PREPARING TAX RETURNS FOR CLIENTS TO FILE - APRIL 15 IS COMING

 Still working on tax returns for clients. I managed to get all of the ones for certain types of businesses out by March 15, while at the same time dealt with getting out sales tax returns by March 20 when they were due.

Now I am working on individual tax returns and our business's return which are all due for April 15. I have returns for two clients in house to work on. I have another client who is late with her returns – how late? Well I just did her 2019 – if she does not file it this year she will lose a sizable refund. I am hoping to get her to send me the information for 2020, 2021 as well as for 2022 so I can get her caught up and get her all of those refunds.

So hopefully all three of these returns will be done and out in the mail this weekend. I have one other client (it is a very small practice – actually the tail end of two practices) who I have not yet heard from, but she is local so I do not need to have weeks of lead time to make sure she gets her return in time.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

You know that you have to file your taxes. Don't put it off if you have all the info you need. If you don't have all the info you need – GET THE INFO and get it done.

Most people get a refund – why let the government keep YOUR money any longer than needed? If you owe money – okay, you can wait until April 15 – but make sure it is in and if you are mailing it make sure that the mailing is postmarked that day, even if you need to stand in that LONG line at the Post office to make sure. If you can't file on time – send in an extension – but make sure that you pay with the extension what you think you will owe - Penalties and interest on money you owe can add up quickly and an extension does not give you more time to pay – only to file the return.

MONEY IN BANK ACCOUNT TO BE TAKEN AWAY DUE TO AN ERROR AND WHEN IT IS DONE IS BEFORE THE NOTICE WAS EVEN SENT!!

 Husband and I have a checking account which we use only for having money sent to us through Internet sites – Etsy, Square, Paypal and the like.  Our idea was that we did not want to give out our checking account information to site after site after site… and make our checking account vulnerable to  hacking of so many sites.  It is at a separate bank than our main account.  

When money comes into this account it sits in the account a short while – to make sure that there is no problems with it and then I write a check on this account and deposit it into our main account.  Easy as can be and has worked for well over a decade.  

In November my husband sold a piece of craft equipment he was no longer using to someone on one of the various sites he is on and chats/posts with other people.  The person paid through one of these of these sites (which will remain nameless).  The sale was made back in September.  She paid, we shipped the item, she liked it, several weeks passed and I wrote a check for the amount we received from her (after the site took their fees) and we deposited it in our main checking account.  Something we have done so many, many times over the years with no problems.

Husband received an email from the person – she received her credit card bill and did not recognize our name and protested it as not hers.  She then (a day or so later) realized it was what she paid us and contacted her bank to stop the protest – too late.  

The same day husband received a notice from the company involved that there had been a protest and they would be taking back the money gave us  - plus the amount they had taken from it for fees (so they are taking back more than they gave us – they would take the money back in 1 to 2 days, which might be delayed by the recent (U.S.) holiday.  I envisioned the check to our main bank bouncing and fees from both banks.  Both of us were ill from this problem.  I checked the balance in this account and the transfer to our main had gone through successfully.  This meant that there was not enough money in the our “transfer” checking account to cover the return of the money to the company which had paid it to us.  I wrote a check on our main account and we ran to the bank to deposit it back into the original account.  Should not have a problem as it was to take a day or so – maybe even longer for the transfer to occur – right?

No, the company that transferred the money to us had actually attempted to take back the money from our account before they sent us the notice that they were going to do so (in the near future) !  Our bank refused the transaction as there was not enough money in the account and charged us US$30 fee for their inconvenience in doing so.  I don't blame them – though I was surprised at the size of the fee.

Over this past extended weekend it dawned on us that the company involved would try again and the amount we had deposited back was short $30 due to the fee.  So we went to our main bank to withdraw $100 in cash from the ATM to deal with this.  Of course the bank door would not open with our ATM cards!  We went to another ATM at another branch of our main bank and was able to withdraw the money.  We then drove to the bank where we needed to deposited the money and did so through their ATM.  Luckily this worked and the money was in the account in case there was a second attempt.

Yesterday we went to the bank with the problem.  We met with one of the “platform” employees and I went through the timeline of the event and asked politely – and he refunded the fee to our account. (We NEVER bounce checks or have problems such as this – a good reputation helps a great deal when asking for something like this.)

So we were now at the point that the money was back in the original checking account.  We had the US$10 balance we normally leave in the account to keep it open plus the extra hundred dollars we put in over the weekend.  We left the account like that.

During all of this husband had filled an appeal with all of the information which had happened about the original sale, the person's accidental cancellation and notice to her bank that it had been an error and to pay us.  Reply to same that it would take a period of time (I forget how long – two weeks to a month perhaps) to research the situation and make a determination and that in the interim – the money would not be taken.

Today husband received an email from the company that did the money transfer for us and again it said that the money would be removed from our account in 1-2 days.  They did so, again before the email telling us this was sent to us- so they now have the money back.  

Husband then received a reply to his appeal – they need more information from the buyer's bank and he is trying to get same.  

Our decision was that from now on any money received through this account will sit this at least a month before we transfer it to prevent this from happening again.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
Just because money has been received by third party credit and is in your bank account does not mean that the money will stay there.  Allow extra time for it sit in the account – just in case something goes wrong.  Always keep good financial records so if there is a problem you can back track and prove it to the bank or whoever else needs to be shown what happened.

PREPARING TO DEAL WITH THE CORONA VIRUS IN AN ORGANIZED MANNER

I am not a medically trained person, but I have to talk about the corona virus as it related to being organized. So, do not take anything I say as medical advise, I am just talking doing things sensibly and what I have learned from life over the decades.

I tend not to panic quickly. My husband leans the other way. So I have been working very hard at not saying anything to get him started. But there are realities to the situation that must be dealt with.

I was suppose to go to NYC to a client this week to deliver her corporation taxes and help her mail them out, do her books, and calculate the amount of of sales and sales taxes owed on them for the year ending February 29 so I could go home and file her sales taxes online – as they have to be. I was not happy at the thought of going to Manhattan even before some cases of the corona virus came to the NYC metropolitan area – including in my home county, but I needed to go. My husband was in a panic of my going. I told him that I had figured I would wear a pair of disposable plastic gloves from my car, on the subway and walking until I was at the client and inside. I would then turn the gloves inside out as I took them off and throw them out. I would then put on a second pair – carried in my briefcase – to come back to my car and toss them out the same way when I got back to my car. He was still upset. I finally gave in and mailed the tax returns to the client after calling her and telling her I would do so. I also asked her for her February sales so I could prepare and file her sales tax return. I completed the corporation return and it was mailed to her this past Monday – due the end of the week on Friday. I then prepared and filed her sales tax return and told the state to debit her bank account (the only way to pay the sales taxes) on this coming Monday, so that on the off chance she did not have enough money in her bank account she would have time to get some money into the account. Today I telephoned her and she had just received the tax forms so I was able to help with the returns and I also told her how much to subtract from her checking account for the sales taxes. Breath a deep sign of relief. I was sure that the tax forms would go astray or she would have would have problems dealing with them alone. While I wanted to ignore the threat of the Corona Virus and go to work – I was realistic about it and made my husband feel better.

Last Sunday when we went to Costco and Bjs as we do for something to do on Sundays, they were no longer handing out samples at Costco for fear of the corona virus and large sections of the store – mostly paper goods - were empty. He had planned on buying more toilet paper despite our having at least half a huge package we bought a couple of months ago there and was starting to panic that they did not have same. The store was also limiting how much of certain items one could buy. We drove up the road to Bjs (a similar type of store) and were able to buy his package of toilet paper. They were not as sold out as Costco was. Apparently there have been major runs on toilet paper. When husband brought up buying more I mentioned that we had most of the package yet – but he insisted. Per a segment on a news show, apparently it is considered a comfort item that makes people feel better to have an excess of.

He has also been looking for hand sanitizer (We have two large, unopened bottles, plus a started one, the smaller bottles that we transfer it to for use, two very small bottles that we carry in our pockets (which normally do not have to constantly be refilled – but right now are refilled nightly), and, as I pointed out to him, whatever we have in the house of items like this – is also in our little RV.

Over the recent years we have become rather bad at food shopping. While I used to keep a list on our refrigerator of what I needed to buy, would check for sales & try to buy food items on sale, and would do regular shopping (Mondays for the week, Fridays to fill in any extra for the weekend) that has all slowly disappeared since husband is home with me all the time. We have gotten to the point that other than stocking up before storms, we basically eat lunch (at Wendys) and then go out to buy “something for dinner”. We have gotten to the point where we basically have 3 or 4 dinners we make, buy deli turkey once a week for dinner and eat out (or take in Chinese food) Friday through Sunday. So deciding what to buy and shopping for it without getting him into a panic was not easy.

I brought up the idea after dinner the night before - rather off hand “I guess we should have some extra food in the house just in case.” At lunch I brought up the subject again. As we left from lunch he asked where I wanted to go for the food – we food shop at Walmart Neighborhood Market, at different supermarkets, and at a regular Walmart (same are smaller here than elsewhere) which is next to a supermarket which by default is the one we normally shop at. At the same time that the corona virus is starting to spread – our state's law on stores not using the standard lightweight plastic bags went into effect on March 1. So people are panic shopping and learning to deal with bringing bags (or buying them at the store – although our county was not one of the ones requiring a fee per bag, stores are allowed to charge for the bags – and they do – better we should have a fee as it would be cheaper than stores are charging for the bags) at the same time.

I suggested we go to the Neighborhood Market first as we tend to buy items that do not need to be refrigerated there. It was like it had been announced that a 2 week long snow storm was coming. Shelves and refrigerated cases were empty. (Then again, this store over the past several months has not had full shelves – and cans are often dented and boxes look like they had been stepped on.) We bought what we could find. We were looking for the soups that husband has before dinner (½ can of either Campbells Chicken Noodle or Vegetable soups) or the heavier soups that he likes if we eat lunch home (Campbells Split Pea, or Progresso Lentil) We bought cereal (we have for late night snack) and some items as we could find them – the soup shelves were almost empty so we bought what we could and moved on. I did have enough bags in the store with us for the purchases. (I have been keeping the bags when we get them - and using them for other things - so we have years worth of plastic bags and before that I saved the paper bags. I am combining the contents bags that we use in the bathrooms and bedroom for garbage pails liners so 1- 2 bags are tossed out with the garbage of all 4 pails.) He has started panicking over having hand soup also and this Walmart did not have – any.

We drove to the supermarket and stopped in at the small Walmart next to it first to see if it had the common items – soup and hand soup – that the Neighborhood Market did not – neither did this store.

In the supermarket the “what should we buy to eat” started. I bought at least 2 weeks worth of the foods we actually eat. I had actually come up with 4 meals to be repeated and that would still leave us 6 meals short. We bought eggs – not something we ordinarily eat, but could be used for lunch or dinner or in one of the cake mixes we bought – if we end up stuck in, something to eat that we should not eat, if not – they will keep for holiday dinners. Made sure to buy enough diet soda to last. We bought a loaf of bread = I was actually surprised that they were not out. I knew I was low on some frozen vegetables and we bought some to fill in. (Good thing basement freezer is running again.) Bought some potatoes as I had stews on the list of things to cook.

So we have a good start – but going to the stores and seeing the shelves empty put him into panic mode. He is trying to over come same, but it not easy. We wrote up a new list and will go out tomorrow to buy some more items.

We renewed the only medications we take that were not recently renewed.

We don't plan on being stuck in the house - but if we are, we can go for at least two weeks now. We need to keep up filling what we use to keep the 2 weeks of food in the house.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK – Prepare but don't panic. Government divisions in the most countries seem to be acting properly and making decisions as needed and telling people what to do without overdoing it and causing panic.

While instructions and information seem to vary, good common sense is your best friend.

In articles I have read about the world wide flu epidemic  in 1917 there were considerably less deaths in the US and other countries which shut down places that large numbers of people would be than those, such as England, which did not. So avoid crowded places as much as you can.

You know the rest – you have been hearing it on the TV and radio – wash your hands frequently and/or use hand sanitizer frequently. Apparently even just rubbing your hands together vigorously if nothing else is available will help.

We will get through this as people have gotten through epidemics back to the start of history. I hope that you and yours will get this as easily and with as few problems as possible.