a new savings program for the disabled.

capitol115

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Dec 14

Zip Refund Teams Up With RefundSafe for Third Year

Zip Refund had teamed up with RefundSafe to allow their nationwide tax preparers to offer this valuable add on service to their clients for the third year in a row. With acknowledgement the problem of irs identity theft continues to get worse for their preparers and clients, it was one of the first companies to do anything about it with the partnership with RefundSafe back to 2012..

irs identity theft

Zip Refund has a business model that is lucrative for all tax preparers, especially those that have regular tax clients and are only getting paid by the hour to service them. Such places like HR Block, Jackson Hewitt, Liberty Tax, Instant Tax and other large franchises currently pay by the hour even though the tax preparer has a built in clientele. Zip Refund does not have franchise fees and no upfront costs to get started allowing employees of the named franchises to go out on their own without the high start up costs that franchises charge.

RefundSafe is a low cost protection plan to ensure that if a tax client is a victim or IRS fraud, the tax client will rightfully receive their refund and the tax preparer will be rightfully be paid for their services. It also allows for the tax preparer to gain extra revenue with built in bonuses and rebates available to the tax preparer.

Although RefundSafe is available to all tax preparers and tax offices that sign up to provide this one of a kind tax service, Zip Refund has carefully designed the Agreement between the companies to be extra beneficial to those tax preparers that work for them directly.

Identity theft has become the number one problem of fraud for the IRS with over 3 million tax payers being affected by this problem last year. It expected to cost the IRS billions of dollars by the year 2016 and there is no end in site. Zip Refund has a strict policy on any kind of fraud and believes in doing everything possible to help those that are affected, thus the reason the company has teamed up with RefundSafe for the third year in a row.

For more information regarding offering IRS tax fraud insurance protection to your clients please review this site: http://refundsafe.com or contact us to join our team.