Oct. 1: Boo! Welcome to the scariest month of the year.
Screenshot from GIPHY In addition to Halloween goblins, ghouls and hundreds of kids descending on your neighborhood at the end of this month, one of the scariest October items is that countdown clock a little higher up in this column. It's a stark reminder for millions of ultimate
procrastinators — No, I'm not one this year. Amazing, I know! — that their deadline to file extended 2018 tax returns is nearly over. Don't worry. I'll remind you again as Oct. 15 nears.
But why push the deadline?
Gather all the
documents you need to file your Form 1040, including 1099s and receipts associated with your
self-employment income, be it full-time or side hustle earnings. This
tax preparation checklist can help.
Oct. 4: OK. You're ready to finally file that Form 1040 before the 15th. Great! Now make sure you don't overspend to do so. Check out
Free File.
This IRS-tax software industry partnership program that provides no-cost return prep and
e-filing option is open for business through the October extension deadline for taxpayers whose income is $66,000 or less.
Oct. 10: If your job compensation includes
tips and you received $20 or more in gratuities in September, use
Form 4070 to report them today to your employer.
Oct. 14: So another week slipped by without you filing your taxes. No judging here. I've been there. The good news this year is that today is the federal Columbus Day holiday or, in many states and cities, now designated
Indigenous People's Day. If you don't have to head into the office, it's a great chance to work on your taxes. The IRS has some
final filing tips.
Oct. 15: It's here! The absolutely, positively final filing deadline for your 2018 return. Get your Form 1040 — remember, there's now
just one tax return under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) changes — en route to the IRS today or you'll face
penalty and interest charges.
E-filers, whether using the previously mentioned Free File or a paid-for tax software package, technically have until midnight their time to hit "enter" on their computer keyboard. But I suggest you don't push that deadline. A late technical problem could turn into a costly late-filing issue.
If instead you're sending in an old-fashioned
paper return, check with your post office to make sure the envelope is postmarked today, the paper filing proof of timely tax filing.
Oct. 21: Now that your 2018 return is finally done, it's time to work on reducing your 2019 tax bill. By now, you're probably familiar with how the TCJA changed your tax filing and planning. But it never hurts to review your prior year's tax return, whether you just filed it last week or earlier in the year. It's a good foundation to look at what tax breaks you qualified for might be able to use again on this year's taxes.
Note, too, that inflation has upped many tax-related actions. The income tax earnings
brackets have been expanded a bit. So have the
standard deduction amounts.
And definitely look at how much you can put this year into tax-favored
retirement savings and
medical accounts. Not only can they help lower current tax bills, they could pay off in the future.
Finally, peruse the Taxpayer Advocate Service's
Taxpayer Roadmap.
This publication, designed along the lines of a subway map, shows the
stages of a taxpayer's journey through our elaborate tax system.
Oct. 25: Those retirement and medical accounts also are part of many workplace benefit plans. Since October is the start of the annual benefits enrollment open season at lots of companies across the country, it's a good time to carefully review those employer-provided perks, such as 401(k) plans and flexible spending accounts (FSAs) for both
health and child care purposes, to make sure you make the most of your options.
Oct. 28: With more than two months left in 2019, now's is the perfect time to set up your tax deduction
bunching strategy. Here you gather potential write-offs together into one tax year to ensure you have enough qualified expenses to meet some of the popular deduction thresholds. This typically covers the itemized deductions for medical, home-related and charitable deductions.
Oct. 31: What's scarier than the ghouls and goblins wandering your neighborhood tonight? Another month of the
hurricane season.
We've been lucky so far, with only Hurricane Dorian along the eastern seaboard and
Tropical Storm Imelda in Texas causing major damages. But with a month officially left, we
can't let down our storm guards.
The countdown clock below can help you track the days until the formal Nov. 30 end of the annual hurricane season.
You also can find tips on getting ready, physically and financially, for hurricanes, as well as tax help for recovery efforts and tax deductions for donations to those who are hit by natural disasters at the ol' blog's
Storm Warnings pages.
Small Business Tax Calendar: Important
filing, deposit and record keeping dates throughout the year that your company needs to know. You can get more tax calendar information at the IRS'
online calendar page and view the full year's important business and individual tax dates in
IRS Pub. 509.
Very STRANGE that these defenders of Bush tax cuts for the WEALTHY are ignorant of the FACT, rich people don't create the jobs-they OUTSOURCE them overseas, so screw the Wealthy NOW!
Stimulate the middle-class or what is left of it from GOP incompetence, after the investment to middle & poor the economy will be stimulated & credit will be restored as they would be paid off immediately, Small Business will have seed or additional capital to hire & research & invest in their company, rather than HOARD it for interest accumulation from bank accounts for wealthy & Big Corporations. Middle Class & Poor WILL SPEND, we would spend on items that would keep economy going rather than buying just ELITIST priced products that don't stimulate much other than the RepubliCON Elitist items @ outrageous pricing.
Remove ALL American tax payer subsidies to Corporations that are OUTSOURCING American jobs, take property & wealth from those tax evaders & put those Billionaires & Millionaires & Big Corporations CEO's in PRISON for TAX EVASION and NEVER give Amnesty to those rich people AGAIN. How sad we tax payers are imprisoned for tax evasion or lesser crimes, but AMNESTY to wealthy, WHY? Don't they have the money to pay it, if not WHY not? Any American company that has corporation headquarters overseas should NOT be recognized as an American company, that is CROOKED & it is TAX EVASION! Halliburton for example HQ in Dubai!
I challenge any RepubliCON to this debate, YOU WILL LOSE. WHY? Because America has YET to see any rich people put American workers to work that is why we have such a HUGE Deficit and economical collapse, RICH people don't trickle down the wealthy(Reagan SCAM). The CEO's & Top Executives & Investors get rich, but the hourly workers pay has only stagnated or been OUTSOURCED, why then is our job loss reaching 18 million & only less than 3 million created under GOP & Bush for the past 8 years and GOP Big Corporations are still OUTSOURCING. Really patriotic, don't you think? And to hear GOP & Dems say those jobs will never come back, I say B.S, REMOVE the subsidies and TAX those outsourcing corporations, TAX them 80% & prior to allowing a company to file for Bankruptcy, force the TOP salaries to relinquish their pay to a minimum salary of $250,000 while the company recoups. Tax breaks for American Corporations that hire American workers and provide top benefits.
Our economy will come back, ASAP. WHY? RepubliCON run companies would rather LEACH off of the tax payer funding than rely on the pathetic pennies of investment, would we see the real picture of PROFIT vs LOSS.
Posted by: Government Corruption | Wednesday, August 25, 2010 at 03:18 PM
Jeff, I've gone through my comments section and I don't have any unposted comments from you. This is the first one that's shown up. I'm sorry you think I'm not posting comments. The only ones I ever disallow are unsupported rants and offensive comments. Maybe there was a glitch in the system. If you want to try again, I'll be on the lookout for your comments. Kay
Posted by: Kay | Friday, August 20, 2010 at 08:40 AM
You don't "really" want the discussion to begin. I have posted twice and you refuse to even allow my comments. Although my comments were correct and I don't think you could dispute them. But they didn't promote the democrat/socialist agenda.
Jeff Day EA
Evansville, IN
Posted by: Jeffrey A Day | Friday, August 20, 2010 at 07:15 AM
For the last 15 years I've worked as a software engineer in various small startups.
Every single one has been started or backed by a wealthy person who had funds to gamble on a risky startup. Most lost their money.
I've never been in a software company that benefited from any government largess.
Taking money that rich people could invest in startups and giving it to the government to be used mostly for retirement pay hurts me.
Posted by: Jim Howard | Thursday, August 19, 2010 at 03:36 PM