July 1: In a normal year, most of us would be celebrating the end of school years, planning summer vacations and generally loving life. As has been long noted, both here on the ol' blog and elsewhere, this is not a normal year and especially not when it comes to taxes.
In fact, this July is the new April. Due to
COVID-19 disruptions and precautions, Tax Day 2020 was moved to
July 15. With that due date on the fast-approaching horizon, let's get cracking!
July 3 & 4: Happy 244th Birthday, America!
This is one of the problems with moving Tax Day to July. It immediately gets interrupted by celebrating the United States' creation. That birth was
spurred in part by taxes, so take a break and celebrate. Since July 4 this year falls on Saturday,
Friday, July 3 also is an official federal holiday. So we get two days of partying, safely, of course, both when it comes to fireworks and coronavirus social distancing.
July 6: Welcome back to the real and tax world. With the sparklers and bottle rockets done, it's time to focus on July 15. Not only is the due date for your 2019 tax return, there are other
tax tasks to take care of by this mid-July deadline. These added tax moves include filing an old tax return, making 2020 estimated tax payments, contributing to retirement and medical saving accounts, dealing with tax notices and taking care of your state taxes.
July 8: As you finish up (or start) your 2019 tax return, this
checklist can help you ensure you have all the documents you need to file your
Form 1040 and its now just three (instead of six) schedules.
July 10: Most restaurants across the country closed earlier this year due to COVID-19. Some opened, then reclosed as the virus resurged. And many eateries simply stuck with take-out meals and deliveries. Whether you're able to dine in or still getting food brought to your house, remember to tip your server or delivery person.
If a tip isn't included in your food delivery charge, click the image above to calculate how much to tip the person who brought it to you.
As for servers who now are back on the job, remember that your
tips are taxable income. If you worked at least some of June at a job where you got gratuities, you need to account for them today if they came to at least $20 last month. Use
Form 4070 to report your tips today to your employer.
July 13: Still working on or finishing up your 2019 tax return? Check out the filing pieces of advice in the ol blog's monthly tax tips pages, one each for
January,
February,
March,
April,
May,
June and, finally,
July.
July 15: Finally, Tax Day 2020 is here.
.
You've got until midnight tonight (your local time) to electronically file your 1040. The IRS can help you do that
and save money with
Free File, the IRS/tax software industry partnership that offers eligible taxpayers access to online tax preparation programs and federal return e-filing at no cost.
This year 10 software companies are participating at IRS.gov's
Free File webpage. It's available for taxpayers with adjusted gross income of $69,000 or less regardless of filing status. If you make too much to use the online software, look into using Free File's fillable forms.
And if you just can't finish your 1040, send the IRS instead
Form 4868 to get until Oct. 15 to file your return. Remember, though your must pay any due tax with your extension request.
July 20: Whew! Now that filing is done (except for us procrastinators on extension) and you've had a few days to get settled, it's time to take care of your tax records. You need to hang onto some
filing paperwork just in case the IRS has follow-up questions.
July 24: When you filed your taxes, either this month or earlier in the year, did you get or are you now expecting a big refund? Or did the other tax possibility happen and you ended up owing Uncle Sam a lot more than you expected? Then it's time for a
paycheck checkup and possibly
adjust your payroll withholding.
July 28: An immediate review of your 2020 filing experience might have made it clear that you need personal help you’re your taxes. Start your search for a
tax professional who will work with you year round to make your tax obligations less, well, taxing.
July 31: The 2020 Atlantic/Gulf of Mexico
hurricane season got off to a
quick start, but we made it through June without a major 'cane making U.S. landfall. Still, there's no reason to get complacent.
Uncle Sam's official
forecasters at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) expect 2020 to bring as many as 19 named storms, with six to eight possibly becoming hurricanes. Three to six could reach major status, which is category 3, 4 or 5 with winds of 111 mph or higher. Regardless of the count, it only takes one to wreak havoc. The countdown clock below can help you keep track of how many more days you have to worry about tracking any size or type of tropical storms.
You also might want to check out the ol' blog's special
Storm Warnings.
These multi-page collections of posts offer tax advice on preparing for, recovering from and helping those who sustain damages from the many ways that that weather goes wild.
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