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In this episode of the Dr. Friday Radio Show, Dr. Friday covers essential tax updates and financial tips as tax season approaches. From changes in tax credits to scam prevention advice, this episode equips listeners with the knowledge to navigate the 2025 tax season confidently.
Topics Covered
- Donald Trump’s Presidency and Tax Implications
Speculation on how the administration and 119th Congress may impact tax laws, including Section 179 depreciation changes. - Key Dates for Tax Season
E-filing for 2024 taxes begins on January 27, 2025. Deadlines for W-2 and 1099 issuance are also highlighted. - California Tax Extensions
Residents in disaster-affected areas receive tax filing extensions. - Commercial Clean Vehicle Tax Credit
New IRS proposals for tax credits on qualified commercial and used clean vehicles. - SALT Tax Reform Efforts
Discussion of potential changes to the $10,000 cap on state and local tax (SALT) deductions. - Recovery Rebate Credits
IRS efforts to issue payments to those who missed their 2021 recovery rebate credits. - Scam Awareness During Tax Season
Tips to recognize and avoid tax-related scams, including fraudulent IRS calls and Ponzi schemes. - Tax Return Preparers
Advice on ensuring your tax preparer signs your return and has proper credentials. - Employer Retention Tax Credit (ERTC)
Clarification that ERTC funds are taxable. - Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Credit Updates
Insights into fraud prevention efforts and eligibility criteria. - Preparing for Emergencies
Importance of offsite document backups to protect tax and financial records.
Transcript
All right, guys, this is the Doctor Friday show.
A couple new discussions.
Obviously, we know Donald Trump is going to be soon brought into the presidency.
What will that mean for taxes?
And to be quite honest, we’re not sure.
I mean, there is, the 119th Congress will be enrolled.
And we will find out if they’re going to go back and do anything when it comes to some tax law.
One of the big ones I would love is a section 179, instead of having theoretically 40% in 2020.
having that back to the 100%.
I think it encourages small business owners to be able to go do things and make it work
where if you spend $100,000 or $100, whatever,
and then you turn around and you don’t have the ability to make anything work,
then it will become more of an issue.
So if you spend $100 and you can only get $60 versus you spend $100,
you get $100, more people are encouraged to probably do the 100,
is all I’m going to say on that one.
So that way you can actually make sure that you have everything you need.
Other things, obviously, we’re still waiting to hear on some of the different situations.
If you have family in California, obviously tax season isn’t going to be an issue that’s all been extended.
So there is nothing there that anyone has to worry about as far as the tax season that’s in those areas, in those counties.
Tax season will start on January the 27th for e-filing.
So that is something that we will be looking forward to and moving forward on.
But other than that, we will be able to hopefully start finalizing some of our tax returns and getting them sent out so people will be able to, you know, put some money back in their pocket, make sure it’s all working.
We also have some new IRS proposals.
The IRS has issued a proposal for the commercial clean vehicle tax credit.
These rules impact eligible taxpayers who place a qualified commercial clean.
clean vehicle and service during the tax year.
They were trying to go back to December 31st, 2022 to try to get some hearings going and
seeing if they can enact some credits.
So that will be something we’re going to watch.
We don’t have a ton of individuals that, I mean, let’s be honest, we are not as green
as, again, California.
My family lives there, almost all of them drive a version of a Tesla.
And there’s a place to plug in every block almost here.
We have less situations.
It makes it a little bit harder.
But if you did buy one of those vehicles and it is something that you’re able to do.
And also there is a tax credit for individuals that may have purchased a used vehicle.
Again, another win-win situation on that.
So if you are a person that has purchased something like that, make sure you talk to your tax person to deal with some of that.
reform. The caucus is also trying to fix the salt tax. The salt tax you guys have heard me talk about
for a number of years ever since the tax cuts came through. The salt tax is the state sales tax,
property taxes. In some states, we have sales tax here, but there is state income tax. And the
top of that is $10,000 for an individual. Married couple is $10,000. So there’s a bit of a marriage
penalty there. And if married filing separately, it would only be $5,000 each. So if you live in
California, again, I use that because I have family that. My brother, he, before he worries about
property tax, his state income tax is already exceeding $10,000. And then you have the property
taxes and they’re not very low in California as well. So he lost, you know, tens of thousands of
dollars as a tax deduction when the Trump things came in. So they are working on trying to correct
that it um it it isn’t fair for a lot of different reasons but probably one of the biggest reasons it’s
not extremely fair is because if you happen to live in a state that does have a high income tax um or
you know income tax situation then you’re losing or leaving quite a bit of money still on the table
and that leads to um sooner or later it becomes more of a problem right because you know if you’re spending
$30,000 a year and you only get to deduct 10 how is that really going to affect you?
I don’t know until we really get into that.
Hey guys, I’m in the studios too.
So thanks.
So that works for us.
We make sure we have all of that.
We also have the recovery.
The IRS announced the continued effort to help taxpayers
if they plan to issue automatic payments to eligible people
who did not claim the recovery rebate credit on their 2021 tax returns.
I can honestly tell you that is.
happening because I had two clients that called and said, hey, one of them was my brother,
where we had tried to claim it.
It turned around where the government said he had already gotten it.
They’re finally going back and matching because I think what happened was that was a year
that he had transitioned between a rental to this house.
I think the check ended up getting returned to the IRS and it got lost.
So whenever we kept trying to get it, they kept saying, no, it’s already been issued.
He never cashed the check.
Now it just got put back in his bank.
So now in 2020, it was around Christmas, but 2024, he finally got that rebate from 2021.
I can honestly tell you that we had a number of individuals that we kept trying.
We would send bank statements.
We sent all kinds of things in showing that these individuals did not have anything as far as they never received it.
I had somebody that their daughter accidentally tore the checkup thinking it was a fraud.
And it obviously wasn’t.
So they are able to, you know, get it replaced.
We weren’t able to get it replaced.
So again, it’s just one of those situations where if you are one of those individuals and back in 2021, you did not get that rebate.
that’s the third one credit you may be in a perfect place you may be in a
you may have found that you can honestly say that you have it coming in I can’t see the
studio guys so if there’s any callers just let me know I don’t see anything on the screen
it’s just black so we have that so that’s important because if you didn’t I was honestly
saying that we had a situation in our office where people kept saying
some people say be careful the IRS actually put a note up there about scammers coming and saying they’re going to help you retrieve this money the IRS is the only person there is no process in essence that we as a as an enrolled agent that I will be able to do to follow up and get this money for you any faster anything different it is just there so do not take a phone call and someone says hey it looks like
you did not get your stimulus money or send us this information and you provide them either
with your personal information. Thanks guys. I see it now. Or anything else, then we are going to have
a problem because then they’re going to steal your identity. It’s going to become messy and it’s
not going to be a pretty situation. So again, don’t take, and this kind of goes along with any time
you get a phone call. If you get a phone call from the Internal Revenue Service and don’t get
be wrong. There are local agents many times that may try to call to resolve or to get more
information. But even if you don’t know this agent, if this agent has come knocking on your door
and they have stopped most of that, but I’m sure there are still some agents that will go
probably more business to business than to an individual. But either way you look at it,
if you have somebody that says there with the Internal Revenue Service, especially on the telephone,
if you’re not comfortable, if you don’t know this person because you’ve already had prior
contact with this person, hang up the phone. If they’re going to be insulted because of it, I’m sorry.
But the fact is there’s too many frauds out there. So especially if they’re asking you, can you
prove your information? I know I talk to the IRS all the time. As an enrolled agent, I actually have to
give them my social security number over the phone. Most uncomfortable situation as far as I’m concerned,
but it’s part of what we have to do to prove that we’re representing our people. So, you know,
you need to make sure that you’re talking with a legitimate IRS or revenue officer,
not just somebody that calls you and says,
hey,
I’m representing the IRS.
You have an outstanding debt.
You need to make a payment.
making a payment,
they will never,
ever,
ever take a payment over the phone.
Not going to happen.
If they ask you to do anything other than send them either a cashier’s check,
if they’re asking for direct payment,
they will give you an address if that address makes you feel uncommon.
comfortable. Again, call, confirm. You know, you can even in some cases, I know sometimes,
back for, this is a number of years ago, but I had someone call my office that said that they were
with the Internal Revenue Service. And we do get calls from the Internal Revenue Service. But this person was,
you know, they said I had backed debt, blah, blah, blah. We knew it was a fraud. So we basically put
the phone number out on the net just to let people know. But of course, nowadays they can clone the phone
number. I’ve shared this in the past where a local, they said I was supposed to be on a court thing or
something, a jury duty. And they called and said I had not and that I was being fine for not showing up
and blah, blah, blah. And I’m sitting there going, oh my gosh, because they knew things that are not
normal public knowledge. So I’m like, okay, how this person know this? And then of course, I hung up the
phone just like I could tell you guys. And then I called the local sheriff’s office. And the first thing they
said is yes there is this deputy but he is not here this is a scam blah blah blah and of course you know
afterwards you kind of feel silly because you’re like oh my gosh why did i even think that it was real
but sometimes that you know me if it’s a tax issue i’m always oh no i know this but this was not a tax
issue and so it put me in a little uncomfortable situation right because i’m like oh my gosh i’m just
like everyone else guys i’m going to you know fall for it a little bit i didn’t do anything crazy but
everyone in the office was kind of laughing because they’re like hey that’s all
obviously a fraud. I didn’t see as an obvious because I get so busy sometimes. I’m like, did I miss
something at my house? All right. So we’re going to get ready to take our first break. If you guys want,
you can join the show. 615 7379986. 615 737-979986. And we’re going to be right back with
the Dr. Friday show. Friday, we are back here.
I’m in studio. And if you want to join the show, you can. 615.
737-9-896-6-15-7-37-39-89-6. And Charlie is on the line. Let’s see if we can get Charlie to join the show.
Hi, Dr. Friday.
And Charlie, what’s happening? Just listening to you talking about the fraudulent activity, and I have maybe a close cousin to that.
I was, I filed an extension last year on my 20-23 taxes, and then I ended up paying about $7,500.
dollars and then i got a bill for an underpayment and a penalty which i paid so i’ve paid
everything to the irs however it’s almost ironic that i’m also getting calls from companies that are
so-called tax relievers who are telling me that i owe the irs money um do they is there a possibility i
do owe the IRS money and do they know something or are they just fishing?
That’s a good question, actually.
What they’re usually chasing, I call them ambulance chasers,
but they’re basically chasing if there was possibility of a lien placed on you,
even if you’ve resolved the issue,
it could have been out there because their lists are sometimes a little slow.
So depending on if you immediately paid it when the letter came in
or if you had to make a couple payments or, you know, a timing issue,
We’ve all had those.
I paid everything immediately.
Okay.
Well, I would say your best bet, I don’t know if you have access to anything like credit
karma or the free ones, you know, where you can check.
Just make sure there’s been no lien put against you.
That’s what they’re basing it on.
And otherwise, it could just be scams, right?
I mean, as long as you know, or you could just call the IRS, you know, at the local number
or whatever, and just find out.
I just don’t want to say that it’s completely because normally they’re working.
working off of a list, and that list usually comes from levies and liens that were placed by the IRS,
that they publish so that these companies can actually call them bug you.
So that would be my concern is that somewhere along the line there was something that could have gotten dropped.
I’m assuming you haven’t moved a lot, Charlie, but if you have, sometimes timing with letters can be slow.
I have not moved, and I’ve paid everything right away.
my credit scores well above 830.
So, well, as long as you know that, then the
likeness is that this is just somebody that somehow
got some information, maybe even just the fact that you
were in collections.
Because we all go, I mean, if you paid, there was
collections when they sent you the second letter for
failure to pay on time and all that other garbage.
But you paid that off immediately.
So again, Charlie, probably to put myself, my own
you know, I will say, again, Charles brings up a really good point is that, again, I was talking
about how fraudulent situations and things happen. And this could be a prime example of that.
It’s just that those collection companies can be a bit overwhelming. And that, you know,
I will say, and I’m not using any names. I don’t care what companies are out there. I mean,
obviously we do tax resolution and we do not, I don’t chase it. I mean, people come to us.
But one of my biggest things is that every time someone comes into my office that has used one of these resolution companies, the pet peeve is that they basically listen to you, tell your story.
And then they basically say, oh, yes, we can help you pay us this much money and this much a month.
Yet they haven’t taken control.
They don’t know what your true tax situation is because even if you have all the love letters, we don’t know exactly what.
what can be resolved until we pull transcripts,
until we know how long that has been out there,
just because you have taxed that from 2012,
it could have fallen off in 2023,
but if you didn’t file it until 2023,
whatever, your time clock started late.
All these things are important to know
before you know how long this is going to really take
to do your resolution.
If you haven’t filed tax years,
how many years are they planning on filing?
How are they getting that information?
Do they even know there’s any information turned in to the IRS?
You know, I mean, a lot of self-employed people don’t have very much information that the IRS knows,
at least not from the initial traditional ways of doing it.
But, you know, just be careful is all I’m going to say is these companies, some of them, I’m sure, do a good job.
I don’t know firsthand, but I will tell you that anytime someone tells you they can fix your problem,
before they really truly know those are salespeople that’s all they are 99% of the time you’re
talking to someone that makes a commission off every time they close a deal on that phone and then the
attorneys are they out then they sub it out to other either attorneys or EA offices that are taking
and buying those contracts you’re not often getting to the same person or the same office and most
the time they transition you to someone that’s going to handle your case is what they say
which means they’ve taken it from the sales department to the actual resolution department.
All I’m being saying is those contracts are very hard to get out of.
I mean, I can’t tell you over 30 years of doing this.
I’ve had hundreds of people that’s come in and we’ve had to start from scratch and they’ve
already had to pay somebody and nothing’s gotten done or they have been with these people for a number
of years and yet no real resolution, even though the IRS hasn’t come and taken or seized anything.
no resolution people and that’s partly because they may have started something that they’d even know
if they could do resolution on that’s all i’m saying so again if you’re at a situation where you’re
having a difficult time with the internal revenue service you know you’re you’re in a pretty big
circle of individuals and that in that list can be and i know it’s tempting when you hear ads
to say we can help you solve your irs issues for 10 cents on the dollar um we have done that we have
settled cases that were in hundreds of thousands for as low as $50.
But keep in mind, those same individuals have basically nothing at this point, even though they
may have had something back at the time that they had the tax issue.
Over the years, they haven’t, you know, if you still have assets, if you still have retirement
and homes and blah, blah, blah, then you’re less likely to get that same resolution.
That’s all I’m saying.
And you need to understand that before you sign on that dotted line thinking they’re going to
save you, you know, tens of thousands of dollars when they don’t know what you’re going to
be required to pay because they haven’t really taken on your case until they get that resolution
coming through. So, you know, that’s the way it works and how it’s coming through and everything
like that. It’s just really, really important that you take care of and you just don’t, don’t sign up
for something that you might not be able to get out of, okay? And I’m sure there is scammers out there on the
that I just want to make sure because tax season, the January, February, March, and April season is the big time for scams.
You’re going to have more phone calls from the Internal Revenue Service according to the IRS.
But that’s not true.
I mean, that’s when the scammers are calling, right?
There’s going to be emails being sent out.
They’re going to be people that basically are going to call, say, and they’re part of a resolution or like I said this, rebate credits coming back.
The IRS has said they’re going to send checks.
So now they’re going to try to call and see if they can convince you that they’re going to get you a check.
And anyone that’s sitting there, I mean, think about it.
They call hundreds, maybe thousands of people a day.
And all they’re looking for is that one person that stops long enough to say, oh, yeah, I never got that money.
How do I get it?
Boom, you might be the next victim.
So, you know, what started this conversation to a point was I got an email today from someone that said that they had gotten a part of a Ponzi.
scheme. And they ended up in 2022 paying tax on a 1099 interest that they never really received.
They said they were reinvesting the money. So they didn’t think about it, then found out in
2023 that this was all a scheme, that there was really no investment. They took the money. The money
was gone. They were just sending statements to these people saying, you know, hey, we’re reinvesting.
Here’s your interest and all this. In meantime, they actually paid tax on $5,000 some dollars in 2020.
and what was their options?
And there is a whole section in tax law that talks about the safe harbor situation.
And that’s where you would have to go with that.
And you’d have to find out more information.
Again, it’s not something, it’s not an easy conversation.
But we all have dealt with some sort of scam, be it a Ponzi or just silliness or whatever.
But it’s really important that you want to make sure that when you’re dealing with any of
these things. A, do your best, obviously. But documentation, if someone says that you’re reinvesting,
maybe it’s better for you to, if it’s not a local brokerage house, maybe it’s something you found
on the internet. And I will tell you, we’re going to be dealing a lot with some of the scams that’s
helped me with virtual currency, you know, Bitcoin scams and all that as well. I’ve got two cases
coming in that’s having to do with that. So all I’m trying to say is there’s no way of totally
protecting yourself, but do it as smart as you can. Deal.
with local companies, local person that you sit down with and, you know, you actually know they work
for, you know, Schwab or somebody. So you have something is going to be better than even if, and if it
sounds too good to be true, if you’re saying we’re going to pay you eight or 10 or 12% interest
right now in the current numbers, that seems almost too good to be true. So how and how are they doing
that? Where’s my money going to be? And how can you confirm that the money is invested where they’re
it is just because someone can make a fake statement, it makes you feel like the money’s there,
but can you really see it or track it some other way other than just that statement?
So again, just trying to make people realize this is going to be a very tough season for
scams and Ponzi schemes.
So if we can stay aware and help each other, that will be the best way.
If you know of something that’s going around, also let me know.
I mean, more than glad to tell my listeners at least, hey, this is what to be aware of because
nobody wants to be taken in.
All right, we’re going to take our second break.
You can reach us here in the studio, 615-737-9986, 6157-37-9986.
This is the Dr. Friday show, and we’ll be right back.
All right, we’re back here live in studio, and I had a longtime client sent over a pretty good one.
I hadn’t even thought about with talking about scams and different things.
She suggested you need to tell people to make sure.
they go to someone who signs their tax return.
And she is correct.
I can’t tell you how many returns that someone tells me that they had to prepare.
But when you look under the bottom where it says prepared by, it’s blank.
Or it even says self-prepared, even though someone else prepared that tax return.
If someone’s preparing your tax return, they should be putting their information on it.
There’s no reason for them not to unless they’re basically trying to loop the system.
You can go to the iris.com and you can look under tax preparers and you can look up our names
and you can see our credentials, making sure that if this person says they’re an EA or a CPA,
even a tax preparer nowadays, most of them have taken the test.
I know that you don’t have to, but you really do want someone that does have some background.
I mean, anyone can throw numbers on a tax return.
If they’ve learned to work or software, they could probably throw the information in.
But really, that’s not the job.
I mean, the job is sure, let’s make sure everything’s in the right place.
And also, if something comes up and you get a love letter that you have someone that you can talk to and make sure that resolution can be made.
But also to help you try to figure out what could be done different.
Is there somewhere we can be saving tax dollars?
Maybe you have a future plan of going into your own business or maybe you are self-employed or maybe you’re thinking about retirement.
All those things are going through your head and how your tax person should be able to help.
you plan for some of that. Should you be converting your IRAs? I mean, we, my office,
we are not financial planners. So we’re not there to tell you what’s the best investment.
I always think that it’s probably a conflict of interest in my world, personally speaking,
to be a tax advisor and a financial planner only because I think sometimes as a tax person,
my job is pretty much yearly in how to save tax dollars. Whereas a financial planner,
they’re looking at five, 10, 15 years out.
And sometimes if you have a good team, I work with Hank Parrott a lot,
and a number of other financial planners.
But when we work together, many times,
what is instant gratification in my world is a tax person.
It’s kind of put to, hey, you know, what if we do this, this, and this over the big picture,
over the next five and 10 years, you can save tax dollars.
Or you can have, when you hit retirement,
maybe you’ll put less money to the IRS.
You may not even have to file tax returns because you’ve done a conversion and you
have all of your money sitting in a Roth or some other vehicle where you don’t have to worry
so much about taxes or taxing your Social Security and all these different Irma.
All these things come into play.
And when you have a financial planner and a tax person,
we’re both looking at both of our expertise,
but sometimes we have to merge those two.
And sometimes I’ll come up and say,
you know, you’re hitting the AMT tax or Irma’s going to kick in or different things like that that may come in,
then they’re looking at what’s the growth, what’s the expectation,
are we going to meet the goals of retirement or vacations or whatever it is you’re trying to say for?
So I will say that you do want to make sure, and going back to my client that has suggested checking the IRS,
you can also check the Department of Insurance here in Tennessee.
If you have a financial planner, they’re licensed.
Insurance salesmen are licensed.
Enrolled agents.
All of us have places where you could check to see if this person is legit.
And again, if they’re not willing to put their name on something, then you shouldn’t be going to them.
If it’s because you think, well, it’s inexpensive and they’ve got the software, so they’re going to fill it in for me.
That’s your choice.
But you know that you’re paying somebody that really doesn’t know how to do taxes.
They’re just throwing numbers on a return.
They’re not going to stand behind it.
I personally think anytime you go to anybody that you’re paying for tax prep,
be that one of the big franchises or a small independent,
they need to be able to stand behind the work they do.
If mistakes are made, they need to be able to stand up for that.
And if you make a mistake, they need to still help you resolve that issue, right?
I mean, normally when the time comes and I’m doing this for 30 years,
I love to tell you I have never made a mistake.
It’s not possible.
Okay?
I mean, I have, but I’ve always thought I’ve actually been able to show where I stood behind my
mistakes. And if a mistake was made by a client, we still fixed those as well. And so it’s really important
that it’s a team effort. I mean, it’s what comes down to. And I think that’s one of the reasons I’m
fortunate enough to have a lot of my clients come back every month, or every year, every year to do
taxes as well as they bring their kids and all that kind of stuff. And that’s, that’s the compliment that
keeps on giving. So you want to have that same relationship with your tax person. And I know that
if you’ve relocated sometimes, I mean, I have clients that live all of the United States, even overseas,
that we still do their taxes. And we can. As an enrolled agent, we’re all licensed. There,
most of us are licensed by the federal government, which means we’re also licensed by most of the states.
So, you know, it’s not something we can’t help with. But again, making sure that you have a good
relationship, making sure that person’s accountable, be that your financial planner or your tax
person.
We’re getting into tax season.
So getting ready for tax season.
Let’s talk a little bit about that because not everyone’s as organized as others.
So you need to make sure you keep your book.
If you’re self-employed, you’ve got your 1099s.
Everyone should have them out by the end of the month.
And that also includes you.
If you have subcontractors, people that you paid money more than $600.
to in a given year, you should be issuing these 1099s.
You guys know, I’ve talked about it.
This also includes our rentals, our lawn guys, our handymen.
And in some cases, our roofers and our air conditioning companies, if they’re not,
if they’re operating as LLCs, theoretically, they repaired in air condition, they’re a repair
person.
They should get a 1099.
Normally, it’s normally more the lawn person that doesn’t get it or, you know, those
situations.
But any of us in business that have paid for somebody need to be issuing those 1099s out.
And that way they are making sure that they understand how the system works and what you have going.
If you, you know, if you haven’t.
And once you get those together, of course, you also still have your bank interest and you have all of your expenses.
Ideally, that is kept in something like Excel or QuickBooks, obviously.
Some people are good on a manual system.
You know, you can use a word doc or something, but really keeping track of those expenses,
preferably scanning them in someplace and probably bringing back to the fact that I have family
in California.
Thank God.
None of them are in the area where the fires are at this point.
But friends of my family are in those areas.
And, you know, kind of brings back to home.
What would you do if you had a situation where you had to get out of your home?
quickly and maybe you come back and it’s all gone. I know some listeners, you have lost your
homes, either do storms or fires. But having everything backed up off of your computer offsite
seems to me that would be one of our New Year’s resolutions for a lot of us. I have done that for a
number of years, but I’ll be honest, my little personal computer where I have a lot of family
photos and things like that, I don’t necessarily probably back up as often. I don’t think it’s
even on carbonite, which is one of my goals, set it up on carbonite, making sure all the,
everything I have is backing up either through apple or carbonite or something.
Because of that reason, right?
We want to make sure that if we had to leave for some reason that all of our documents are
saved and protected because, you know, it’s a lot harder to recreate something than you
think in you’re already in the midst of everything else and trying to get your pets and
family safe is always the priority.
So again, just makes us think a little bit more about that.
So preparing ourselves for that emergency is probably not a bad concept moving forward.
So if you want to join the show, you can.
615-737-9986-6-15-737-9-8986.
You can go to DRFriday.com.
That’s DRFRI-D-A-Y.com and download the current tax.
organizers those are out there for you if you even if you don’t use my services they’re
available they’re free gives you something to start with as far as thinking about what tax
deductions I should be doing do I have everything together before you start doing your
tax preparation you can also use the website to set up your tax appointment if you
need to you can set up an appointment we also have Chris who is also an EA
that will be working this year so we have you know plenty room of taking on some
new clients and making sure that we can help you get your taxes done properly and dealing
with the right issues and making sure that we’re going to be able to, you know, back up what we can do,
making sure everyone gets their taxes filed on time or an extension is filed so that way you don’t
have to worry too much about, you know, dealing with taxes. And I know it’s frustrating.
And that’s why I file an extension almost every year because of that same reason.
It’s hard to get some of my own tax documents if I don’t have something on there.
You know, let’s see if we can get Dave in real quick.
Otherwise, he’ll have to wait through the break.
Hey, Dave, what can I do for you?
Hey, quick question.
If I paid rent, I’m a business owner and I lease a lease a building.
Do I send you something like 1099?
Do I give that person a 1099?
Absolutely.
It’s a, it will be under rents.
But yes, all of us should be 1099 as long as that organization is not a corporation.
If it’s a corporation, we don’t have to do it.
No, no, no, it’s not a corporation.
I got a barbershop.
And I, uh, and I, uh, and I, uh, and I,
and I, leave, right.
Yes.
Okay.
I appreciate that.
Thank you.
No worries.
That’s a great question.
Thanks, Dave.
All right.
Um, and he’s right.
Just to reiterate just, because I know I talk fast sometimes, guys.
Um, Dave is 100% correct.
If we eat, pay rents, be at a restaurant, be at a tax office, be at a hair shop or a barber, um,
especially if you guys do.
my office is going really crazy about making sure all of those are done.
So if you have a small business, you know, just run through anyone you’ve paid more than
$600 unless it was for a product, like going out and buying inventory of some sort.
But if there’s a service, an accounting service, a lawyer, a rent, any of those,
should be turned around and made into a 1099.
All right, we’re going to get ready to take our last break.
If you want to join the show, you can.
615-737-9986.
We’ll be right back with The Doctor Friday show.
All righty, we’re back here live in studio, field.
And if you have any questions, you can join us.
615-737-99-86-615-737-99-8986.
I had the text going during the break,
and someone was asking me if they were a part of a Ponzi scheme,
what or can they do or what’s the situation?
I’m going to say first go to the IRS and pull up some of the help lines they have
because that would be at first an important thing for them because just because you were
scammed doesn’t always mean that that’s going to be a tax deduction because sometimes
you have to prove that this was a true scam and in many cases it has to be turned in
to the fraud department and all that.
So you want to kind of start that process so that you then have to.
have proof that you’ve submitted the documents, that you know that it’s gone that direction,
that you are making sure that all of that is coming into play properly, then you might, you know,
you might have to go back and keep in mind, you can only get a refund for taxes paid on something
like that. Let’s say you paid taxes and then you found out like this couple I was talking about,
they can only go back three years for a refund. So it’s something that has to happen relatively
quickly. All right. Let’s go to Linda from Columbia, which is right down the road. Hey, Linda, what
I do for you, girl?
Yes, quick question.
For companies that received funds from the ERC program,
is that money taxable?
It is.
And in theory, the employer retention tax credit is what Linda’s talking about for all of us,
is you need to report that as income because you took off those taxes that they’re giving to you now.
Okay, that will be company in,
come down. Yep, unlike the PPP and all those other ones, this one is going to be taxable.
Okay, all right, good you know. Thank you so much. No problem. Thanks for listening.
All right, let’s go to Nelson and Nashville and see if we can help Nelson. Hey, Nelson.
Hey, how you doing? I’m doing pretty good. What can I do for you?
What is the early if you can file your income tax?
January 27th. Unless you go, I will say I do know that some of the big box stores will give people advances.
on their tax return.
But if you’re looking for the IRS just to, you know,
do the regular e-files, send it back within 21 days,
then that will start as of January 27th.
Okay, January 27th.
And you have to have your W-2s in 599 by January 1st?
Yes.
I mean, most people should have already, yes,
employers have to have them out by the 31st of January.
Okay, so when is the IRS asked?
we will accept your tax.
On the 27th, they will start accepting e-filed tax returns on January 27th.
Oh, okay.
All right.
Thank you.
No problem.
Thanks for listening.
I guess it’s about a week from now, right?
No, it’s 18th.
A little over a week from now.
All right.
So, yes.
So by then, the theory is that you will have.
Now, my employees receive their W-2s already.
If that’s all they had, or have, I should say,
then, you know, they probably could file their tax returns.
So that would be plan one, but at least for our system, again, I know some of the big box
stores will start go ahead and accepting the returns, processing the returns, but the IRS
will not physically open e-file until the 27th.
And from January 27th, basically they tell us 21 days from the date that it’s accepted, you
should have your refund under normal circumstances. I want to put a caveat out there. If you are a person
that receives child tax credits and or earned income credit because of the children, they have said
that it could be as late as February 15th before they’ll start opening those up. I think the reason is
they’re trying to cross-reference parents with the children to make sure that the wrong person
isn’t claiming the child because, you know, rule of thumb is first person in is most likely
going to get credit for the children. So if you’re having a battle with your significant other,
be that the biological parent or whatever, and they’re claiming the child or yours, in my case,
many times the parents, the grandparents have gotten custody of the kids. And the parent is still
claiming those children on their tax return to get the earned income credit and child credit.
yet they’re not even raising the children any longer.
We have won many of those,
and they have changed some of the online filing for us to be able to upload more information.
I will tell you, I’m always very happy to take that kind of case on
because in my personal opinion, the person that’s raising the children,
the children are living with, be that whoever the custody is with,
should be getting that extra money,
not just the person that, you know,
because you biologically gave birth or were parents of theirs,
it doesn’t entail you to be able to get this extra money.
That money is supposed to be for the children.
The children are not living with you, therefore it’s not your money.
So it’s a good case to take on, and it’s a way that we always want to make sure.
And now the IRS is doing more and more checking to make sure that is the case.
Because let’s be honest, there was a big court case not too long ago with a big box tax store
that was actually allowing people, you know, there are certain names, smiths,
Jones, Garcia, whatever, that are kind of traditional names, right? So the people, we come into the
place and they would say these are their children and they would have maybe six or seven children
and then three or four people would be sitting there and they’d be each claiming a number of these
children, even though one person had those children, they were spreading them among their family
so everybody could qualify for earned income credit and get child credit. It’s completely illegal.
It’s a completely scam. They got caught. And then the,
the preparer company and everyone got penalized for it.
But they’re trying to put a hold on that kind of stuff, right?
Because that’s not the reason.
The purpose for this is supposed to be,
I had a revenue officer and an audit once tell me because I’m like,
well,
it doesn’t really see my opinion at the time of this particular audit.
It didn’t seem very fair.
Why is this person getting earned income credit yet this other?
And he’s,
well, this is all to level the playing field.
You have to give these people help sometimes to level the play field, which I thought, well, food stamps and all these other programs were there to help level the playing field.
But I don’t write tax law.
All I do is know it so that we make sure we stay out of trouble, right?
And so one of the things is, is if you’re claiming someone’s child, be that your girlfriends, be that anyone else, and you don’t have the right to.
If you claim them and the IRS rules against you, you will never be able to claim a child again, that child again.
on your tax return because they basically passed a law that says, hey, if you misuse the system,
you can’t use it when you might be doing it correctly, it is gone.
You cannot go back and fix that because you claim somebody you shouldn’t have.
So again, very important to make sure you understand how tax law works so you don’t get yourself
in trouble.
And that’s the reason those cases are good because there is a actual recourse knowing that that
person can never claim those children again once we win that court case.
So if you have questions, you need help, go to DR Friday.com.
You can pick up an appointment on there so we can help you get your taxes straight or if you need help just filing a simple tax return.
We’re there to help.
Also, if you need help with resolution or you know somebody that might need some help with resolution, maybe they haven’t filed taxes in 20 years.
Had someone last week come in.
Good news is you don’t have to file all 20 years unless the IRS has assessed you for those and even some of those probably have fallen off.
So again, important to understand what is required to be filed.
What timely manner do you have?
And then how can we have the resolution to make that work for you?
And just start unfolder, guys, putting all your 1099’s interest, 1098’s mortgage, 1099Rs for retirements
or any kind of distributions from a retirement or pension, W2s.
Make sure you have all of them.
You know, you don’t always just stay with one job.
Sometimes people have two, three, four, five jobs in a year.
And make sure you don’t forget about some of those because sometimes that can happen.
If you need help and you need to reach us at our office on Monday, 615-367-0819.
615-367-0819.
You can also email questions at Friday at dr.friiday.com, Friday at dr.friday.com.
And again, the website, you can get a free.
um tax organizer that’ll help you for the 2024 year as well as set up tax appointments is d r friday
dot com and you can uh either choose myself or chris chris is also an enrolled agent so he’ll be
able to help uh do the exact same things i do um to make sure your taxes are filed properly and
that we have everything done in order so um hopefully you guys are enjoying this saturday and
hopefully you’ve already done your grocery shopping because based on the weather we can end up with
another snowy Sunday or Monday, or if nothing else, bitterly cold. So make sure you stay safe and
fill up your gas tanks. And then, you know, if something comes up and again, you have a question
and you weren’t able to get us on the radio, you can email those questions to Friday at dr.
Friday.com. Friday is my first name. So Friday at dr. Friday.com or just call the office.
Sometimes it’s the fastest way to get your resolution. 615-367.
0819.
615-367-0819.