Are My Unemployment Benefits Taxable?
What Can I Do To Keep My Taxes As Low As Possible?
The Tax Answers Advisor Transcript
Marcelino: Welcome today to The Tax Answers Advisor, I am Marcelino Dodge. Starting off today with a quote that really summarizes my experience the last 20 years in doing taxes and it’s a nice quote from Will Rogers, singing cowboy. He is noted as one saying, “The difference between death and taxes is death does not get worse every time Congress meets,” and I’ll tell you what Will Rogers are is right on spot with that because in 20 years, it does seem every time Congress meets taxes don’t get simpler, they just get a whole lot more complicated.
A few updates since our last show, just to kind of let everyone kind of see what’s happening in the last week or so, while the IRS is has expanded some options for making payments and alternatives to resolve old balances so they’re going to work with once because of the COVID balance that’s very nice that we’re getting something out of the IRS on that. Also if you owe 50,000 or less to the IRS you can complete an application online to set up a payment agreement. More information is available at Cash Tracks Financial.
And that’s usually at very low cost and for some taxpayers, it can even be no cost. Qualified taxpayers, you can even, this is nice. You can even set up a payment plan. If you owe $250,000 or less. Now what’s nice about that is that in prior years you used to have to submit some type of financial statement. Well right now if you set that up online, a financial statement is not required. There’s flexibility as well as with making an offers and compromise which is basically making an offer to the IRS to try to settle your tax debt.
So you really need to work with a tax professional and be careful and be wary of these services that advertise online or advertise on the radio or you see them on the television that say we can reduce your tax debt to $2 and you owe, like $100,000 or whatever, you got to be very careful about those because some of those may not be very legitimate, and may just take a lot of money up front but not actually accomplish much for you.
Now, some things we want to touch on today. Oh, one more thing I forgot to mention here real quick is just came out today the IRS is warning taxpayers, especially regarding the $1,200 stimulus payments apparently there is some new scam going on, it’s just so sad people are trying to get your information, which is your information, you don’t want to share it with anybody. There’s some type of texting scam going on I haven’t received one of these yet but just putting out the warning out there, if you get some type of text reporting to be from the IRS, just delete it, ignore it. Because they’re trying to get some information from you that you don’t need to do especially if you’ve already received your $1,200 stimulus payment. But if you haven’t, the only place you go to, to sign up for that and to make sure you get is irs.gov. So any text messages. Keep in mind the IRS does not communicate with you in that way. So be very wary and stay, stay sharp.
Now we’re gonna touch on here a little bit before we get into our main topic today about the “Unemployment Tax Surprise” that many people may experience if they haven’t planned properly for this is, I’m going to touch on today how we, as a business. And as one who really cares about people how we go about helping ones because what I’m touching on today with this. Unemployment is actually has to do with tax planning and planning ahead being ready for the changes, because we look at no matter what happens, the results of the election yesterday and we’re going to be waiting for those days for the results no matter what those results are.
It is still important to go according to current tax law, and be able to plan accordingly. Now, part of the adjustment when we work with individuals. What we do is we try to have them have solutions not just prepare the tax return, but help them solve financial stress. Now each of us has some type of goal that we would like to meet, maybe perhaps to be debt free and so many years maybe to contribute more to my life and more to my retirement plan, or be able to maybe have a little bit of life insurance, whatever the case may be, everybody has some goals they want to reach.
What I like to do is I’d like to sit down with you. We can do this of course in person, we can do it over zoom because I got proper measures in my office related to COVID. So, it’s possible but I also realize that many people want to meet electronically so we can definitely do the same thing right over a nice zoom conference call on video and be able to really sit down and discuss, identify goals, see what is causing you stress.
Now once we identify these goals, it’s important to then prioritize of all this list of goals, say we got causes these goals that we want to reach. Which of these goals, is the most important that we want to get to? We have to identify that and get that key indicator, and then solve that goal, or work to solve that goal. And basically the way that this is done here, is through a nice three step process that we use, which allows us then to analyze key data that you have in your finances, it can be both in a personal matters and this can also be in business for those who have a business.
And then, after we identify these goals, figure out what your causes of stress are which all of us have some type of stress particularly financial stress related to what’s going on with the COVID pandemic, or could be anything that’s causing could even be family but there’s some stresses we can’t solve but there’s many that we can help you with through help through some management solutions which is what we’re after is helping you to manage, and help you and provide you with solutions.
Now once we identify these goals, causes of stress, these indicators you have that allows us to move on to create an action plan. With this action plan. Then we just don’t, it’s not just come in here, sit down, put it, put it, give it to you put it in place as go do it out on your own. No, what we do is we help you create the action plan we got to take steps through the action plan okay this is the next step. This is the goal that we want to reach. Okay, we reached this goal, you did what you needed, they’re great.
Let’s move on to the next one. And we just keep doing that. And then we keep monitoring these actions through all of the years as well to help you to reach those goals. Now, a part of that whole plan that we do which is really convenient for you, is that we also help you with your compliance needs which in essence is your tax preparation and this is once again, according to you as an individual, or you as a business.
We help you to stay compliant with the IRS and that could include if you’re a business that would include not only the business tax return like for a Corporation, Partnership, or LLC, that would also include payroll processing. Your payroll, make sure all your payroll compiled clients done and completed properly and in an on time, payroll tax deposits are done we can take care of all of that as part of your overall action plan as well as even a monthly accounting if you need that as well.
So we can help you with all of that and all of that really is nice is that because we put this all together in one big package for you. There we have an affordable monthly fee, which helps to address all of this and helps you to get in really look at your goals, and help you to see okay this is where I want to be a year from now, this is where I want to be five years from now. Yes, we want to help you to get those goals, whether it’s debt reduction, maybe helping your family make feel more secure by helping perhaps with some type of insurance that you can get or refer you to a place where you can get some insurance if it’s not something that we’re licensed to do.
And then help you to contribute to a retirement plan just review look at all that but not just do it once a year. Like many tax people do, we do it throughout the year as part of our overall monthly fee. That’s a whole service provided and it’s unlimited access. So, you come, we establish a relationship. It’s not just something that’s going to then piecemeal you what it’s going to do is that for the one monthly fee which is according to each individual circumstances, you can be able to bring it, you can give to send us through our portal. Any IRS notices you get, we’re not going to charge you an additional fee to review that notice and provide a response to that notice. That’s all built into this affordable monthly fee that we’re going to provide which unlimited access means that you can pick up the phone, you can give me a call and I will answer your questions, or I will call you back. Of course I’m not available, but I will call you back. And we always strive and our goal, all the time, is to call you back, get back to you as our client within 24 hours and we just don’t want you to be a client.
We want to be partners in helping you to reach your goals, as we seek to identify these stresses for you, and then help you to then solve those stresses. We’re going to go ahead and take a quick break for just a few moments now and then we’re going to get into our main topic for today about “How you can Avoid that Unemployment surprise” which some people are going to be caught off guard come this next tax season here beginning in January, and we’re going to do this in just a few moments, when we return. This is Marcelino Dodge on The Tax Answers Advisor on the Voice America Business Channel.
Become our friend on Facebook, post your thoughts about our shows and network on our timeline, visit facebook.com/voiceAmerica.
Today’s tax and financial environment is constantly changing tax laws change rapidly. The traditional reactive approach to tax preparation and taxes, no longer works. To deliver the best possible outcomes in today’s world, you need a year-round approach to take advantage of tax law changes, and to pay as little tax as possible. Marcelino Dodge of Cash Tracks Financial helps his clients to implement proactive tax strategies throughout the year to limit his clients tax liability. Plus, with this year-round approach and clients can increase their cash flow and be as prepared for the future as they can be. Email Marcelino at success@cashtracksfinancial.com or call 844-394-4287.
Have you become a member yet? Sign up now to become a member of Voice America is always free and easy. Plus, you get to take advantage of some great member benefits, get unlimited access to millions of hours of on demand content across all of our channels, keep track of your favorite episodes of shows and hosts in your own customizable library. Find out what shows you might be interested in based on your favorites. Plus, you get insider access with our newsletter, membership gives you more. Sign up at voiceamerica.com and click register at the top right.
Voice America Business Network. The bottom line in business.
This is The Tax Answers Advisor with host Marcelino Dodge. To reach our program today please call in the number is 1-866-472-5790. That’s 1-866-472-5790. You may also send an email to success@cashtracksfinancial.com. Now, back to The Tax Answers Advisor.
Marcelino: Hello, thank you for sticking around for another portion of The Tax Answers Advisor. I am Marcelino Dodge and we’re talking about the unemployment surprise, the unexpected unemployment surprise at some may have come this next tax season when they prepare to file their tax return. And why is this going to be such a big issue? While we consider that your 2020, of course has been unlike any other year since the pandemic started, there’s been record unemployment with literally 10s of millions, filing for unemployment, from March, up to where we are today.
At the beginning of November. Now, most recent jobs report of course puts us at about 7.9% unemployment, which is good considering where it had been before, percentage wise, and there’s going to be a lot of people that perhaps had been filing for unemployment for the first time, with the Department of Labor and each of their states. Now, what we think about. And keep in mind and what’s been talked about a lot is the Cares Act.
Now a significant part of that is of course that for eight weeks from June into July, those who were receiving unemployment received not only the amount that their state had, but the federal government kicked in an extra $600 per week, which over an eight-week period, adds up to about $4,800 extra, and then you take in and you add in whatever they received else which could vary from state to state.
But yet, that’s can be an issue, especially for anyone who has not filed for unemployment or not been on unemployment forever I mean I had talked to some people who had never been on employment in their lives until 2020. They didn’t realize okay this is how I need to apply for it. This is all I can apply for this, especially if you lost your job because of COVID or is laid off. It was there but had to assist some people just knowing how to do it, helping them to do it and know the website to go to be able to do it.
And that of course, millions of people receive these payments very good payments, helped out a lot of people. The only drawback was and this has been reported on the news is that in some cases it stifled employment because some people were making more on unemployment than they were on their regular employment. So it kind of held back, employment, a little bit that was kind of a side effect of it with some people now that varies from person to person, state to state.
Now, and the types pain of course as I mentioned some of this came through the federal. Some of that was some federal, some of it was, state, and each of the cases and other portions, it was with the railroad. Some of the railroad was had some type of unemployment which I don’t think it affected the railroad law, but just in general there is, there’s some type of unemployment that happens with the railroad on the state level. Of course, each state has its Department of Labor, that usually handles unemployment payments and employers pay a certain amount each month now depends from state to state when it comes to unemployment insurance. Because like for example I’m in Colorado, which the state, the Department of Labor in Colorado has the employers pay a portion up to 13,000, the first 13,000 and some, you pay tax on that amount. Which each employer has like a slightly different percentage based on their like claim ratio and how much benefits have been paid out so their rate can be up or down depending how much they paid out in the past.
So that can vary from state to state. In some states, the employees may pay a little bit toward their unemployment insurance as well so you have to check with your state to see if you’re an employer to kind of see what their rules are. If you have been doing payroll in that state, you of course or you have employees, you know that, so that you pay live as an employer and sometimes even the employee pays a little bit of that.
Then of course there’s the federal unemployment which is on the first $7,000 of wages which is an annual filing as compared to most states, which is a quarterly filing, which is what we do in Colorado, we got a quarterly filing that has the wage report that a tax report that we file, and it’s submitted the payment to the Colorado Department of Labor. Now US individual. You receive unemployment, perhaps you received unemployment for the first time.
You may not realize that these payments were what you initially thought may have been free money which in a way it could be that, but in reality it’s not free money because we can’t think of anything if from the government is free. That means they’re not going to give it away because usually they want something back in return, which basically means we’re gonna give you this money for unemployment. Oh, but by the way, it’s considered taxable income.
And in most states that have an income tax. It’s also taxed at the state level as well. So we’re reminding ones to keep this in mind if you haven’t had any withholding on your unemployment, through this whole time. You may be up for a surprise if you’re used especially if you’re used to a refund or maybe if you haven’t paid much tax in the past. You need to keep in mind that this taxable income, with it being taxable income.
And you’re getting this unemployment and if you did not have any tax withholding. You might actually owe some tax this year for not having that withholding on your unemployment payments, which would include both state and federal tax withholding. Also keep in mind is that if you got unemployment payments each state does it a little differently. Some of them you’ll be able to access online, but you absolutely need to wait till you have the form 1099 G.
From the Department of Labor in your state, how you can get those will vary from state to state, you may get them in the mail. You may be able to access them through your online account with the Department of Labor. So you’re going to need to make sure and now with me a bad time to do it, to check and see how is the state going to issue out these 1099 G’s. It’s just part of planning, it’s part of thinking ahead, and you can even perhaps check in how much you’ve been paid.
And what withholding is, and that’s where the 1099 G is going to be important because it’s going to have these numbers on it saying okay it’s how much unemployment benefits you receive. If you had any federal withholding. That’s going to be there and then if you had any state withholding as well. And once again as we see they’re both federal and state taxable for states that have income tax, and even some amounts that may have been paid by unions, may be taxable as well.
So that’s a big thing to keep in mind if you had some sets of Union Unemployment pay. But that actually that could be a whole another subject, so keep that in mind as we think about the taxability of unemployment payments. Now, I don’t know how each department of labor works. But when you initially signed up for unemployment. You may have been asked, do you want to withhold taxes out of this? Of course, some may have been like, what these payments are taxable? Really?
Well if you’ve never received unemployment benefits you may not have thought about it before, they may not have come to mind before. But yes, these are some taxable benefits that you need to just keep in mind and think about because that’s part of planning so if you did do it, and it and tell them okay yes withhold federal tax now we got to think about to at the beginning of the year. The Form W-2 changed.
And, so because they’re mainly going on like filing statuses with form a W-2 that you can W-2 something with some letter after it for unemployment payments that you probably fill out but you need to have had that filled out, because it is voluntary, you don’t have to have the holdout any tax on your unemployment payments, but if you fail to do so. And you’re still getting unemployment.
Right now my recommendation would be to contact your Department of Labor and start having them pulled out tax both federal and state tax on your unemployment payments if you’re still getting unemployment, so that you can at least have a little bit of that offset or if you’re signing up for unemployment for the first time. Make sure you do that now. Some states may allow you to go in and make the change online.
Which boy hopefully they do because that makes it really simple so I strongly suggest that if you haven’t already done so. Have some withholding on your federal on your unemployment payments, strongly suggested. Now, you may be sitting here thinking, I’ve been getting these unemployment payments or I’ve been unemployment for a few several weeks now. I didn’t do any withholding on it.
And as far as I don’t know, I don’t know if there’s any withholding on it. Check it with your Department of Labor and find out but, if you find out that you don’t have any withholding that leads a little bit back to what I talked about earlier about trying to help ones with their finances, trying to find out pains, the whole planning process. You may need to meet with somebody to help to look at your overall income for the year because we’re at the beginning of November now. And if you aren’t sure where you are.
You need to get with someone to help you to iron out those processes so that we, time does come around and depending what your income is for the year, you may need to even consider the possibility, it may be difficult, you may not be able to do it but it’s still something that may need to be looked at, so that you can make any adjustments before the end of the year, which means some type of estimated payment may be necessary to help offset potential tax. I can’t say whether that’s absolutely going to be needed or not.
But it is something to take into consideration there. So then think about that, that you can definitely do that so the unemployment surprise is again something that we just wanted to help you to seek to avoid because some people just don’t realize how much effect, unemployment payments can have on their tax return. It can, in some cases it can move you into another tax bracket, other cases, is that it can affect some of the refundable and nonrefundable credits that you can qualify for.
So there’s some high things to consider of how that can affect your overall tax situation there. Now as we look at some of the effects on some tax credits, it can have, is one area we got to keep in mind, according to IRS rules is that unemployment compensation is a form of compensation, defined by the IRS tax code as an earned income. And that designation is very important. See other types of unearned income are like retirement payments from an IRA, or some type of pension plan, unearned income is an income you receive perhaps off of dividends, capital gains interests on bank accounts, all of these areas are considered on unearned income.
And the reason that this is so important is that for some individuals who qualify for what’s one of the more popular credits in the tax code which is the earned income tax credit. The unemployment can actually have an effect on that credit, how much you get on that credit. It can, we don’t want once thinking oh I’m going to go in I made X amount of money on my unemployment. I made X amount on my W-2, you’re thinking, oh my goodness I’m going to get all this money back because I’ve got all this money that I made.
Well, that’s a mistake and I can even say that that’s a myth thinking that because the W-2 income in that particular case is the only income that is actually considered earned income. The amount made on the 1099 G for your unemployment payments, that income is considered under, and does not go into the calculation for determining the amount of the earned income tax credit that you will receive. Very important to consider there, so it’s not going to increase it.
If anything. In fact, what we see is that the unemployment, can have a negative effect on such on the refundable earned income tax credit and you’re like thinking, wait a minute. You just said it’s not gonna it’s not earned income. So, how can it have an effect, or even a negative effect on the credit. Well, depending on your filing status. What can happen is that you can then have a certain amount that you make, say you made 20,000. This for example, and say you got six 7000 of unemployment.
While the way that they calculate the earned income credit is not just on the amount of earned income. What they also another calculation they include on that is what’s called adjusted gross income, which is another calculation that is done after they take in some I would just take into consideration not only the initial income that you receive, but it includes what they call other adjustments to your income.
That includes areas that can be things like if you had self-employment tax you get a deduction there if you have self-employment insurance you get a deduction there, IRS. I mean, IRA contributions which is also part of adjusted gross income, so come down to figure there. Now we’re going to get more a little bit more into that and discuss that actual part of this a little bit more when we return. After this break here on The Voice America Business Channel. I’m Marcelino Dodge, with The Tax Answers Advisor.
Voice America is on your favorite smart speaker. If you have Alexa or Google Home, go ahead and give us a try.
Hey, Alexa, play finding your frequency podcasts on tune-in.
Today’s tax and financial environment is constantly changing. Tax laws change rapidly. The traditional reactive approach to tax preparation and taxes no longer works. To deliver the best possible outcomes in today’s world. You need a year-round approach to take advantage of tax law changes and to pay as little tax as possible. Marcelino Dodge of Cash Tracks Financial helps his clients to implement proactive tax strategies throughout the year to limit his client’s tax liability. Plus, with this year-round approach, clients can increase their cash flow and be as prepared for the future as they can be. Email Marcelino at success@cashtracksfinancial.com or call 844-394-4287.
Have you had a chance to check out Voice America’s online magazine and blog? If you love our hosts and shows, check out articles that give it even deeper perspective, plus topics about health and fitness, movie reviews, philosophy, business tips and tactics, spirituality, positive thoughts, current events and even more about your favorite hosts. It’s just a click away at blog.america.com. That’s blog.voiceamerica.com. The Voice America press blog. All access, all the time.
When it comes to business, you’ll find the experts here. Voice America Business Network.
This is The Tax Answers Advisor with host Marcelino Dodge. To reach our program today please call in the number is 1-866-472-5790. That’s 1-866-472-5790. You may also send an email to success@cashtracksfinancial.com. Now back to The Tax Answers Advisor.
Marcelino: Welcome back to The Tax Answers Advisor. This is Marcelino Dodge, as we continue on with our discussion on avoiding the unemployment payment surprise which many people I expect are going to have that surprise, especially if they try to file their tax return, they get their W-2, go to file their tax return. And then a few weeks later, they get this little thing called a 1099 G. What I need to do with this?
Well, we got to think about that as we look at it because of the effect it has on your adjusted gross income as I was mentioning, right before the break, is that there’s a calculation for income on the tax return. Then there’s another calculation where several deductions are what they call above the line deductions are allowed. And then that comes into adjusted gross income. Now that is just gross income number can be. And in several cases I deal with can be higher than the earned actual income amount. Now why is that significant?
Well, as I discussed before, is that unemployment compensation is not considered earned income, is considered unearned income. And for those who may qualify for the refundable tax credit, the earned income tax credit that is very significant. Because as before the breaks, I was mentioning, you can have 20,000 of earned income for the year. And say you received like six or 7000 of unemployment, which some of that could be $4,800 that you received because of the extra 600 from the federal government.
But we keep in mind to think about this. I didn’t mention earlier is that some of the states is that when the President did the executive order allowing for an extra 400, some states kicked in an extra 300 a week like say it depends on what state did it but you got to think about that be thinking about that as well. Because all of that plays into the amount of income that is going to be calculated toward the earned income tax credit.
Because you can happen very easily is that around 20,000 is a little bit of earned income is a little bit above where the peak amount of the Earned Income Tax Credit comes in. Depending on your filing status, especially if you’re married filing joint, or if you’re head of household. It comes right about in that area. But if you turn around and then you add in, say six or 7000 of unearned income from unemployment.
That could, that will because I’ll look at because oh look at Okay, this is the amount of earned income but then we have this Adjusted Gross Income calculation that we have. Both of those numbers will be plugged in on the worksheet. But due to the way IRS tax code is written and the directions are written, they actually don’t use the lower number to look up your credit based on the number of children one, two or three. It’s actually the adjusted gross income number.
So, think about this, that if you get that credit normally the earned income tax credit, it could actually be reduced, say $1,000, $2,000, it could be reduced because of the amount of unemployment. And so that’s a surprise that some people may not be expecting. But that is a surprise, that can definitely happen, if you’ve gotten that credit in the past. Now, as I mentioned earlier as well coming, coming back into this segment here, that we got to think about is the fact that if you’ve received unemployment during 2020.
The 1099 G, which is the form issued by each state’s Department of Labor toward unemployment, you want to make sure you have that form, before you file your tax return. Whether it’s available online, or they get one in the mail, you’re gonna have to clarify with the Department of Labor in your state. And it’s so vitally important that you absolutely be patient and wait for that. I don’t know how that how the State Departments of Labor are going to be on this, some may be able to handle the numbers better than others.
But it would be wise, because private employers usually do a very good job of getting out their W-2s, and they have till January 31st to get them in the mail, to their employees, many of them will hand them to actually, especially smaller businesses, like what I work with, they don’t hand them to their employees, or they’ll have them available in like an employee portal. That’s what many larger employers do, they will have the W-2 on some type of employee portal that they have.
And that’s usually available by the 31st of January, then there’s other employers that may just wait, because that’s what they like to do, as long as they get into the mail by the 31st. There, okay. But if you do not have your 1099 G by the 31st, but you have your W-2 by the 31st, which is going to be the question I’m going to ask anybody that I do business with this year. Say, Did you receive any unemployment compensation during the year? And if they answer the question, yes. Then my next question is going to be, Have you received your form 1099 G from the Department of Labor?
And if they say no, I will say okay, please leave your W-2 with us. We can start processing, but you need to please go locate that 1099 G. How you can, you can contact the Department of Labor, check in your account, it might be in your account login account that you have with them, try to find out when you’re going to get it because inevitably and some people will do this. It’s just inevitable and 20 years doing this business is that some people will bring in their W-2.
Never say anything about unemployment. Hopefully we’ll always, our goal is to ask everybody. Did you get any unemployment that some people may come in and say, I didn’t get any unemployment, all asked my W-2 this year, and they want to file their tax return, which that’s their choice. But our recommendation is that you do not file your tax return, especially if you got unemployment benefits until you have that 1099 G, because the effects of filing without that can be devastating.
And those devastating effects can relate to the fact that one. If you file your tax return and you file an inaccurate tax return and not with all of your taxable data, you could end up having to what. What a nightmare filing is which is having to do an amended tax return. Come back in bring that information in. So not only are you getting charged by a tax preparer effect it has on your tax return, you can get charged for an amended return, which has been the normal policy here because such filing is not our is not our fault.
But that’s why we work with it when we work with people we want to have on one of our Monthly Payment Plans. That way you don’t encounter that type of issue if you’re on a Monthly Plan such corrections like that are actually included in our Monthly Plan B as long as it’s not. If it’s something simple like that, then yeah that’s included in the absolute monthly fee that we that we collect from wasn’t as part of keeping you compliant for the year.
And what real sad part about that fact also can be with having to file amended return is that if you file your amended return and they’re expecting a large refund, or even a small refund say $1,000 or 2000 or $3,000 or whatever the amount may be, you could actually because of the 1099 G. You could actually end up having to pay that amount back depending on the effect it has on your tax return.
And that is something that we definitely want to encourage you to avoid and once again, an employment tax surprise that you may qualify for a refund but because you did not report the unemployment income initially, you may have to actually turn around and pay some of that money back and the attitude that you want to avoid with that as well. All the way to the IRS catches up with me or whatever I’m not going to worry about fixing this.
Well, that’s your choice as an individual, as a tax person. I’m going to tell you, you need to take care of this. But the ultimate decision is with you, as the tax payer and I’ll tell you, it is not good to wait to the IRS does it. Something called the IRS isn’t going to find this you know, it may not be next month. It may not be two months down the road, but I can about guarantee you in six months to a year, you will get a letter from the IRS they do match it on these kinds of things you’ll get a letter from the IRS saying, we got this 1099 G, it was not on your tax return.
And because you failed to report this. Not only do you owe us. This tax back this money back in this refund that you were not eligible to receive. And for this failure to pay penalty. We’re going to charge you another 10%, whatever that amount is, we’re going to charge like another $200 plus on top of that, there’ll be interest, that they’ll charge and the interest from April 15th, and this case this year, it’d be from April 15th of 2021 that they would charge the interest.
And so, if you didn’t file it. If you have some unreported income which is that, was that which is what that would be considered, you would be liable for that tax. Now the IRS would allow you to make a payment plan up to get that taken care of, which you can very easily go online and do to get it adjusted, or when you file the next year because what’s going to happen if you owe some money back, the IRS will keep any refunds you receive until back taxes like that are owed.
So that’s part of that unemployment surprises you don’t want to get that letter. It’s a letter to CP 2000 letter that the IRS will send out, they do, they do that matching I see these letters, countless times throughout the years, although I haven’t seen them as much lately because I got mostly everybody I work with, really thinking about reporting all of their income, initially, and so that’s what we definitely recommend is, wait until you have that 1099 G so that the tax return you file in 2021, it may be a little later than what you normally do.
But let’s have it right the first time around. That way you have nothing to worry about. That’s something that here that we do very effectively is making sure your tax return is accurate. From the first time, so that you can have peace of mind with the IRS and peace of mind and knowing that as we take care of your tax return. It is done right the first time, and that you can just go on to other businesses and take care of all of that business that you need to, as well as we’ll help you with a few other items that we’ll touch on in the next and last segment here on The Tax Answers Advisor. This is Marcelino Dodge, on the Voice America Business Channel.
Follow us on twitter at Voice America TRN. Get the lowdown on guests, new shows and your favorites. That’s Voice America TRN.
Today’s tax and financial environment is constantly changing tax laws change rapidly. The traditional reactive approach to tax preparation and taxes, no longer works to deliver the best possible outcomes in today’s world, you need a year-round approach to take advantage of tax law changes, and to pay as little tax as possible. Marcelino Dodge of Cash Tracks Financial helps his clients to implement proactive tax strategies throughout the year. To limit his client’s tax liability. Plus, with this year-round approach clients can increase their cash flow and be as prepared for the future as they can be. Emailed Marcelino at success@cashtracksfinancial.com or call 844-394-4287.
The latest business information is made simple with the Voice America’s Business Network. The professionals in the business world bring you live talk radio shows featuring an array of business topics, strategies for building wealth, sales and marketing, stock trading, investing in Business Technology. Voice America Business hosts are professionals in their fields and bring to the airwaves weekly business discussions that offer up to date information, advice, and education. The Voice America Business Network. The bottom line in business, you’ll find the experts here, voice America business network
This is The Tax Answers Advisor with host Marcelino Dodge. To reach our program today, please call in the number is 1-866-472-5790. That’s 1-866-472-5790. You may also send an email to success@cashtracksfinancial.com. Now, back to The Tax Answers Advisor.
Marcelino: Welcome back to The Tax Answers Advisor, I am Marcelino Dodge and certainly appreciate you being here for this last portion of today’s show focusing on the “Unemployment Tax Surprise, how you can avoid it?” During today we’ve covered many areas of how you need to be wary if you have received unemployment. And if you have received unemployment, and are not having any tax withholding out of it. Our recommendation is you start withholding immediately.
And keep in mind that any expectations for a refund, needs to really be set to reality. Don’t be expecting a big refund just because you received a lot of unemployment, because there’s could be some real surprises in there which is why when we visit with people, and we talk to people, we invite them to have a discovery session with us because we don’t look as just being a tax pro just, that just files, your tax return. We look to help you throughout the year so that you can avoid surprises like the upcoming unemployment surprise that many people are going to have.
And by having someone like us working with you that helps you to make money, which is what our goal is. To help you to make money help you to grow wealth faster providing you with tax strategies like some of the information I shared with you today, making sure that you wait for the 1099 G. Do withholding on your unemployment if you haven’t already started doing so. If you need to maybe make estimated payments, do so but that’s something that we can certainly help you to figure out by taking a look at all of your numbers, focus to help you have guaranteed cash flow.
As we looked at these key numbers and then of course as part of our overall plan, be it through a virtual meeting and then meeting, then discussing and covering all the information we help you to be able to decide. You need to make maybe some estimated payments or if I’m not able to make estimated payments, what can I do to be ready for it? So we help you to be real in what needs to be done so that you don’t have that surprise that happens with unemployment there.
And as we look to try to help you to plan because no matter what happens with the result of the election, no matter what happens, these key factors about being able to plan and look ahead and think about what can I do to help myself. Or what can I do to have someone to help me analyze key data in my own financial picture, that’s a strategy that we want to help you to do because there’s going to be a lot of uncertainty over the next few months. Well, what’s gonna happen with the tax code? What’s gonna change?
Well, one thing, as I mentioned earlier, my quote for the day, “The difference between death and taxes is death does not get worse every time Congress meets”. Well, we don’t know what’s going to happen but we’re going to go according to current law and then, as we work together, if there are any changes in law adjustments that come from the IRS. We then adjust your plan accordingly.
And by having you as our partner working together on your plan, we then help you to make those adjustments so that you can be ready for any tax service, which then shows that we’re not being reactive trying to make last minute adjustments during tax season because once December 31st hits. That’s really about it. We need to be working on being proactive and helping you to develop tax strategy.
And see that’s where we don’t take a whole shotgun approach ours is a very focused approach that discusses your goals, where you want to be? And how do you want to get there? We want to help focus on your work throughout the year. By establishing your priorities, what’s most important to you? Let’s get that accomplished. Let’s then move on to what’s second and so on down the line, because we want you to make progress and we want you to make progress, fast, and do it as fast as we can.
And as we do that help you make progress financially, your compliance, your tax return preparation is going to be a part of that overall plan. And so we’re going to help you by helping you with your financial goals. By doing it all within just one place, we can do that very, very simply by having strategy sessions with you meeting multiple times throughout the year, helping you with any compliance issues that come up but yet we really we really minimize that, because why.
Well that happens because we’d stick with you throughout the year. We’re putting together a nice plan that that helps you to do that so that you avoid compliance issues, because I really know that by doing things right the first time, issues with tax returns, and this is whether you’re an Individual, or if you’re a Business, a Corporation, a Partnership, an LLC. All of these can be proactively adjusted throughout the year.
By having guidance for an affordable monthly payment, so that we can help you to get where you want to go, as well as what it allows you to do with an affordable monthly payment is that you’re not going to be paying. You don’t pay for time anymore to some of our biggest concerns when we go to visit with somebody, or our tax person is thinking, if I’m gonna have to write him another check go in and talk to them about this, or I got this notice. Am I going to need to have to, or how much is this going to cost me?
Now, we move away from that now you can learn more about our plans, and both business, individual talk, they’re discussed on our website which is cashtracksfinancial.com. And we do this because so many people try and “Do It Yourself” apps download onto their phone or their tablet, or download something off of the internet. They’re working hard but they don’t always know where to focus.
And so that’s our goal is to help you provide is helping with solutions using tools, data, and strategy helped me to implement those help you to look at those happy to see exactly where you need to be and then help you to get there because we what we want for our clients as we work with them. I should say not clients but our partners we look at everybody as being our partner. We want you to achieve results that you need, but it shouldn’t be out of reach because better results are simple, and we can help you make huge progress by helping you to focus on the right things, instead of just chasing the latest fad that’s out there or the latest software that’s out there. We have bundles we have created various, basically we have a personal bundle, we have a business bundle, keeping it real simple. We do a process that identifies monitors, and then manages core components so that you as our partner working together in your finances, you can achieve the best results, which, as we have been discussing today with the unemployment surprise that could just be the start of having amazing results and achieve those results.
By working together, to have an avoid that unemployment surprise that is going to be an inevitable for many, many people. We are certainly one that we certainly would like you to work together with you, to help you to reach your goals through year-round support. We have technology access, and all of your compliance filings because we got secure web portals, we got, of course email but the secure web portal is so much better. And we really appreciate being able to visit with you today.
And indeed, we can help you to avoid the unemployment tax surprise now, keep in mind next week. Should I work abroad for an income, meet the challenge. I thank you today for listening to The Tax Answers Advisor, I am Marcelino Dodge.
Thank you for listening to The Tax Answers Advisor with host Marcelino Dodge. We’ll be back again next Wednesday at 6pm Eastern Time and 3pm Pacific time, on The Voice America Business Channel, we’ll have more to share next week.
