Well, another year has passed and here we are again staring the tax filing season in the face. The IRS will begin accepting e-file returns on Monday (1-23-17) and the season officially begins. At Weech Financial, we will begin accepting 2016 tax appointments for dates beginning Monday, January 30th. We will be sending out tax year 2016 individual electronic tax organizers to our ongoing clients as well our new clients who have provided a copy of their 2015 individual income tax returns in the next couple days.
I want to share with you some tax filing deadlines to keep in mind this season. All 2016 forms W-2 for employees and forms 1099-MISC for independent contractors must be submitted to the recipient as well as the government by 1-31-17. The initial filing deadline for forms 1120S (S-corporation) and 1065 (partnership) is 3-15-17 this year. This is a change in filing deadline for forms 1065 as they have historically been due by the April filing deadline but they are now due one month sooner. The initial filing deadline for forms 1120 (C-corporation), 1040 (individual) and 1041 (fiduciary) is 4-18-17 this year. This is a change for forms 1120 as they have historically been due by the March filing deadline but are now due one month later. These returns are due on April 18th this year instead of April 15th because the 15th falls on a weekend and then Washington, DC has their Emancipation Day holiday celebrated on April 17th this year (usually celebrated on April 16th). The Washington, DC holiday affects the tax return filing deadline for the entire country.
As the tax filing deadlines always come quicker than expected, we strongly recommend that you provide us with your tax documents and information as soon as possible. For many ongoing clients, we can prepare your returns efficiently without needing to meet in person. However, we will always make time if you would prefer to meet in person, especially if you have several questions that you would like to discuss face-to-face. If you are missing certain documents, we still recommend scheduling your appointment sooner than later and then plan to provide us with the missing documents when they become available.
One last point I want to make in this blog is that the deadline for contributing to qualified organizations for each of the Arizona tax credits has been moved back to the April filing deadline and those contributions can still be claimed on your 2016 Arizona tax return. This is a change for a few of the Arizona tax credits from prior years when the contribution deadline to count toward your current year tax return was December 31st of that tax year. As such, the deadline for these contributions is now similar to the IRA contribution deadline.
We look forward to working with our ongoing clients as well as those we have been introduced to recently very soon in gathering the needed documents and information to prepare their 2016 income tax returns. For those that met with us to conduct tax planning strategy in the last few months, they can enjoy the comfort of knowing where they stand for tax year 2016 and, in most cases, having reduced their tax liability for 2016 through the strategies employed.
If you have any questions regarding the preparation of your 2016 tax returns, please contact us. We sincerely appreciate your referrals and will treat them as well as we treat you. Thanks for your patronage!