Your paycheck holds a lot of important information, but for most people, as long as the money is coming in, the actual paystub is out-of-sight and out-of-mind. The fact is, your paystub can be the difference between a tax refund or bill at tax time, as well as a playing a key role in getting a loan, or even verifying your identity in the fight against tax fraud. Below are the Top 3 Reasons why it’s a good idea to make sure you have access to your paystubs, either online or in hardcopy, and why it’s important to check them periodically.
Getting a Refund vs. Owing Money at a Tax Time: Changes in tax laws, marital status, or even a slight bump in your income that puts you in a higher tax bracket can unwittingly leave you owing money at the end of they ear when you used to see a refund. The best way to prevent this from happening is to periodically look at your paystub to see exactly how much is being taken out of each one based on your “withholding allowances.” Unfortunately, withholding is one of those things that is usually set up on the first day of a new job as part of the paperwork, and never looked at again. There are basic guidelines about who should claim how many allowances based on your number of dependents, Head of Household status, but with so many people working second or part-time jobs, or joint filers with spouses who work, the standard guidelines don’t always make sense if you want to avoid owing money at tax time. See our previous post about where on your paycheck you’ll find your withholding elections, and if too much or too little is being taken out every month, you should fill out a new form W-4. The sooner you do it, the smaller the adjustment needs to be to rebalance your tax debt to your preference.
Identity Theft & Fraud Prevention: With the widespread tax fraud across the country this year—particularly with respect to unemployment, paystubs have taken on even greater importance. As efforts increase at both the state and federal level to guard against tax fraud, paystubs are among the documents being requested to verify identity. For this reason, we are urging clients to make sure they have a copy of their last paystub of the year readily available—either electronically or in hard copy. We have seen instances where processing tax returns has been denied until these documents are produced.
Income Verification: There are seemingly mountains of documents that lenders require when applying for a loan—whether it’s a mortgage, Home Equity line of credit, or a personal loan. Paystubs are just part of the equation, but lenders want to know that you’ve got money coming in so you’ll be able to pay them back for the money going out. Depending on the frequency with which you get paid, they may ask for two or more paystubs, but regardless how many, they must be the most recent ones. Having easy access to your paystubs is one step toward making the process easier.
Another strange tax season is upon us, and with a keen focus on keeping our staff and clients safe and healthy so we can continue working, we have put safety measures in place for folks who need to visit our office to drop off their documents. We thank you in advance for your understanding and patience while we all await a time when we can see each other face-to face.
In the meantime, if you must come to our office, kindly follow the protocol below:
Please put on a mask before you come in to our building.
When you enter our office space you will immediately see a table with a box, some pens, 9 x 12 envelopes, and instructions.
If you have questions, please put them in writing and include them with your documents. Staff will not be able to answer any questions at drop off.
If you have brought your documents in a folder, please put them in an envelope, seal it, write your name on the outside and place it in the box.
If your documents are already in an envelope, just make sure your name is on the outside and place it in the box.
The drop box will be emptied, and the area sanitized, every half hour.
Staff will not be available to assist you at drop off, so please do not go past the table or enter any of the offices.
Kindly be patient. Once we have your information, you can rest assured we will contact you to address any issues, or to arrange for you to sign and pick up as soon as we can.
We appreciate that it can be frustrating if you just have a quick question you need answered, but we ‘ll be much better equipped to address your specific question after we have reviewed all of your information for this year. For now, avoiding any in-person contact between clients and staff is the best way we can provide you with the service you deserve by keeping everyone safe so we can stay open.
As recently as January 13th, 2021, IRS updated the IRS Operations During COVID-19 page with details about ongoing service delays. Specifically, the page opens with:
“We’re open and processing mail, tax returns, payments, refunds and correspondence. However, COVID-19 continues to cause delays in some of our services. Our service delays include:
• Live phone support • Processing tax returns filed on paper • Answering mail from taxpayers • Reviewing tax returns, even for returns filed electronically”
In other words, pretty much everything is delayed, and trying to get answers will continue to be difficult for the foreseeable future, particularly as processing this year’s returns gets underway.
With many IRS employees continuing to work remotely, the mountains of paper mail delivered to their regular locations have continued to pile up. the few employees allowed in those buildings are doing their best to address as much of the backlog as they can, but it’s slow going without the manpower on site. as It’s kind of like the sports stadiums we are seeing designed to hold tens f thousands of people, with only a few hundred in the stands.
There are other helpful resources available through the IRS website, however, including a page dedicated to stimulus payments, and, when the time comes, the “Where’s my refund?” link.
We’ll be keeping up to date with IRS communications as they are released and sharing relevant information we find for you this tax season.
With the fallout from COVID-19 affecting every taxpayer this year—whether it’s a change in employment status or pay fluctuations amid the pandemic—we wanted to take a minute to once again stress the importance of checking your pay stubs on a regular basis to ensure that your withholding is as you want it to be.
Many of our clients experienced sticker shock when the Tax cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 skewed the tax tables, and their withholding elections left them unexpectedly owing money.
We know that most people receive their payroll check through direct deposit, and paystubs are usually issued by e-mail these days. As a result, most pay stubs go unchecked, and unfortunately by the time the withholding deficit is discovered it’s already the following year—and too late to do anything about it.
To avoid this, we recommend making a habit of checking your pay stubs every month to verify the withholdings are per your instructions—even if you are not not paid via direct deposit.
And if you need to make adjustments, you can contact your HR benefits people to fill out a new w-4.
Let’s face it: we’ve just said goodbye to a year like no other. And though it’s “officially” over, we are continuing to adapt our best practices to align with the changing tax laws, as well as the most up-to-date health and safety guidelines. With the benefit of our clients in mind, we’ve put together the list below to help ensure that we keep things running smoothly and efficiently this season, despite the limitations we are all facing.
You do not need to contact our office to request that a Tax Year Organizer be sent to you. Tax Organizers will be delivered by regular mail or uploaded on the portal, depending on how you have received them previously. Our only automated delivery method for organizers is via the portal. Keep an eye out for an e-mail from Secure File Pro indicating your organizer has been placed in your portal folder.
Make sure you are on our e-mail list! We know that everyone gets too many e-mails, but this is still the fastest and most effective way for us to communicate with clients, and we generally send no more than two e-mails per month. If we do not currently have your preferred e-mail address, then please take a minute to sign up for our email list or update your information through the opt-in link on our website home page or by sending your first and last name and e-mail address to: [email protected].
We will begin e-filing on January 27, 2021. With IRS staffing shortages, processing could take longer than usual this year, so we are aiming to get a jump on the season by starting our clients’ e-filings as soon as we can.
Provide us with all your information, all at one time. Missing or incorrect information, or information that comes in piecemeal causes hiccups that may cause your return to get pushed back. The Organizer we send out is the best tool we have to aid us in processing your return. The more accurate and complete the organizer is, the quicker we can file your return.
Be sure to include Our 2020 Income Tax Checklist with your paperwork. We created this checklist because we have learned that if a return is delayed because any of these items are missing it can take up to nine months to correct since IRS access is limited due to offices being closed and employees working remotely. This form must be completed in order for us to process your tax return.
Collect any questions you have about your return and include them in writing with your organizer. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to answer questions outside of the time that we are dedicating to your individual return. For this reason, we ask that any questions you have be submitted on a separate sheet along with your paperwork. That way we can address them and provide answers while we have your information in hand and eliminate the guesswork!
Keep your medical receipts—literally. If you think your medical and dental expenses in 2020 might be high enough to deduct, please add up what you spent, and provide us only the total amount. Sending us your receipts can not only jeopardize the privacy of your records, but it will delay processing your return since we do not have the staff to add them up on your behalf.
Visit our website for office updates. Due to the pandemic we have changed how we operate in this new climate. To keep our employees and clients safe and minimize the potential spread of the COVID-19 virus, we will not be having in person appointments, but we will be establishing a safe and secure drop off and pickup protocol for you and will post it on our website. Our newsletter will be the main line of communication as the COVID regulations for businesses change, so please make sure you are on the list!
Please be patient. We have put a lot of thought into how we can tackle this tax season with as few speedbumps as possible. And like so many of you, we—and the IRS— continue to work within the limitations of health and safety guidelines. We sincerely appreciate your patience as we work to get your returns taken care of quickly and accurately!
We are confident that these steps will help all of us get through this unusual tax season with ease.
