Tis the season! No, not the holiday season – that’s done and gone. It’s the most wonderful time of the year (well, I guess that is debatable, as well). Like clockwork, tax season arrives each year whether we like it or not. Even with the recent federal partial government shutdown, the IRS began accepting tax returns, as scheduled, Monday (January 28th) this week. Most of the IRS staff had been furloughed when the partial shutdown began and all have been restored to activity this week. Even had the shutdown not ended on Friday last week, most of the IRS employees involved in processing current year tax returns had been ordered back to work this week anyway. Now, because the shutdown ended, all IRS employees are back to work, including those in the audit and collections departments. You may or may not appreciate that part, depending on whether you have any current issues with the IRS.
We begin taking client appointments next week for the 2018 tax return filing season. We have our seasonal staff reporting for duty beginning this week and continuing into the next 1-2 weeks. We are ramping up for the season and are excited to work with our existing clients once again and to welcome new clients.
The new tax law is a mixed bag, indeed. It giveth and it taketh away. A few of the highlights are lower income tax rates across all tax brackets, a nearly double standard deduction, loss of the personal exemption deduction, increased child tax credit with related increased income phaseout threshold, loss of the moving expense deduction (except for those in the military), loss of the employee-related business expense deduction and a new 20% net income deduction for business owners.
If you have questions regarding the new tax law and how it might affect your 2018 and future year tax return bottom line, please contact us. We encourage our clients to provide their tax information sooner rather than later so that we have ample time to complete your returns timely and well in advance of the March and April business and individual filing deadlines.