It is with great sadness that we share the news of the recent passing of our long-time colleague and friend, Ed Greenlaw.
Ed has been apart of the Business Bookkeeping Services family fro 37 years. We will miss his sense of humor, his dedication to his work, and the proud stories he shared of his grandchildren.
Our deepest sympathies go out to Ed’s many friends and family as we all grieve the loss of this great man. Boston Globe Obituary — Ed Greenlaw
With the global pandemic causing record-breaking job losses and wreaking havoc on our economy, it can be tempting to withdraw large amounts of cash from your IRA to have on hand. But before you raid your IRA at any time, we encourage you to think carefully about how much you actually need.
Individual Retirement accounts are are designed to provide additional financial security as we get older, but unlike a traditional bank account, access to the money in these accounts—particularly in times of financial crisis—can come at a significant cost.
For this year, the CARES Act has eased some restrictions and penalties for qualifying individuals whose income has suffered as a result of COVID-19, like allowing taxes on IRA withdrawals to be spread over three years, but it is still recommended to exhaust other cash resources before tapping into retirement accounts for emergency funds.
Consider this: Any withdrawal from your IRA is treated as income for that year. So substantially large distribution amounts could potentially bump you into a higher tax bracket, which translates into giving up more of your hard-earned savings than you intended.
And while there are no restrictions or requirements on IRA distributions between age 60 and 70½, the more you take out, the more income tax you will pay—most likely at a higher rate than if you wait until your required minimum distributions kick in.
So before you make any additional withdrawals from your IRA, we recommend taking a moment to determine how much you actually need right now. While the idea of using your retirement account as a rainy day fund might seem attractive in the short term—particularly in uncertain times—the tax ramifications down the road can prove far more costly than riding out the storm.
Criminals are relentless in finding new ways to prey on people’s fears during this pandemic. We urge you to be vigilant in questioning any texts, emails or offers that require you to click on links, fill out surveys, or give any personal information to unknown sources. You can Google the subject line of any email to see if there are reports of it being spam or phishing.The FBI is warning people about a new stimulus check scam where people receive a text message, supposedly from Costco, offering “$110 goodies,” and other hooks, to entice people to fill out bogus surveys. The information from these surveys can be used to steal your identity, commit financial fraud, or install malware into your computer. Here is the press release from the FBI for more information.
At this time, you should be particularly wary of any emails or texts from unknown senders concerning:
The IRS released a similar warning, as well as instructions for reporting phishing, online, and other scams. Read their message here:
content.govdelivery.com/accounts/USIRS/bulletins/284881a
The Federal Trade Commission’s consumer information page offers additional tips to avoid scams. You can access it here:
https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-recognize-and-avoid-phishing-scams
We remain hopeful that we will be able to welcome you back for in-person meetings before the end of the year, but for now, our small entry way and social distancing guidelines make that impossible. Below are some updates, as well as protocols we will be following until we are confident that neither we nor our clients are at risk of exposure to COVID-19.
We are all looking forward to the day when our doors are open and we can get back to some kind of “business as usual,” but for now, we thank you for helping us stay safe and healthy.
Ordinarily, with extra staff during tax season we are able to reach out to clients personally during tax season to make sure we have everything we need.
Unfortunately, we don’t have the resources this year to contact clients individually, so we are asking everyone who still has not sent us their documents to contact us right away so we can determine if there is still enough time to file, or if we need to file an extension for you.
Please note: We must hear from you in order to file an extension on your behalf.
Thank you again for your help as we near the finish line!
