Welcome to another episode of the Dr. Friday show! In this episode, Dr. Friday answered all the caller’s questions about taxes, stimulus checks, and the following topics:
- I’m On Social Security and I haven’t Gotten My Stimulus Check. Why?
- How Entrepreneurs Need To Do Taxes
- How Much Of Unemployment Is Going To Be Taxed?
- Is There A Second Stimulus Check Coming Out?
- What To Do If You Don’t Need/Want Your Stimulus Money
- Do You Need Help With Tax Preparation/Representation?
- Why Have I Not Received My Unemployment Paycheck Yet?
- Documentation For Employer’s With PPP Loans
- Why It’s Important For Someone To Represent You
And so much more!
Transcript
Announcer 0:01
No, no, no, she’s not a medical doctor, but she can share cure your problems or your financial woes. She’s the how-to girl. It’s the Dr. Friday show. If you have a question for Dr. Friday, call her now at 615-737-9986. So here’s your host financial counselor and tax consultant, Dr. Friday.
Dr. Friday 0:26
Good day, I’m Dr. Friday and the doctor is in the house. We are here talking about my favorite subject, which is taxes, taxes, and more taxes. It can’t be taxed when it comes to this kind of thing. So we will be able to move along and do what we need to do. If you want to join the show, call 615-737-9986 which is the number here. Maybe you’ve started to do your tax return. That would be something that people need to think about doing maybe a little bit. We have a situation where we have taxes due and they’re gonna be here before you know it. July 15 is the new April 15, just for this year. So don’t think every year that’s going to be the situation. But we do need to start preparing taxes getting ready to start figuring out if you owe money do you need to be able to pay it? What you’re going to do maybe making payment plans if you haven’t worked and you have some situations, things you need to deal with. So if you want to join the show, 615-737-9986. I’m doing a lot of reading on a couple of different things. One of the things we all have to deal with, of course, as business owners are the PPP Fund, the Payroll Protection Program, and many are getting letters now. It’s getting close to that eight weeks. So instead of being looking to achieve getting the money Now we’re looking to see if there’s forgiveness. Then there’s another element to that for many of us, we’re trying to figure out if they forgive the loan, does that mean they forgive the expenses? So in the tax or the accounting side of the situation, are they going to also say that you can’t claim the payroll expenses that you paid out if they have forgiven the expenses? So we’re still waiting to hear exactly how the IRS is going to rule on that question. We’re not too sure. But I will tell you keeping really good records this year is going to be essential. We need to know about how we’re going to get the PPP how the money’s been spent if we get forgiveness if we do not the 1% loan over 24 months, how we’re going to pay that what we’re going to do with it. So it’s really, really important that people, you know, do what they need to do. I know a lot of people are like, “The economy hasn’t really fully bounced back” even though the markets doing pretty good if you’re in the stock market side of thing. When it comes down to it, we still have to figure Figure out what we’re going to do with the rest of it. So looks like we might have a caller. Can’t tell if it’s actually ready. If Sue’s ready to go ahead and hit it, we’ll go for that one. Hey, Sue, what can I do for you?
Caller 3:14
Yes, I have a question. I make 166,000 I can get my taxes done free with Vita United Way. I had an appointment, but they canceled it due to the COVID 19. So they said I could do it online with one of the things online for free. So I did it online, but what happened was it rejected it because I have a county pension. But I also work as a dog-sitter, I work for a small business. So the lady that owns the company put in the name of the pet sitting and her social, but they didn’t connect the two. Then she found out from her accountant that she should have put her name with their social. So that’s why they rejected it. So before I realized what to do, I already mailed it in with the name of the company.
Dr. Friday 4:27
It may hold you up a little bit Sue, but the fact is she filed those now she may be amending them and giving them to you the other way. All in all, the government shouldn’t have a problem with you. You know, your employer, the person you work for may have to make some adjustments or whatever. But for your standpoint, did you send in a copy of 1099 with your tax return?
Caller 4:51
Yes. But then I thought well, I’ll send another one in with her name and with her social. Plus, I didn’t realize I had distribution for 70 and a half. And I’d take $29 on that and I didn’t realize that was 1099. So I sent that in too. This was March 25, and I haven’t heard a peep from anybody and I can’t get ahold of anybody.
Dr. Friday 5:22
I agree. It’s frustrating, to be honest. I mean, obviously, it’s what I do every day. It’s so hard to resolve issues when we can’t even get power of attorney at the moment, you know, maybe because those offices are still not open. My suggestion or my concern will be if you’ve mailed into one of them if they process the first one they receive and then they get the second one, they may reject the second one only because the second one should have been on a 1040 x per se. I know what your thought was, “Well, hey, they haven’t done the first one. I’ll just send them a new one.”
Caller 5:55
I didn’t send the whole thing. I just sent that corrected 1099.
Dr. Friday 6:01
Oh, okay, Well, what about the $29? And in 1099? Are you had on your distribution? Did you add that to that?
Caller 6:08
I sent that too. Then I wrote him a long letter and I gave them my phone number.
Dr. Friday 6:12
Okay, I think you’re gonna get a love letter at some point. Do you owe money? Are you getting a refund soon?
Caller 6:18
I’m supposed to get $420 back.
Dr. Friday 6:22
Okay, did you give them your banking on the written tax return?
Caller 6:26
Yes.
Dr. Friday 6:26
Okay. I think what will probably happen, the first one will get processed here. I will tell you, those take about 90 to 120 days paper returns to get processed, and that’s in a normal world, and God knows what we’re living in at the moment. You really have only been about 60 days. So I would say that you should be hearing something relatively soon, but I’m kind of not counting the month of April because so many things were closed down, that I don’t know how much the IRS actually moved when it came to the mailroom because I heard something about the mailroom was barely being processed. Because people weren’t in the office to answer the letters, so, therefore, it was just stacking up from what I heard. I’m not in the IRS. So I don’t know for sure, but one way or the other, I’d say in another 30 days, so you should at least get a letter saying that they’ve received them, it may actually say that they need you to do something, or they need additional information to process.
Caller 7:22
I talked to one of the ladies at the Vita, whatever it is. She said, to redo it online, but I don’t really want to do that I’m not that savvy.
Dr. Friday 7:33
Well, you may be able to beat it is because again, we don’t know where your other return is. But at this point, they may have already started processing the return, and then we wouldn’t be able to file online anyway. I know it’d be great for you to have that $400 do not get me wrong, but at the moment, it’s probably another 30 to 60 days before you’ll see it and just preparing you for the worst. Sorry.
Caller 7:57
Well, yeah, but you think I will you think correct for me?
Dr. Friday 8:01
Well, I think what’s going to happen, they’re going to get the first one, they may do a matching, I don’t think 1099 from your dog walker is going to be an issue, but there is the distribution that you may have missed. It may not be enough to make a big difference. I think what you will get is a letter in the mail either say, and they’ve processed and they need additional information. And it may be that they’re looking for you to submit some of that information that you put in that letter that you sent them. Usually, the nice thing about that, too, is they’ll give you a fax number, I don’t know if you’ll have access, but if you can respond by fax, it will speed the process up much faster, versus trying to mail them the response back. Hopefully, within the next 30 days, we’ll also have phone calls, you know, we’ll be able to pick up the phone again and start calling the IRS and so we could pull up your account and say yes, we see that you filed it, and here’s the status at least even if you don’t have the answer you want at least a status would come out of it.
Caller 8:59
Okay. Well, that’s reassuring. I just didn’t know what to do at this point.
Dr. Friday 9:03
Yeah, it and I feel sorry for I mean, a lot of people use Vita, I’m like you, I’m not exactly sure if that’s the proper term, but I call it Vita as well. They do a lot of free tax returns for individuals that are making a certain income or less. They’re usually really good and it’s fairly simple for you. So this year just got crazy. I mean, to be honest with you, so hopefully, it won’t delay too much longer. You could keep checking if you have access to irs.gov keep looking on their not under the stimulus one, but “Where’s My Refund,” there’s a button that says Where’s My Refund, and just keep looking in there at some point it should show up on it, or you’ll get a letter one way or the other. You should hear something I would say in the next probably 30 days that would give us 90 days and I think they’ll have something for you.
Caller 9:51
Okay, well, thank you for your help.
Dr. Friday 9:53
No problem. Thanks, Sue. Sorry, I went to it will help a whole bunch. Appreciate it.
Caller 9:57
Okay. Thank you.
Dr. Friday 10:00
A great phone call and I appreciate Sue calling. We can see if you have any questions, you can certainly join the show 615-737-9986 taking your calls. One of the things we’re also talking a little bit about today because I’ve had two cases that have come in. And of course, there was a big joke when everyone talks about this from the beginning that there’s either gonna be a lot of babies or divorces coming up. But there’s also quite a few people getting married. So I just want to say that you have to think about marriage and divorce. You know, from the tax standpoint, okay? I’m not the most romantic when it comes to this kind of conversation, right? Because I’m not talking about numbers, and it’s not all about that, but you do need to put some thought into it. Sometimes people have lived a life before you met them and therefore maybe they have tax issues or maybe they haven’t filed taxes.
Dr. Friday 10:57
Or maybe you know, if you’re getting into divorced or separated, consider the fact that maybe you don’t want to file a tax return with your spouse, but maybe you do. I mean, if someone is self-employed, I will tell anyone that is working a job but married to someone that self-employed and that would put me in that kind of thing. As far as I’m not married, but the self-employed part. You want to make sure that you know, there is always a risk when you’re dealing with somebody that’s self-employed. Now, if they’ve got a good bookkeeper, the money’s being tracked, great. But sometimes let’s be honest, people winging it a little bit. And you don’t want to be caught in the cycle with that individual if you don’t have to, because you can protect yourself, at least to a point by filing your own tax returns. We’re talking marriage, we’re talking divorce, finding out a little bit more information before you get married. I’ve had more than one person, to be honest, I can think of three cases I’ve worked with offering compromises, where the person may want to think, was thinking about possibly getting married. But that can off the table when we started talking about debt offering compromises IRS. You might want to consider what that means and what you’re going to do. So if you’re not too sure, you should always sit down with a tax person. I mean, just like anything else, you want to make sure that how are you going to track the money, where’s the money. Especially if it’s an entrepreneur, because doing your taxes, and everyone always forgets, you get 100% of your income. When tax time comes, you owe 25%, probably minimum, unless you have children or you’re in low income, you owe a minimum of 25% to your partner, that is Uncle Sam, IRS, whatever you want to refer to him, you are not alone in business.
Dr. Friday 12:39
So if you’re not setting aside an actual amount of money in a tax account that accounts for the profits, not even what you’re taking out, but the profits of your business, you’re going to eventually end up in tax issues. It’s that simple. I mean, probably the number one person in tax issues is an entrepreneur, because of the fact that they don’t have money coming out of their checks like you do when you’re employed. The best thing to do is to treat your income as if you are an employee, pay yourself a salary, draw the same amount, pay the taxes, then at least you’re only dealing with profits, if it’s above and beyond what you draw out. You have to really sit down with a tax person if you’re going to become self-employed, or you are self-employed, and you are not paying quarterly estimates, or put yourself on the payroll. Not every instance he can do that. But one way or the other, treating yourself as an employee, paying for your taxes paying for your retirement, then you’re not doing it, right. That’s all I can say. It’s not being done right. You need to make sure you’re doing that kind of thing correctly so that you can move forward and make sure you’re doing what you need to do and when you need to do it. So if you’ve got questions on how you’re going to do that, or you need help, we also have a bookkeeping service in our office so you can certainly contact our firm and we can help you set it up. We’re certified QuickBooks advisors and we’ve done QuickBooks for the last 2025 years. Pretty much when it started my firm. We started out with QuickBooks. So it’s something you know we’re good with and stuff that we can help you with. So if you need help with that or payroll, you need to give us a call.
Dr. Friday 14:15
Otherwise, today you need to talk about taxes or maybe IRS stimulus, maybe you’re dealing with you had a payment plan, but maybe you became unemployed. How much of your unemployment is going to be taxed? Is the stimulus tax? Is there going to be a second stimulus? These are the kind of questions I’m getting a lot on other shows I’m doing. If you’ve got questions on those or anything else, you can certainly join us at 615-737-9986. You can reach us here live in the studio. We’re going to take a quick break and we can get to some of your calls. Again, 615-737-9986. This is the Dr. Friday show and we’re going to be doing Right back.
Dr. Friday 14:15
We are back here live in the studio. This beautiful Saturday, and hopefully everybody is outside. I will tell you I was out earlier in the Spring Hill area and it is bumper to bumper. I am thinking everybody is either getting out to enjoy the weather everyone’s getting out there to start their summer projects. Either way. It is definitely a gorgeous day. I had someone text me during the break and one of the things they were asking about was the marriage penalty, which I kind of started on earlier, but I wanted to bring back just to respond. And yes, the marriage penalty still exists. It doesn’t really exist so much in the 10 are the 12 and 22 tax brackets. Those are pretty relatively the same meaning, If you’re single and you make 50,000, the married couple gets credit for 100,000, 50/50 makes sense. But when you start getting into the 25-30 or 33% tax brackets, it does start showing up quite a bit. By the time you hit the 33% tax bracket, there’s more than a $40,000 difference between a single person making money and a married person. We see that also in capital gains penalties, where a single person can make up to $200,000 before starting to pay the Medicare extended tax, and a married couple can only make 250,000. I mean, that’s $150,000 difference. A lot of times people will just file married filing separately. I have a case right now someone that works, but they have children in college. Well, one of the things you don’t qualify as married filing separately, is for tuition or college credits. Itemizing and things might not be a big deal, right the second but it can be more of a situation as well. So, student loan interest, don’t get that on married filing separately, you don’t get the college credits, and of course, earned income credit.
Dr. Friday 15:59
If you’re getting earned income credit, you’re most likely not worried about married filing separately. In most cases, if you have a situation where the person that you married and one of you owe either back student loan interest or child support, and the IRS is keeping your refunds, you might want to look into the injured spouse because then if you are entitled as an individual to a refund, then maybe you can keep your share and the share of the spouse would then just go to whatever the situation is, instead of applying all of your refunds to that same dollar amount. So you want to look into what is going to be best for you. There is nothing in the law. It says every year you have to file as married filing jointly because you’re married and living in the same household. I have many couples that I know when it comes to withholding. A lot of times I’m telling people, “Hey, for your income bracket or your situation, you need to be claiming single and zero.” They could be married with two or three children, but for withholding on a paycheck, just because you’re married, it doesn’t mean you have to check that box. You want to know what percentage you need to have come out of your paycheck. This is always a situation people are always like, “Well, we both pay taxes in and I don’t know why we’re still owing taxes at the end of the year.” Well, for one most of the time when people are filling out W 4 forms and you’re married, you have no children. You’re married and zero married does not mean married in one. A lot of times people say well I have a spouse so I’m claiming married and one married means two people means two. So married in zero would be if you are married with no children. In many cases, though, sometimes you may have to go single and zero because of your income. Up in the 25, or 28, or 30% tax bracket, sometimes the second person is taxed at a higher rate than if you’re claiming just married and zero.
Dr. Friday 19:10
Again, if you have children that are basically 17, 18, 19, or higher unless they’re in college and you’re qualifying for college credits, you again are going to want to make sure that you are not claiming them on your pay stub. $500 is all you really get for a child that’s 17 and older. Many kids are now taking advantage of the I don’t know if it’s the whole credit, but basically the two years at the community college so we’re not getting as many clients right this second that have kids receiving as much college credit as we might have been getting in the past. Who knows exactly how all that’s going to work in the future. As far as college and school. I keep watching about the different situations going on. In the school system. A lot of them are saying they are going to open on time. But as an employer, you want to make sure that your employees have the best protection you can, but it’s not easy. I mean, many offices in many situations, I have to see clients, I need to be able to take paperwork from them. No, you don’t have to hug kiss and, and do all kinds of crazy things like that with clients, but you do need to actually have a face to face. So making clients and offices comfortable and doing things so we can move forward, getting more things open, in my opinion, would be the smartest thing to do. But that’s a whole different show.
Dr. Friday 20:40
I know many people are still waiting for their unemployment. I will tell you that unemployment is is catching up. Federal unemployment, I think it ends at the end of June. But if it’s it may be the middle of July or the end of July. But that’s going to be coming to an end relatively soon. So, bracing and preparing for that situation. Then, of course, we all heard about the Heroes Act that passed the house. But the Senate pretty much said that’s not going to happen. So at the moment, guys, there is not a second stimulus coming out. I know many of my listeners here and many of my clients are all like, “Well, I didn’t want or really didn’t need the first stimulus.” I’ve had several seriously, many of you or any of my clients, contact me asking if there’s a way of returning their stimulus checks because they really didn’t need the money. They figured that way, you know, someone else could use it or whatever. Unfortunately, keep in mind, we’re going to be reconciling. So they’re basing this on our 2019, but we’re reconciling you receiving this money in 2020. When we reconcile your personal tax return, if you rejected or sent back the money, theoretically, it may be that they’ll end up having credit to you anyways. So you might just want to give it to a charity, use it for something that is going to help somebody make them a better, safer, more secure situation for other people is what I’m suggesting. So, if that’s your case, then that’s, that’s what I would say just get out there, let the money move and do things.
Dr. Friday 22:19
We have the Will’s, I think it’s called here in Spring Hill, and they do a great job of providing food to people in need. I know last Friday, we helped do something, they’re handing out boxes of food and, and things like that and it was pouring down rain and it was a great day. I realized there’s a lot of people out there, they’re still hurting but you know, a lot of people are still working and a lot of people are getting their jobs back. Many people I know I do quite a bit with NewsChannel five and they were having quite a few people calling in because they were on unemployment and they didn’t really weren’t ready to go back to work, maybe. I still have a real concern with people making more money on unemployment than they were making in the workplace. There is absolutely no incentive for that person to come off unemployment. If they can say at home do nothing and receive more than what they have, which is the reason why unemployment is usually ridiculously small, right. I mean, normally, I think it’s like $200-$228 a week. Most people are doing their very best to get back to work because you cannot live off that.
Dr. Friday 23:35
That’s why employment is, they’re supposed to give you something but not necessarily so much that you can’t live or you can’t go back to work. So, hopefully, we’ll be able to do that. If you’re an employer that got their PPP again, making sure that your paperwork is in order. What we have here is a checkoff list and mostly on that is basically saying that we need front and back copies of all checks. We need proof that payment was made. We need to show that the time date or the situation on the checks cover the time period of the eight weeks that they provided it. There’s a lot of things coming down where if you try to hire someone back that was one of your employees and they were not able or refuse to come back to work that you can document that and you’d be able to go back in and get credit for that even though they would not come back to work. So we’re working on a lot of those kinds of cases. If you need some help, again, you can call our firm Monday morning and help you a little bit with what kind of documentation you’re going to need to make sure you have what you need and when you need it.
Dr. Friday 24:40
So if you want to join the show, 615-737-9986. Again, taxes are around the corner, and we are forgetting that we’re also in 2020. So you know we’re already five months into the year. I’m having most of my client’s unless there was a change in their circumstance to continue making their quarterly as they were supposed to, which would have been the first quarterly would have been do an estimated payment, whatever you want to refer to it as April 15. The next one is June 15. Now, you know, those both were extended due to the COVID situation. So if you haven’t made them you do have until 7/15 to make the first and second quarter estimated payments. That’s something you can obviously do but you know, if your business is still doing just as it always has, and you’re doing fine, and you’re moving along and you’re working, then you know, let’s treat this year like we treated all of our other years and move forward doing what we need to do. You know, that’s going to be the easiest way because it’s, you know, waiting till the last minute, not the best plan doing what you need to do and moving what you need. That’s going to make things better. Everybody is not working, everybody is not able to pay or do that, and here are some programs out there that we’ll be able to help people, hopefully, be able to help them move forward and dealing with back IRS issues or anything else to get that pressure off of their back and making sure that they know what they’re doing. All right, it looks like John called let’s go ahead and get John on the phone. People are probably tired of hearing me talk. Hey, John.
Caller 26:19
Yeah. Hey, Dr. Friday, can you hear me okay?
Dr. Friday 26:23
Yes, sir. Thanks for calling.
Caller 26:25
Yeah, I think it looks like I’m going to be audited. I sold some stock, and with a pretty low-cost basis. I don’t have any record of my cost basis. So when I reported this on my return, I kind of did the best I could to come up with the cost basis that I could deal with. But anyhow, I’m kind of concerned with an audit coming up. What should I do if I don’t have the record?
Dr. Friday 27:08
Well, what we have used in the past and it will depend a little bit on your honor to be quite honest. But what we’ve always done is, did you inherit this stock? Did you buy this stock back 50 years ago? How did the stock come to you first? If you purchased it, and you have some relative idea, was it a company I mean, there was this stock that you purchase, john just went in the mirror trade and purchased or wherever? Or was this inherited?
Caller 27:40
Yeah, well, these stocks were purchased for me by my father. So it had to have been sometime between like 1966 and 1982 anytime between them.
Dr. Friday 27:56
Okay, so your father purchased them in your name?
Caller 28:00
Yes, they were purchased in my name. Yes.
Dr. Friday 28:03
Okay. And you know that you’ve owned them for goodness 40 years or whatever that works out to be depending on if it’s the 60s or 80s, obviously. And this is a publicly-traded stock?
Caller 28:21
Yes, this is a new york stock exchange.
Dr. Friday 28:24
Okay. So what we normally do is try to pull up the history usually you can obtain the full history of the stock during those times. You may have done this when you look for your basis and take the lowest basis that was available. Or we can even argue an average basis available during that time. Obviously, you own it. Did you have their certificates? You don’t know when they were actually purchased correct? You know, 60 to 80.
Caller 28:52
Right, 68 to about 82 anytime in there, and I don’t have any of the end information.
Dr. Friday 29:01
Okay. Reasonable information would be what you would want to create. If you want, we can do a consult or whatever. Do you know you’re actually being audited? I mean, have they sent back saying we have a question on your basis?
Caller 29:17
Yeah, this was actually a notice that they sent to me about an upcoming audit. And now, I’m supposed to get back to them on this. So, yeah, I’m just a little concerned.
Dr. Friday 29:32
Yeah. You might want to if you have someone that helps you with your taxes, if they’re Enrolled Agents or CPA, you might want to get someone to represent for you, John, and I’m not selling necessarily. Well, obviously always selling my product. But anyone that does what we do, because it may be easier. When I’m representing it’s just numbered to me, right? We’re arguing tax law to tax law, where if you try to go in yourself, it’s a little bit more intimidating. So it may be worth a couple of conversations to go to your own. If you have someone that helps you with taxes, have them help you, if you do them yourself, you might want to look into an Enrolled Agent or a CPA or call me whatever and see if there’s something they could do to help you. If you want to represent yourself, which is not something I would suggest, then at least prepare you for what you need to have because the letter will tell us what they’re looking for.
Caller 30:25
Okay, okay.
Dr. Friday 30:26
I mean, that’s what my suggestion would be so and you know, there’s only a handful of auditors, so most of us know some of the auditors anyway, so we know how to prepare for what they’re most likely looking for. And then you can pull up the tax law and the tax courts to justify how you pulled these up. You’re not the first person that didn’t have a basis for the stock. I’ll let you know that right now. You know, and so there is some information out there that we can use to help generate that for you. Okay?
Caller 30:54
Yeah, that sounds really good. And thank you so much.
Dr. Friday 30:57
No problem. Appreciate it. Thanks a lot, John. All right, let’s see here. We have got George, do you think you can hit George while you’re multitasking? Look at that, he is so awesome. Hello, George.
Caller 31:09
Hey, Dr. Friday, how are you?
Dr. Friday 31:11
I am awesome. What can I do for you?
Caller 31:14
Well, I got behind on my taxes a couple of years and I owe the IRS about $24,000. I entered into a payment plan with them and that is set up. My concern is back when I realized this and went and set up the payment plan and did all that, which was at the end of March when I guess all the chaos was going on. I made just an initial payment of $5,000 just to put a dent in it. I have yet to see that show up on any of the payment transcripts or the payment records when I log on to the IRS site. So I guess my question to you is that an ongoing problem that they’re just having trouble catching up? Do I need to go to my bank? I know the payment cleared and all that. I know they got it. But I just want to make sure it’s being credited and I don’t see that it is.
Dr. Friday 32:12
Yes, I would definitely get the front and back of the check, because, on the backside of the check, George, you’re going to see where they applied it. Because our concern would be even though logic would be they apply it to the oldest debt, it could very likely be sitting in your 2020 account, right? I mean, I’m just saying we’re not always sure where they put things. So at first, I would make sure it’s been applied, then you would contact them if you’re not seeing it should be in your transcripts, it should be showing as a reduction. If it’s not there, and yes, everything’s running 30, 60, and 90 days slower than we’ve ever had in the past. Especially when that happened because April pretty much the IRS was closed as far as I’m concerned. We had no real movement. So you know, it’s likely that it’s been posted, but I would pull the front back of that check. And then they should say something like 12/31. Let’s just say you owe for 2010 was your oldest debt, whatever, George, it would show that as the date.
Caller 33:12
I made sure that I made an electronic payment through my bank, but I think they generate a paper check. But I made sure that I had the proper tax year on the memo section.
Dr. Friday 33:27
Was it cashier’s check?
Caller 33:29
No, I just went on my online banking and sent a payment to them, which I believe means that the bank generates a paper check. But when do you think when’s your best estimate as to when the IRS will actually be answering phone calls? That sort of thing?
Dr. Friday 33:44
Oh, I hope every day. Like, I really need to talk to somebody. I’m giving them another 30 days before I freak out. No. We just have a lot of cases here and people you know, I mean, you wait, you wait. A resolution and resolution isn’t happening as fast as we’d like, and waiting two or three hours on the phone and then they hang up or they’re not able to answer the questions is frustrating. We’re hoping to see that we, as a representative, we have a hotline that we can often call. I’m hoping that reopens especially when almost all the stimulus checks are getting out there. Because I think a lot of people are using the stimulus, the phone numbers to answer for all the stimulus people. So because they hired a ton more people for the phones, George, so I’m just not seeing it on our lines. But I’m thinking within 30 days, it should happen. That’s my hope.
Caller 34:38
Very good. Thank you. Thanks,
Dr. Friday 34:39
Thanks, buddy. I appreciate the phone call. Thank you. Let’s go hit it, Ron, and then we’ll take a short long break whatever we have to do. That way. Ron doesn’t have to wait for the break. Hey, Ron.
Caller 34:50
Thank you. I’ve got some advice for the gentleman who is being audited for his stock basis.
Dr. Friday 34:58
Yes, John. Yes. What is that Ron?
Caller 35:00
Okay. I’m not sure it’s going to work 100%. However, if these were publicly traded stocks no matter what year their registrar for every trade and the record does exist. I’m not sure that there won’t be a fee for somebody having to dig it out. The record is there, it does exist. And I would also suggest that there are websites which tell him of any stock splits or reverse stock spreads because they right, I used to sell so thank you very much.
Dr. Friday 36:00
Thank you, sir. I appreciate that phone call. Seriously. Thanks, Ron. Thank you very much. All right. We’re gonna take a quick break if you want to join the show you can at 615-737-9986. I’m so way over my break but we’ll get right back with you. Thanks.
Dr. Friday 36:38
We are back, live in-studio now the new modern studio which is actually at my home apparently. Alright, so if you want to join the show, we have about 10 minutes left guys time has flown by and I have talked right through one break. So we’re gonna keep moving through these breaks but if you need any help with doing things all you have to do is pick up the phone right now and call 615-737-9986. My number right now for the studio. So if you’ve got questions or comments and you’d like to share them, you certainly can. Otherwise, I am going to keep talking about all kinds of different things. But the most important thing, of course, is all about me and my taxes. So we’re going to deal with some tax issues and if you have tax issues, remember if you haven’t filed taxes in a number of years, you need help getting those tax documents together, you need help filing them and then you need help dealing with the IRS. It’s what I do all the time. A little bit more frustrated at this moment than I have in the last 20 years. But hey, you know what, a little change never hurt anybody. That’s what they keep telling me.
Dr. Friday 37:49
So we are able to get the tax returns filed. We’re able to help you move forward with making a deal with the IRS and sometimes when things aren’t always the best when you’re on top of the pile, it’s time to really do this. Because when you’re making a lot of money and you have potential, why in the world would the IRS want to negotiate with you? When they know they can get the money because that’s what always you know, there’s a lot of companies that you’ll hear on there, “Oh, we can negotiate 10 cents on the dollar, we can help you settle this debt.” Well, if you have the money, you either have it in property, you have it in earnings that you make every month, and they think that they’ve got 10 years, 10 years to collect from when the time clock starts. Time Clock is either gonna start when they have prepared a tax return that they put in there on you for you, even though you never filed it or from the time that you file the tax return depending on whichever it is. And so, you know, if you haven’t filed the taxes and the government hasn’t filed them for you guess what the time clock has even started, so they know they’ve got 10 years to collect from that period. Then sometimes things are going along just fine and the last three, four years next thing you know, the IRS is like really on you. And the problem is, of course, at that point, payment plans and stuff are accelerated, they only have a few more years left. And so instead of maybe making a payment for $400, they know what eight or nine hundred, which makes it impossible. So then trying to show that and dealing with the IRS, sometimes it helps to have representation to help you get a partial payment plan in all that the IRS has very specific rules on how they’re going to deal with an offer and compromise how they’re going to deal with a payment plan, a partial payment plan, maybe even non-collectible. Either way, you need to make the plan and how you’re going to move forward to do that. And then sometimes it takes getting things organized.
Dr. Friday 39:48
I’m always talking about my entrepreneurs, but let’s just be honest, the entrepreneur has a little harder time because they receive all their money and they’re responsible for paying their own taxes. So when that is done and you haven’t done it, and so maybe you’re owed 5000 or 8000. Next thing, you know, you have six, seven years of this, now you’re at 40, 50, or $60,000, which may not be something you can file, so then you can pay an offer and compromise maybe, but maybe the deal is going to be too high. Just because I say, “Well, I can make a deal for you, you owe the government $60,000, they’re gonna take 25.” Heck, that’s a great deal still, right? But 25 is bad is 60 for some people, they don’t have the ability to pay it. So you have to know how to make the deals that are going to work and going to be able to stick to and make it happen for all of us, not just a matter that’s going to keep going for you at that point. So again, I want to make sure everybody is on the same page there because there’s a lot of people that you hear on the news or on the radio, and it basically says they can help you. And next thing you know, you’re paying them $500 a month and you don’t know what they’re doing, how they’re doing it. And to be quite honest, they haven’t really stopped anything from being done it all. In some cases, people think the tax returns and things have been filed and they haven’t even filed those. Start the time clock people get yourself in order, let us help you get organized because as an enrolled agent, I’m licensed by the Internal Revenue Service to do taxes and representation. That’s what I do. I helped put a little bit of a shield between you and them, but they’re looking for someone that’s going to helpfully, when you hire me, what they’re looking for is someone that’s going to hopefully open that line of communication, get the documentation to them, and then move forward and make everything work in the right direction.
Dr. Friday 41:30
So if you need help doing that, just call my office on Monday, or better yet, you can go to DrFriday.com, and you can set up a tax appointment or just a free consultation about your tax situation. If you’re an entrepreneur and you’re looking for bookkeeping, or you just want to talk about the different services, maybe you should be an LLC, maybe you should be a sub S corporation. Maybe you should be a C corporation, not something we do a lot of but there are times that that is a very good status to be and you need help with that. Again, you Go to DrFriday.com, click on “appointments” and set up an appointment to come in. All of our first meetings are always free. Let’s make you know, we will make sure we can work together we will make sure that I will be able to do something for you that’s actually going to be worth having the conversation. If it’s not, then it’s not worth doing right? I mean, I’d much rather everybody leave the situation and know. So initial consultation is always free with my firm. And then from there, we can decide if we’re going to help you or not help you move forward, not move forward, etc, etc. But you need to have someone in your corner to help you do what you need to do and how you’re going to do it. Again it’s time to start filing taxes. If you haven’t filed your taxes and you need someone to help you prepare your tax returns. Go to DrFriday.com, click on “appointments” It is that simple. We have openings we have days that are opening up or more and more as more and more people are getting out there. We have been open through this interesting situation or the COVID situation. But we have been open and we’re still open. And we’ll continue to stay open to help people deal with their IRS issues or to just file their tax returns. So if you need to just have someone that’s going to hear the situation and help you make a good choice. There are times when maybe you just need to file and start a payment plan. It’s that simple. Other times, we may be able to do more, I will tell you, it’s going to be probably a little longer than normal to get some of those resolutions that we want to be done because we’re not able to move forward with the resolution any faster than anyone else. But we will make that resolution work for you.
Dr. Friday 43:35
So if you have questions again, you can also call my office on Monday morning at 615-367-0819. Again, if you want to help with dealing with your taxes or dealing with your tax situation, maybe you don’t even know where to start. You don’t have tax forms. You haven’t kept the tax records or goodness gracious, maybe you’ve moved around a lot or you’ve gotten divorced in the papers and situation. All you have to do is first give us an appointment we’ll sit down we’ll make a plan, we’ll figure out ways that we can help you recreate or get you the information that you need directly from the IRS so that we can file taxes. And the best way to do that, go to DrFriday.com, click on “schedule,” schedule an appointment that will fit within your schedule, and mine apparently, and then we can get you squared away. Or if you need us to help you with their tax preparation. There’s also a tax organizer on that same website that you can use to get organized. So when you come in, we can help you complete your tax returns. Again, you really guys basically right now we’re filing from 2010 because that’s what the IRS is doing. 2010 through 2019 in right now up until July 15, you have 2016, 17, 18 and 19 that you’ll get refunds from anything prior to that you won’t so it’s very important to get in early because I can’t tell you how many people are like, “I don’t think I owe money but I don’t know.” And then they’re leaving money on the table, I mean that is just crazy. You know, we don’t want to be leaving money on the table, okay? We want to get the money back in your bank account. So again 16, 17, 18, and 19 all refundable years. Other than that you won’t have a refund or anything else coming through the situation for us so we’ll be able to move so if you want to reach me 615-367-0819 or go to Dr. friday.com. And that way then you can get your tax appointments set up or anything else. Hopefully, you guys are in good shape and we’ll be able to move forward. We are here to help you as Enrolled Agents help you with IRS and other issues. Hopefully, that will help you and I hope you have a fabulous Saturday!