News and Updates

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The IRS officially opened up the 2021 tax filing season on January 24, 2022 but has already made statements to congress, and the public, that they expect this season to be just as complicated and aggravating as the last two years.  Just what we all wanted to hear, right?

The biggest source of frustrations for taxpayers is going to be, without a doubt, delays in refunds.  “Normally” (do people even use that word anymore?) the IRS issues federal refunds within a 21 day window of time.  However, the IRS has warned us that taxpayers should expect it to take longer due in part to the agency still having roughly 6 million unprocessed 2020 individual returns as of December 23, 2021, that have errors on the return primarily dealing with the Recovery Rebate Credit amounts.

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Matt and Ryan made the decision last summer that we’d like to have all clients provide us with a signed Power of Attorney Form 2848.  We saw the writing on the wall and knew this upcoming tax season was going to provide a whole host of challenges and to make life easier on our clients and our staff, it made sense for us to have all possible resources we need to complete your return available to us during tax time.

If you have access to your client portal, a copy of the Power of Attorney was uploaded there for you.  If you don’t use our portal then copies would have been mailed to you.

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Starting in the summer of 2022, the IRS will require all taxpayers who use the IRS website for things like access to the Child Tax Credit Update Portal, getting their tax transcript, or viewing their payment history to create an account with the third party identity verification company ID.me.

The days of just using a simple username and password are over.  Because such sensitive information can now be accessed through the IRS site, you will need to provide a government document with a photo, like your driver’s license, state ID, or passport, AND take a video selfie with your smartphone or computer.

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All of us here at Lincoln Tax Professionals want to congratulate Matt for completing and receiving his Certified Financial Planner™ designation at the end of 2021.  It was a long, arduous journey for him and we’re very proud of him for completing it.  So the next time you see his name with a CFP® at the end be sure to give him an “atta boy tiger!”

So now that he’s got it, what’s he going to do with it?  I’m glad you asked. Later this summer, due to federal and state regulations around financial planning, we’ll be introducing our sibling company, Cadence Planning.  We’ll have more information as we get closer to opening up that side of the business but we wanted to let our clients who are looking for more in depth financial planning know who we are.  If you have questions about how we’ll operate financial planning, or just want to get on our client wait list, please feel free to reach out to us by phone or email.

As we’re sure you’re aware, the past year and a half living under a global pandemic has been unbelievably challenging for everyone. It has been exceptionally difficult for us as preparers navigating complex new tax laws and provisions, incorporated in the middle of tax season no less. One of the biggest challenges we’ve had during this time is dealing with an already under-funded, technologically deprived, and short-staffed IRS. Issues that would, in non-pandemic years, take us a few days to resolve now take weeks or even months. Add to it the US Mail delays affecting tax documents from being delivered and it truly has been a recipe for frustration. At times this season we’ve felt helpless in being able to assist our clients.

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As part of the American Rescue Plan Act that was signed into law in March, the IRS is required to assist taxpayers with children by making periodic, and non-taxable, advance payments from July through December of 2021.  These payments will be equal to half of what the IRS estimates eligible taxpayers will receive in child tax credit when they file their 2021 return next year in 2022.

Letters were/are being sent to families, based on their 2019 or 2020 filed returns Adjusted Gross Income (or who used non-filer tools to register for economic impact payments), letting you know of your eligibility and an estimate of what the monthly payment will be.

Payments will begin being direct deposited or sent via paper check starting July 15th and will arrive every month around that time depending on weekends and holidays.  So when you see a deposit in your bank account from the IRS and you may not be sure why, it’s the Child Tax Credit advance payment.

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The RELIEF Act of 2021 is an emergency economic impact and tax relief package that will provide more than $1 billion for Maryland working families, small businesses, and those who have lost their jobs as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

RELIEF Act Economic Impact Payments

The RELIEF Act includes direct economic impact payments for low to moderate income Maryland taxpayers who filed for and received the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on their 2019 Maryland State Tax Return. These economic impact payments will be issued by the Maryland Comptroller to all qualified taxpayers. No application is necessary to receive this relief.

Relief payments will be made to Maryland residents who claimed and received the EITC on their 2019 Maryland state tax return. Maryland taxpayers who claimed and received the Earned Income Tax Credit had the following annual earnings: 

• $50,954 ($56,844 married filing jointly) with three or more qualifying children;
• $47,440 ($53,330 married filing jointly) with two qualifying children;
• $41,756 ($47,646 married filing jointly) with one qualifying child;
• $15,820 ($21,710 married filing jointly) with no qualifying children

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