Category: Taxes and Retirement

The recently passed Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) creates a new federal emergency paid leave benefits program where eligible workers will receive a benefit for a month (up to three months) in which they must take 14 or more days of leave from their work due to the qualifying…

[Update] - With the multi-round Coronavirus stimulus relief payments being paid out based on past year(s) tax return data (or SSI payment data), there has been a spike in emails, text and telephone scams where criminals are purporting to be from the IRS or Treasury asking for you to provide…

[Latest Update] In addition to the FFCRA act, Congress has now passed a much larger fiscal stimulus bill (the third one) aimed at addressing the rapidly deteriorating jobs and economic situation as the Coronavirus related shutdown continues. The new stimulus package is nearly $2 Trillion (that's right, 12 zeros!) and…

With the Coronavirus shutting down several public institutions and forcing teleworking for millions of government employees, the IRS has announced, under the national emergency provision to tackle the Coronavirus, that they will postpone the April 15 tax-payment deadline by 90 additional days. This will affect and likely help millions of…

The Internal Revenue Service today advised that high-deductible health plans (HDHPs) can pay for 2019 Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19)-related testing and treatment, without jeopardizing their status. This also means that an individual with an HDHP that covers these costs may continue to contribute to a health savings account (HSA). In Notice 2020-15,…

Per Trump's order (see below) to suspend employee payroll taxes for 2020 and defer them to 2021, many eligible workers will enjoy a temporary boost to their paychecks in 2020. See this article for more details on how this is implemented per IRS guideline. The employee payroll tax break is equivalent…

2020 Coronavirus Tax Refund Delays (This is a live article that is updated regularly) As the Coronavirus impact widens we are already seeing major hits to the real economy that will take the US into a recession in 2020 and into 2021. While stock markets are falling rapidly (don’t panic…

The title of this article sums up a theme from irate tax payers who complain that people should be annoyed when they receive a tax refund, not happy! The premise behind this is that a refund is basically the IRS giving you back your money that you "loaned" the IRS…

5 reasons your tax refund will be delayed

As the IRS notes, for nine out of ten tax filers it takes a maximum of 21 days to receive a tax refund (when eligible) after their tax return has been accepted. But this is still just an estimate based on past IRS refund schedules and not a guarantee. Further…

With tax season in full swing the main source of frustration for most Americans filing taxes in 2018-19 is around their tax refund. Namely why it's taking so long to get paid and subsequently why it is lower than expected There are lots of reasons for this and over the…

Technology and Tax Software were supposed to have made tax filing more efficient and refunds (where applicable) faster. But thanks to the slew of tax changes from Trumps' tax code reforms and recent IRS employee cutbacks the software developers at the state and federal tax agencies and at tax software…

If you are frustrated with delays in getting your tax refund and the inability to get a straight answer from the IRS, then take some small solace that you are not alone. In fact per the Taxpayer Advocate Services's Annual Report to Congress this IRS’s Failure to Answer the Right…