Enrolled Agent Services For The Best IRS Representation
What Does EA mean? Why An Enrolled Agent Is Your Best Choice!
What Is An Enrolled Agent And Why It Is Important?
Transcript:
Marcelino: Hello, hello, welcome to The Tax Answers Advisor. I am Marcelino Dodge at the legal drinking age 21 on the number of shows that we’ve done so far and still building and thanking to the listeners around the world, they’re not just us but around Ireland, China and so on, great that we have such an international audience on this program and you can always reach me by going to cashtracksfinancial.com, or of course, emailing, which is success@cashtracksfinancial.com or giving a call, which is 844-394-4287, then I’m available on Facebook as well at Cash Tracks Financial On Facebook.
In fact, I’ve had a Facebook page since like 2009 kind of jumped on that right away when it first came out, which is very important to do as I mentioned in a previous podcast about using technology and utilizing that as part of your tax business is your tax preparer doing that. But yet today what I’m going to take a look at in just a few moments here is, what does an EA? Or why an Enrolled Agent is the best choice!
Which is probably an EA it’s probably the most misunderstood designation for tax preparers and tax preparation, it’s been around a long long time but it just doesn’t get the publicity. But keep updates out here just to kind of let everyone know it came out that Texas because of the outages, has been extended to June 15th the file there has been rumors that maybe the deadline will be extended this year again, nothing confirmed, nothing out yet.
Not gonna speculate but I don’t know if it’s going to change or not but if it does I’ll talk about it here but until that time, hush is the word. I want to remind everyone to make sure you stay on the lookout. There’s been a lot of fraud, a lot of identity theft with unemployment payments this year, The State of Colorado at least I know has had one state that has had humongous problems with that so much so that basically the department was shut down for a while because of it.
In a lot of areas and they’re just now reopening a lot of people are pretty frustrated with it so just be on the lookout for that, especially if you get a 1099 G from your department of labor in your state. That is wrong, which is possible. So just keep a good look out there. Also, many have talked about, there’s been some whispers out there about many of the tax provisions, it’s in the stimulus bill that is to come up, it can be very confusing. It’s a lot of murkiness at least as far as I’m concerned.
What I’m going to do though is wait until the bill is approved and signed into law, because I don’t like talking about what ifs or how about this, that kind of stuff. No, I prefer to talk about what is. And so that’s what this whole program is about is talking about what is what is current law, and then planning accordingly to what the current law is. Now, back to our topic for the day about “What exactly is an enrolled agent, or EA?”
This is actually, I didn’t realize this until I got involved and look, that’s more research on this, but the term Enrolled Agent has been around since 1884 dates back to that time because there were many claims, after the Civil War. And many of these were questionable. And this was put out by the US Department of Revenue at that time, and Enrolled Agent to help deal with those questionable claims.
And then since that time its designation has progressed and then a lot of moving forward to where we are today with the letters, EA, because sometimes you’ll see this like on my designation on my door on my business cards. You’ll hear it in some of these advertisements of people for tax resolution services they are our EAs and CPAs will help you but, I mean until I really started working with an EA, or Enrolled Agent I had no clue what it was.
So it’s usually very misunderstood and very unknown and just still today not really recognized even though there’s 1000s of Enrolled Agents across the country. So I look at this opportunity here to give a good explanation about what an Enrolled Agent is, and how an Enrolled Agent can actually help you? And do you very nicely in the preparation of your taxes? Now many people of course know about tax attorneys, they know about CPAs they get all the press.
What Is An Enrolled Agent?
But what most people don’t realize what an EA is, or an Enrolled Agent is a federally licensed tax professional, which is very interesting because that actually comes from the Internal Revenue Service like the certificate I have hanging on my wall says that I received this designation from the Internal Revenue Service. So it is federally licensed, which is really nice being federally licensed because it means that I can do taxes, I can go to any of the 50 states.
And I’m federally licensed and I can do tax returns there now, some states have odd rules regarding tax preparation so there may be a couple things. I may need to do there if I actually physically moved to that state, but I don’t have to physically move to a state to do tax return preparation for a state because I’ve done tax returns for individuals in California, New York State. I’ve done, I do a lot of Kansas because it’s right next door to me. I’ve done some of the Dakotas, Nebraska, Arizona.
So there’s, wherever there’s income tax, and even for a lot of taxpayers I live in Texas as well as a state that doesn’t have state income tax, so it’s been worked out very nicely there, that’s an Oklahoma too come to think of it, so anyway being Enrolled Agent helps you to be able to do all of those as well now. What also is available to an Enrolled Agent is, you’re generally unrestricted in the types of taxpayers you can represent. So, because it goes a broad range so you can do individuals. You can do like represent like corporations or LLCs, partnerships, S-Corps can even be estates, or trusts that one can represent and work with and do tax returns for as an Enrolled Agent, and the various types of tax matters that you can work with individuals on or help to solve.
It works very, very nicely in there to help ones in a very broad way, with taxes, and one who is privileged to have the Enrolled Agent designation is has the privilege and has earned that privilege to represent taxpayers before the Internal Revenue Service. Now one of the areas that I mentioned earlier that it’s so unknown and not a lot of people have a designation like where I happen to be in my little area, at least to my knowledge, anyway I believe I’m like the only Enrolled Agent in my part of the state of Colorado, at least I could be wrong, but at least to my knowledge at this point that I’m the only one here.
I’m surrounded by CPAs and others, but as an Enrolled Agent it’s still kind of an unknown area still untraversed waters for many so when we go into discuss it with them. This is my qualifications, this is where I can do taxes, and this is why I do well this is what makes me more qualified than say some other prepares in the areas because they don’t have such a designation. They’ve not demonstrated that competence before the IRS, which then leads us up to here. How does one become an Enrolled Agent?
Well, it’s not that easy of a deal to do. You don’t need to go to college, or get a college degree for that, like you do for some, like for a tax attorney or for a CPA, you don’t need to go to college to get those to get Enrolled Agent designation but, still it’s not an easy task to do. One line that one can do, is if you have past service and have worked actually for the Internal Revenue Service for certain technical experience and technical expertise in the tax law and so on. You can get the Enrolled Agent designation just based on that service.
How Do You Become An Enrolled Agent?
Now, the most common route that I have seen and I have encouraged and have heard from the Enrolled Agents I’ve worked with, is that they’ve taken some type of comprehensive examination. Now this examination covers both individual taxes, it covers business tax returns, it’s very broad, very broad what a cover now. That test of course has changed over the years, because for many years that particular examination, what it had is that it was actually administered directly by the IRS for a long time.
And the examination was actually four parts. Yes, four parts when that covered some individual matters, individual taxes focused. Part one was mainly about yeah the individual tax returns, and getting into some bike rentals and those kind of areas. And then there was part two which started getting into a Schedule C and some farms, a little bit into corporations and stuff, but then part three was really big on the corporations, partnership to states and so on. And then there was a fourth part that you took that covered real some other technical explanations, it covered penalties, it covered ethics, covered a lot of those areas as well so it was really extensive in that particular four exams at the time when that was how it was when I when I worked to get the designation is the fact that it was a morning session and afternoon session, and it was done over two days.
In fact, when I did this I did it up in the Denver golden area. And I took this and it was a very, very extensive how they did these tests and very, and they had Proctor’s and everything there is a large group of individuals that went and took it. It was very fascinating now, in my particular instance, I only passed two of the four the first year that I did it. So I actually had to go back and retake the tests again.
But the good thing about it is the fact that once you take it once, in that particular instance, it was really helpful to do that because then I went through the second time I took it, I passed all four. Got them. It was very nice, went through the whole process, boy I learned a lot just studying for the test you think you know something if you’ve done tax returns for a few years but when you prepare for the Enrolled Agent exam boy you learn a whole lot more and you’re just still just scratching the surface just preparing for that exam.
While since that time, though, in the last few years the IRS has adjusted it where they don’t give the written exams anymore, they’ve gone to using certain testing centers like, I think it’s Prometric that they’re using. And instead of a four-part exam. It is a three-part exam that has that covers individual business, and then regulations. Certain ethics and so on so but it’s, I don’t I don’t know if it’s harder to me it seems like it’d be a little harder than it was before but they give you a lot of time to take that it’s a100 question test at least from what I last knew.
You go into the testing center now, of course the advantage there of the testing center over when I did the written exams. Several years ago, is the fact that I waited. They waited like three or four months that I waited to find out if I had even passed the exams, it was basically normal IRS kind of operation, but it’s nice is that, for those who go in take those parts right now I’d like the Prometric Testing Center.
They get, basically they know at the end of it do you pass, or have you failed which is actually very nice which is how most of us get like when I’ve done security securities exams or insurance exams, that’s how those have been that I got the failure, the past right at the end now. That’s only step one, getting the Enrolled Agent designation is passing the exam but that’s probably the hardest part of it is getting the exam pass because once you pass the exam.
There is another form, of course, you got to fill out everything IRS is a form, you fill out a form to pass a suitability check where they send in they check your background. Now, one thing you want to do before you’re going to be an Enrolled Agent is make sure you got your own tax returns file. It just makes sense. So when does that, you do your suitability check, background check, make sure just basically, they look into criminal records to kind of see where you are.
And then once that’s completed, then they go through that process, then you get your certificate eventually as an Enrolled Agent and when you enrolled from like mine says, I’ve been Enrolled Agent since March of 2006. But that’s not the end of it, see an Enrolled Agent just like many professionals, has to d continuing education. Now I’m really surprised at this part, is that they require only 72 hours over a three-year period, which let me see here, 72 is only 24 hours of education a year and two year, two of those hours each year must be on ethics, and making sure you’re doing it right.
Now, I don’t know any Enrolled Agent or any tax professional or any real competent tax professional that only does 24 hours of continuing education every year. There’s just too much to keep up with too many changes. I probably do close to 72 almost each year, just in the little bits that I do and tidbits that are just so much to keep in mind. Now we’re going to do in just a little bit here. We’re going to touch on what does exactly make an enrolled agent different from other tax professionals?
So we’ll come back and discuss that in just a little bit when we return on The Tax Answers Advisor with Marcelino Dodge, on the Voice America Business Channel.
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Are you wanting to grow wealth faster, save time and build a nest egg? Hire a tax pro who makes you money and does more than just file your tax return? Marcelino Dodge of Cash Tracks Financial identifies your key numbers, works year-round, improve your numbers, keeps you compliant and helps you achieve goals faster. Call Marcelino Dodge today, 719-336-8739 to schedule your free tax strategy review. Call 336-8739 or visit cashtracksfinancial.com.
Many people want to build wealth or grow their business faster, but do not know what specific numbers to look at that actually helped build monthly cash flow. Hire a tax pro who makes you money and does more than just filing your tax return? Marcelino Dodge of Cash Tracks Financial identifies your key numbers, works year-round to improve your numbers, keeps you compliant and helps you achieve goals faster. Schedule your free tax strategy review by calling 719-336-8739 or visit cashtracksfinancial.com.
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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. I appreciate you tuning into the program today as we’re talking about what is an Enrolled Agent, also known as an EA? Well, as we’ve been talking about takes quite a bit of work to become an Enrolled Agent, as well as when you become an Enrolled Agent, you’re subject to regulations under IRS circular 230 which is a little booklet that has all whole bunch of information in it, as to what is okay and what is not okay for an Enrolled Agent, a CPA, or a Tax Attorney will do or can do in taking care of clients be unethical, and it’s something that can actually result in severe penalties prepare penalties for Enrolled Agents if they don’t stick to this and some that also includes, of course privacy for clients, and maintaining security measures there’s additional measures as well that we take as Enrolled Agents to make sure that our client data is also safe.
So then as we look at what makes an Enrolled Agent different from other tax professionals? Well, a big one is the fact that unlike just a tax preparer down the street who sets up shop which you can legally do go up and set up shop, once you get a P10 number that preparer a tax ID number and do the other little regulatory things you can basically be a tax preparer. But what makes an Enrolled Agent, different than that when they just put up a shop or the CPA or the tax attorney?
Well, one area that really makes it interesting as nice is that an Enrolled Agent or an EA has demonstrated that they have competence in matters of taxation, and they’ve demonstrated that to the IRS through the testing process, and also through maintaining continuing through the years of service that they have now, because an Enrolled Agent is once again, federally licensed that comes from the IRS. They report when they have credits, their CE credits, those credits are reported to the Internal Revenue Service.
See, when a CPA or an attorney does their information theirs is actually reported to their state, because there’s those are state licenses not federal licenses. And so that’s a significant difference too, and so as a tax preparer, an Enrolled Agent really is the only one that receives the right to practice from the US government so we don’t have to worry about when we cross state lines. Are we going to need to get some license in that state?
Well, in general, no we do not, we can go to Mexico or Texas or wherever, and go in and have a business have a practice. Now once again, as I mentioned some states are a little funny about that because some states don’t understand what an Enrolled Agent is and thus organizations for Enrolled Agents such as the National Association of Enrolled Agents, NAEA, really works to educate states on exactly that, yes and Enrolled Agent is just as good and in some cases even better than a CPA on taxes.
And that’s important because not every CPA does income tax preparation. There are some that do and their CPAs are specialized in a whole lot of other areas, and really don’t know anything about tax, and that’s nothing that gets a CPA that says that’s the path, they’ve chosen to go on. So as an EA, we have chosen. And what I have chosen to do is to specialize in tax. And so that really sets us apart, sets me apart from others in line, so that once again.
I’m there really representing you before the IRS now. So, the EAs, Enrolled Agents are very much different, but yet they are very competent and doing what they can to help their clients and to explain things to clients and that’s one thing I really strive to do is I work, work with you, work with an individual or business is trying to just make sure that the answer is there. If I don’t know the answer, I look up the answer, I find the answer and I find out what is going to be best to do for the tax payer within the tax rules and continue to work on demonstrating their competence and always building on that competence through various educational means.
So, how can EA help, not just how different? How can EA help? Well, we’re authorized of course, we can advise, represent, and prepare tax returns. And that’s across the board, it’s not just for a certain group now for now some Enrolled Agents will specialize in certain groups but we certainly don’t need to. We work on various tax returns, whether it be for an individual or some type of business such as a Partnership, an LLC, a corporation, an S-Corporation could be an estate, could be a trust, could be whatever entities that have a tax reporting requirement we can prepare a tax return for.
But as I mentioned some choose to do a real, be real specialize in certain areas, which, that’s great. Me and my particular practice and what I’ve been doing over the years I do a broad range. I do a lot of individuals, I work with a lot of Schedule C people, sole proprietors, I work with a lot of farmers, different sizes, small and large ones. And then of course working with various businesses, S Corps, probably more so than any other type of business a few partnerships and some C-Corps. So just getting a very broad range trying to keep a very broad knowledge so that those who with that have the tax reporting requirements are there, and are getting it done, and are getting it done accurately. Now, I do have these conversations sometimes I personally may take a little longer, especially when I’m getting to know a client or first time clients been in because I really strive for accuracy on tax returns.
I sometimes take a little longer than then some do. Because to me having an accurately reported tax return the first time to the IRS is so much better, as well as we reduce the risk of any audit with the IRS by making sure the tax return is done right the absolute first time. Enrolled Agents, many there’s millions of tax returns prepared each year by an Enrolled Agent. So it’s a good way to make sure you get your tax return done accurately and properly the first time.
Yet, enrolled agents aren’t always limited on taxation. Many of them. That’s primarily what their focus is, but many of them sometimes will work with bookkeeping or payroll or perhaps other services like myself, I do venture into other services. I do some bookkeeping and some payrolls as well, work with some other financial matters even, like myself, I’m also Life Insurance License so, I sit and I consult with that, as well as some Investment Advisory services as well, so I have a unique perspective on it because I’ve worked with a lot of different areas.
It can really help a lot of people with business matters, because I do understand most employee benefits, 401 K’s, SEP IRAs, other types of simple IRAs those as well. So, a variety of business services even, I worked with plans that help wants to set up cafeteria plans to maximize savings for their employees on various benefits also and supplemental insurance plans as well. So there’s a lot of areas that EA can work in and I’m very broad and what I work in but taxation is the biggest focus and I use a lot of outside services that perhaps help with like section 105 plans, and with retirement plans as well just to make sure that we can focus in on the tax side.
Some may wonder, well, it’s my tax return is simple or whatever the case may be and then certainly, each individual needs to make their choice. But why is it important to go ahead and use an Enrolled Agent? While we consider that each year. There are many tax changes and one thing that we’re looking at the current climate, we’re in, with the proposed stimulus plan there are a lot of potential tax changes in that that any type of preparer is going to have to learn and when EA wants to, they go in they get the education they learn about that, they go get the information and make sure they have the right information for clients because clients going to come in and ask questions about these things.
Well, I consider the code sections in the IRS code is from like code section one, up to around 9800. There’s all, that’s just a lot of code sections within it. And they cover a variety of topics everything from individual to various businesses and so on. Now, keep in mind that the IRS tax code is also 11,000 pages, and I mean I’ve not read a lot 11,000 pages but I’ll tell you what I go through and I get a lot of education to really make sure that I stay updated on what is happening to the absolute best that I can so that the people with whom I serve those that I help those who might prepare tax returns more, get the best most accurate tax return and get the most and best tax breaks that are best for their particular situation.
We also keep in mind that there’s provisions that are added each year, there’s been some that have been added in the last year with the pandemic happening and there’s perhaps a few other adjustments coming through with the potential stimulus plan that’s been discussed. So, we’re going to kind of interesting to see how that happens, that we’re having an expert such as an Enrolled Agent helping you to understand these and to make sure you take advantage of them in the preparation of your tax return.
Because I don’t know how many times I have encountered ones, or various individuals over the years, who, for whatever reason, think they’re doing a good job doing their tax return using some free Do-It-Yourself software, which is just advertising free free free. But yet, many times, because of just the way they answer the questions, they don’t get the maximum refund that they can, or they just put something in the wrong spot.
See, that’s where using like an Enrolled Agent is very helpful because when you’re using a software that’s do-it-yourself, it’s a challenge and many times I’ve had to correct returns such as that. Now, of course you’re advertising now have a tax expert help you, or file for you, but is that tax expert really going to be there to help you throughout the year is my question. Now, that’s where we, whether we’re dealing with someone locally, or dealing with an individual in another state.
We are here, we are available year-round. We just don’t provide your tax return. We provide services that help you to be successful throughout the year and as an Enrolled Agent I have that unique training and that ability to help plan, to look for those deductions, to look for those credits that will help you to be more successful throughout the year. And one of the areas that an Enrolled Agent can be particularly effective in helping individuals, is if you have been non-compliant.
If you have not been filing your tax return for a few years. I covered this in another podcast but I didn’t quite get it the whole point cover of how does one get compliant, when they are a non-filer. Because it is just like there’s reasons why you need to get compliant, there’s reasons why you need to get it done, and then why and why you just don’t want to be in trouble with the IRS? Of course, one of the big reasons I always tell people is why you want to get compliance is because until you file the tax return, there’s no statute, you haven’t started the statute of limitations so it’s very important. Now, we do recommend that we can help people get compliant, if they’ve been in non-filer. Many of that as an Enrolled Agent that’s where representation comes in, you get the required forms completed, we get those submitted to the IRS and the IRS then requires only pass only six years.
So we want to go in and confirm what returns have not been filed. And with that, we want to go ahead and get started. And sometimes you want to go more than six years because it’s good to get some of these tax returns filed because once again, as I mentioned in the previous show it’s vitally important, especially if you’re looking at for self-employment. And there’s Social Security that you’re trying to qualify for.
It’s good to get these returns on the books, and get the self-employment tax paid because it does affect your Social Security, especially as a self-employed person, and you want to make sure that is completed, and done, and that you are absolutely ready. So, with this we keep in mind that IRS as you look at it may have filed a tax return already for you for those years, and usually once again as I’ve mentioned before, as we come in as an Enrolled Agent to look at this, to help you.
Is that 99% of the time, the IRS will file a tax return for you but it’s not a tax return, that is in your favor. It’s a tax return that is in the IRS’s favor. And so then, especially as a self-employed person and how do I come in and file a tax return? Well, you first of all, you got to gather what records you can that you have available. If you’re a person who has had employment over the years. It’s usually pretty easy because we can go in we can request rate wage and income transcripts from the IRS, particularly like W-2 records.
You can request from the IRS and that will help you to get filed. And then of course if you’re self-employed, there’s been 1099s filed. You can get those 1099s, which helped to reconstruct your income which is also a very good tool that you can use. Now, but how about if I don’t have other records. Well, there is a provision, which as an Enrolled Agent, we can help you to work with in helping you to gather records and even in some cases, do some estimations in some areas for you as a self-employed person to be able to have some expense, at least related to.
Especially the 1099 that can be 10s of 1000s of dollars you need to have some expense there there’s some, we can work on reconstructing help you to reconstruct. You might have receipts, we know we just don’t know the circumstances depends on each individual, but some expenses, under $75 you can claim without receipts. Plus, through reconstruction of other records we can work on being able to help you to come up with those estimations of what’s within reason for the type of business that you have also in figuring out these years. We order account transcripts just to see what’s on the account the good idea of what we need to be doing. And then and, of course, as we do this, whatever procedures are for the IRS and the state, if the state of the state is involved. We want to follow whatever those procedures are so that you can get it done, get it done right, get it done with clients of both, whatever the IRS, the state is looking for.
And by doing so, getting compliant, getting these tax records, getting these 1040s. Now make sure as you do it, as well making sure that as you prepare that you use the right form for the right years, so there’s tax forms available back for certain years, while several years back on IRS.gov. Many tax software will still generate forms for certain years, I know software that I have will go back several years to help one so, we’re going to discuss a little bit more about this, and then a little bit more about our custom process that I use here at Cash Tracks Financial as an Enrolled Agent to help you to maximize what you’re getting on taxes.
So we’re back in just a couple minutes here, on The Tax Answers Advisor with Marcelino Dodge on the Voice America Business Channel.
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Are you wanting to grow wealth faster, save time and build the next egg? Hire a tax pro who makes you money and does more than just file your tax return? Marcelino Dodge of Cash Tracks Financial identifies your key numbers, works year-round to improve your numbers, and keeps you compliant and helps you achieve goals faster. Call Marcelino Dodge today, 719-336-8739 to schedule your free tax strategy review. Call 336-8739 or visit cashtracksfinancial.com.
Many people want to build wealth or grow their business faster, but do not know what specific numbers to look at that actually helped build monthly cash flow. Hire a tax pro who makes you money and does more than just file your tax return. Marcelino Dodge of Cash Tracks Financial identifies your key numbers, works a year-round to improve your numbers, keeps you compliant and helps you achieve goals faster. Schedule your free tax strategy review by calling 719-336-8739 or visit cashtracksfinancial.com.
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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! The Tax Answers Advisor, I am Marcelino Dodge. Certainly happy you joined listening to this program today, I’ve been talking about, “What is an Enrolled Agent or also an EA?” Yes, an Enrolled Agents that I’ve been talking about demonstrated many matters in taxation, competence, and its’s been before the IRS, and that an EA can advise and work with individuals throughout the country in any type of tax situation, whether it be at an individual business or another type of entity that has some type of tax reporting requirement.
Yes, Enrolled Agents are a very important part of the tax preparation world and absolutely necessary to be there to help you in especially, if you’re needing to get caught up. Because if you have not been filing taxes for several years and Enrolled Agent, is a specifically trained and can represent you before the IRS to help to limit damages, perhaps even negotiate on some penalty relief. One of the areas that Enrolled Agents can help on is especially if you are behind and you owe a lot of back taxes is that they can help to file what’s known as an offer in compromise.
Now, those are specific making an offer to the IRS now those have to be carefully prepared and those also have to be sent in with certain amount of documentation. Now, keep in mind that less than 50% of these offers and compromise are accepted by the IRS. So, if anyone tells you we’re just going to guarantee we’re going to get this done for you. Well, I’ll just say don’t believe it because there’s only so much that the IRS accepts and it takes on those.
If you’re making those types of offer six to 12 months can even be longer for the acceptance or even get here from the IRS so, it’s good to work with someone who will really work with you now. One of the biggest problems if you have not filed if you’re behind, is the fact that if you have a refund from four years ago or longer that you haven’t claimed, well just forget it. By law, the IRS will not pay a refund for a tax return that is that old, so just keep that in mind.
Like right now we’re in the year, 2020, which is doing 2021. Okay, April 15th 2021, think about that. So, see where we got 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, see 2017 returns were due April 15th of 2018. So you got three years from that due date in order to get your refund so, if you’re behind and you haven’t filed your tax returns for 2017 yet and you are expecting to refund for 2017. You need to have that filed by April 15th of 2021. Now, because of where we are. You’re going to have to mail that tax return in you cannot e-file it now. So that’s something of course I can help you with, but yet you something you need to take care of and so as you do a tax return, which is why I always tell people when you’re trying to catch up on tax returns, we start with the oldest year, and move forward.
And I say that, not just because that’s the best way to do it because I’ve seen people mess this up. For some reason, a few years ago I was working with a client who was in a divorce situation. And sadly, wherever they were working with, said well let’s file the 2014 before we file the 2013. Well, I told them, no, you don’t want to do that because if you don’t file that 2013 by this date. Forget it, there is no refund for 2013. Well, needless to say those people did not listen.
And as a result, they did not get the 2013 refund because they missed the filing deadline for that to get that refund, they tried to appeal it and try it all of that but I was like, that’s just the way it is, you can’t get that refund that’s by law. So that’s why it’s good to make sure, if you still have a 2017 tax return, that has a refund, get that file before April 15th. Because we have no guarantee this filing date is going to be extended. So, get it in, get it done. That’s my firm recommendation, I do not deviate from that.
And so as an Enrolled Agent, these are just little areas that I’ve been working with individuals on for years and helping them through the technical expertise in being able to help them to solve tax problems, helping them to do tax planning throughout the year. And that’s where I feel like as an Enrolled Agent when you can call me at 844-394-4287, we can help you to not only work on getting your tax return filed, but we can do more than just that.
Yes, we have a process that we have put into place. Because our clients here now have two options in working with regards to their tax returns. It’s basically means you have just doing your tax return, which is an after the fact kind of deal which basically means we’re only reporting we’re doing your work for the prior year, of what has already happened. And if we didn’t do any planning, we’re just stuck with what it is.
Now, people can do also, which is what I’m inviting ones here to email me at success@cashtracksfinancial.com, you can learn more. You can learn about our option where you can do year-round planning. Plus, the reporting, which that is a very proactive approach, and as an Enrolled Agent I can work on helping you to do this planning. Through the years, we can set up some goals, work on your goals through the year, we cannot just work on making sure we maximize refund but we can help you in so many other areas as well.
People who share in both our personal and our business bundles. They get in, they have a custom process that includes this planning process throughout the year. It also includes when we have to we have an exploration session, and see, okay, is this going to work. Well, that brings in both tax and accounting work. And as a Enrolled Agent who is uniquely positioned with also insurance background, and investment background as well. The unique understanding to help you in these areas.
Now, if you, we sign up into this you’re not obligated to buy any insurance or investments from me. We’re just mainly working on the tax part of something I have worked for you if you want to go to an outside source for them that works, that is good too. The main purpose is to help you to reach your goals, when we start a person or business matter we start with understanding what you want most from your business and your financial life, sit down.
We have a session we do it through video conference, or we can do it live whatever way it makes you feel most comfortable under the circumstances and if you’re in a certain part of the country. Yes, love to sit down, have a video conference with you to understand your goals, help you to establish goals what you want to reach out more, have a free mutual exploration session so that we can really get to know you and decide, okay, is this process, we’re looking at is this right for you.
And then as we manage these steps through this procedure we come to understand your goals. We identify financial matters, we identify what potential threats that come in, we identify how we can reduce those threats. And then as we go through that we come up with an action plan that helps you to reach these financial goals, to reach these financial matters that you want to solve, maybe some of that matter is building an emergency fund, maybe some of that is to help you to reduce debt, maybe some of that is to help you to build up your retirement funds, but we take a look at that through these personal bundles in both business and personal to help you to reach those goals that is our goal.
And receive as you work with us, and you work with me an Enrolled Agent Marcelino Dodge here. You call me again that’s 844-394-4287. We get access to the team those who enroll into our programs they get access to myself year-round, to be able to get advice to handle various tax matters to follow up on what plans. Now we do at our current level we do only so many, so we want to keep clients give excellent service to people so there’s only select clients that we’re working with on this we want ones who will get a ton of value from our services there.
So yes, there’s only a limited number of spots available so we invite ones to have a free exploration, a free discovery session with us to see, okay well, this program worked for me. If you want to join into this program but you’re always invited if you’re looking for a good just good action, good success on your taxes overall, we can certainly help you with that you can learn more about me at Cash Tracks Financial and working in this business 20 plus years. Now and it’s always exciting to different challenges that come up and since I’ve been an Enrolled Agent and working on educating people about becoming an Enrolled Agent, it’s very important.
And I thought this show today was very important to do that because of demonstrating competence in tax matters. Reporting education goes to the IRS. The right to serve taxpayers that comes from the US government because it says US Department of Treasury, on my certificate so my specialty is taxation, and certainly Enrolled Agents can help you whether it’s me as an Enrolled Agent or another Enrolled Agent.
And you can find Enrolled Agents on IRS.gov, they have a nice little tool you can use and it’ll help you to identify who an Enrolled Agent is in your area, want to work with someone a little bit closer to you, or you can also look at like say there’s two organizations that I really liked. One is NATP, which is an aspect National Association of Tax Professionals, which also has a listing of those who are a part of their organization and the NAEA which is the National Association of Enrolled Agents, and now both of those organizations.
In addition to working with them, you also have to adhere to a code of ethics. So individuals who are members of those organizations Enrolled Agents, those would be excellent ones to work with. Of course, I always invite you to give me a call nagain at 844-394-4287, or email me at success@cashtracksfinancial.com, or send me a message over Facebook at Cash Tracks Financial.
This is been a really exciting time discussing with you, letting you know exactly what an Enrolled Agent is and how I, as an Enrolled Agent how I can help you through a myriad of tax issues, tax problems help you with either your individual, or your business matters, and do it completely electronically through web conferencing and so on. We do really appreciate your listening to the program today.
So we look forward to talking to you again next week it’s 9am Pacific. Thank you so much for listening, The Tax Answers Advisor, I’m Marcelino Dodge and the Voice America Business Channel.
Thank you for listening to The Tax Answers Advisor with host, Marcelino Dodge. We’ll be back again next Thursday at 12 noon Eastern time, and 9am Pacific time, on The Voice America Business Channel. We’ll have more to share next week.
Cash Tracks Financial Inc.
117 W Beech St
Lamar, CO 81052
Office:(719) 336-8739
Toll Free: (844) 394-4287
Fax: (719) 336-8799
Email: success@cashtracksfinancial.com
Quick Contact
Phone: (719) 336-8739
Toll-Free: (844) 394-4287
Fax: (719) 336-8799
Email: success@cashtracksfinancial.com
Resources
Resources & Articles For Managing Your Finances On Your Own
Enrolled Agent Services For The Best IRS Representation
Why an Enrolled Agent is your best choice when you need help with your IRS tax issues? An Enrolled Agent, like Cash Tracks Financial can represent you before the IRS and help you get IRS tax relief. Find out more at the Enrolled Agent Services page.
Tax Professional Technical Skills Are Important
How technically savvy is your tax professional? Your tax accountant should know how to use the latest tax software and provide security for the computers used in the accounting firm’s business. Find out more at the Tax Accountant Technical Skills page.
Tax Tips For Farmers From Cash Tracks Financial Inc.
How does the IRS determine if I am a farmer? How to avoid the drought! Taxes for Farmers transcript from the The Tax Answers Advisor Blog with host Marcelino Dodge. Get more information about farmers’ taxes at the Tax Tips For Farmers web page.
Contact Us
When you need help to prepare your tax return or to solve your tax issues contact Cash Tracks Financial Inc., serving Lamar, Colorado and Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Lamar CALL: (719) 336-8739 TOLL FREE: (844) 394-4287 FAX: (719) 336-8799
117 W Beech St, Lamar, CO 81052, USA
Colorado Springs CALL: (719) 359-8789 TOLL FREE: (844) 394-4287 FAX: (719) 336-8799
525 N Cascade Ave, #200, Colorado Springs, CO 80903 USA
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