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Hiring an Accountant This Tax Season · Money In Motion with Klaas Financial

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This is Money in Motion with Class Financial, a fun and informative show designed
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to help you get answers to all your retirement questions in one place. And
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you know when you hear the ojays, that means the phone lines they are
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open for you right now. Get you on the air with our retirement planning
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professionals from Class Financial, CJ. Closs and Malia Quavis. The telephone number
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here at the station six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six
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oh eight three two one thirteen ten. Love to get you on the air
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this morning with your question don't forget. You can learn more about Coss Financial
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on their website Coss Financial dot com. That's Klaas Financial dot com. Great
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website to learn more about Colss Financial, their team, the different divisions,
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separate divisions at Coss Financial, how they can help you or as an employer.
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Some great options there to learn about again all at Cossfinancial dot com and
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you can listen back to the podcast all online. Tell Phan over for the
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office right here in Madison six oh eight four four two five six three seven.
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Note charge for that initial gets new you appointment tech costs financial. It
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will beat complimentary to you again their number six oh eight four four two five,
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six three seven, And then I'm going to get on the air this
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morning six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's three two one thirteen
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ten. And again joining us this week are our retirement planning professionals CJ.
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Claws and Malia Quavis. CJ. How you doing this morning? I'm doing
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great. Happy Thursday. Happy Thursday to you, my friend. And Malia,
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how are you doing on this foggy morning? It is the big thought.
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It's not a good day to ice fish, sean, So do not
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go out there, no, noted. I'll have to tell you a story
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from years ago and h Certain News director Robin Colbert was my boss and said,
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hey, you should go out and interview those people out on the lake
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next to open water. And I said, Robin, do you not want
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me around? I just told you the whole story there I hit hit,
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yes exactly. We've got We've got a really you know, we talk about
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this time of year. I know a lot of folks are getting tax information.
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We're going to be talking tax seasons, of course, filling out your
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taxes and of course planning for for this upcoming year as well when it comes
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to taxes. We've got a great conversation ahead with CJ and Malia. Again
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it's an open conversation. It's a great opportunity as well if anything ever pops
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into your head, you've got questions, we'd love to hear from you,
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and have you joined the show six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
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That's three two one thirteen ten. The website for COSS Financial coss financial dot
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com that's k laa ask Financial dot com and their telephone number six oh eight
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four four two five six three seven. A lot of great stuff and great
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information on the program. Another great thing that goes on is the coss Quiz
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question leak chance for you to win a twenty five dollars gift card from our
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friends at Costs Financial. This week's a gift card is for ACE Hardware.
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Little tip oftentimes the question and answer almost every time the question and answer to
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the coss Quiz question of the week comes up during the program, tell you
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a little bit more about the details on how you can exactly win that twenty
2:46
five dollars gift card to ACE Hardware a little bit later in the show.
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Little tip, though, again listen closely for a couple of reasons. One
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it's fantastic information, but also typically built the question and answer come up during
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the program, and before we get rolling on this week's talk about taxes,
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let's actually look back to last week and take a look at the Closs quiz
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question the week and the answer from that show as well. Yeah, so
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we really enjoy our topics on money in motion, and one of which is
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about how we can improve on our financial planning, our retirement planning for our
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own households and perhaps look to increase what we're putting away. So the question
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last week was, assuming you have earned income looking at twenty twenty four,
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what is the total amount you can contribute into all of your irays in twenty
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twenty four if you're over the age of fifty multiple choice? Was it eight
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thousand dollars or sixteen thousand dollars? We had a correct answer from Warren of
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Middleton. Congratulations to him. The correct answer was eight thousand dollars is the
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total amount you can put into your irase for this year? So write that
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down and listen carefully for today's question, and I will do a little bit
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later on the programming. The other cool thing Millie as Malia mentioned, just
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a fantastic conversation from last week. Don't forget if you have missed last week's
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program, you want to listen back step out of your car this morning.
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Maybe you miss part of the show or you want to share it, You
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can always head on over to Clossfinancial dot com. That's k l a as
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Financial dot com. You can subscribe to the podcast online or of course you
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can listen to individual episodes. Again, that all available to you at classfinancial
4:18
dot com. So tax season it is here. We are into the new
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year and a lot of us are thinking, okay, let's get everything in
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line, start getting ready to file our taxes. What suggestions CJD have for
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us this morning. Yeah, So we know that some people get anxious as
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time of the year. It could be because you do your own taxes and
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it just takes a lot of time to accumulate all the information, or it's
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because you're anxious about whether you're going to get a refund or owe a bunch
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of money, or maybe you had some contract income and you didn't do any
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quarterly estimates on that on here just wondering how much you're going to get whacked
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by by Uncle sam at the end of the year, and so we get
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it. We get it. But what we're going to try to do today
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is give you some insights, give you some kind of helpful information about this,
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and give you some suggestions as it relates to how best to handle this
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tax filing season. So, first things first, we want to remind our
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listeners that we're not accountants and that we don't file income taxes for our clients.
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Truth be told, we are very much formally trained in this area.
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A lot of our advisors on staff are certify financial planners and so they ultimately
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dig quite deep into the tax code as part of that training and certification,
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and so therefore we have deep knowledge, but we don't file the income tax
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return for our clients. However, we do work very closely with our client's
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accountants. Now, with that kind of disclaimer out of the way, here's
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some important information for you to know about this tax filing season and last tax
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filing season. So first things first, the IRS announced that their tax season
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for begins on January twenty ninth of twenty twenty four, and they will begin
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accepting paper and electric tax returns on that day. The twenty twenty three tax
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do date is April fifteenth of twenty twenty four. Again that is for filing
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your twenty twenty three income taxes. Some stats you should keep in mind as
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you patiently wait two to process your return. A lot of people say,
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how many how many tax return does the IRS really you know, see and
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why do they need so many people? Well, here's why. In twenty
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twenty three, the IRS processed more than one hundred and sixty two million individual
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tax returns. And that's for the tax year twenty twenty two two. So
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again in early twenty twenty three, when everybody was you know, sending in
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their tax return, they processed one hundred and sixty two million individual tax returns.
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Of these, over one hundred and fifty million were filed electronically, which
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is about ninety two percent. And of these tax returns, there were over
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one hundred and five million that had refunds processed and the average refund was three
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thousand, one hundred and sixty seven dollars. So just some kind of interesting
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stats there, very interesting stuff. Talking this morning with CJ. Closs and
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Malia Quavis, our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial, We'd love to have
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you join us this morning. All I got to do is pick a phone
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gifts call six oh eight three two one thirteen ten. That's six oh eight
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three two one thirteen ten. Love to get to you on the program this
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morning with Malia and CJ. Of course, CJ and Malia come to us
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from class Financial, the website classfinancial dot com and they're telephone number six oh
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eight four four two five six three seven. I've got to guess, CJ.
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One of the big questions people ask is should we be using a tax
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professional, a preparer or a CPA or what's kind of the uh, what's
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kind of the thought there? Yeah? Maybe, And so as Malia talks
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in a little bit, she'll talk about some options for filing your income taxes
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on your own. And truth be told, as long as you know what
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we're doing, we are we are fine with people trying to file taxes on
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their own. However, we might suggest that you think hard about getting a
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professional to do this. So here's some reasons you might want to consider using
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a tax prefaer prepare or a CPA. Reason number one, professional tax preparers
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paid to keep up with the complicated tax code changes every year. So you
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know this just takes one thing off your plate that you don't have to sit
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around. And every time you hear about the Secure Act or any other act
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that passes that, you go, oh, I got to stay on top
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of that so I know what I'm doing with my taxes. This is what
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professional tax repayers get paid to do. Reason number two, it can save
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you money. If your tax prepairer finds even one deduction or tax credit you
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may have missed, it can easily exceed the fee it costs to have that
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professional professional prepare your return. Reason number three you might want to consider using
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a professional is it can save you time. The Internal Revenue Service reports that
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it takes the average taxpayer thirteen hours to complete the average tax return with deductions.
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And in our opinion, your time is worth money. And therefore you
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know do the math. If you think you're worth fifty dollars an hour or
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one hundred dollars an hour and it's going to take you thirteen hours of time,
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you might want to pause and just say I'm going to pay the three
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to six hundred dollars to the to the CPA to do this. Reason number
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four is tax professionals can answer your questions. And resolve issues quickly. I
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mean often we'll hear people who do their tax returns on their own. Was
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like, ah, there was this new part or there was this new act
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that was passed, and so I called the IRS and I waited on hold
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for an hour, and then then I got dropped from the line. So
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I called back and I'm just going, what are you doing? Literally,
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the CPA who files your income taxes knows the answer in their brain, right,
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they could, They could do this very quickly. Reason number five is
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you gain peace of mind, and it takes a hassle lot of doing it
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yourself. Reason number six is making mistakes can be very costly in terms of
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missed deductions or triggering an IRS audit, so on and so forth. Another
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reason would be that you benefit from money savings tax planning, so tax professionals
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can actually advise you when you're filing your coome taxes, but also throughout the
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year. So if you get somebody to work with, you can call them
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in June when there's not much going on for them and say, hey,
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I have this question about this new business venture I'm getting into and how that's
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going to impact my taxes. And then of course, your previous returns can
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be reviewed by that accountant, so if you have any questions about prior returns,
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they could pick those up and review them. And the final reason that
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we would suggest you might want to consider using a professional is that you can
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reduce your risk of an audit. So listen to one CG. It might
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be number one. You're right to it. This is in no particular order,
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so listen. We aren't Again, we don't file income taxes, so
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we're not here to tell you you need to. I can just say we
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work with many people who would do it both ways, and only those who
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have a really good understanding of the tax code do we feel good and confident
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about them doing it on their own. But there's a lot of them who
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decide to do it on their own because they're just cheap right there, like
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I don't want to pay the three hundred dollars, And man, that makes
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us uncomfortable because often we get these returns, we run them through some tax
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software that we have and we go, oh, you missed a deduction,
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or you missed your QCD, or you miss something because it's just not their
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Bailey Wick. So consmission this morning, as we chat with our retirement planning
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professionals, CJ. Coss and Malia Quavis. Of course they come to us
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from COSS Financial. Learn more online the website coss Financial dot com that's k
11:24
l aas Financial dot com and their telephone number six oh eight four four two
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five six three seven. No charge for that initial get to know you appointment
11:31
tech costs Financial. It will be complimentary to you again their number six oh
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eight four four two five six three seven. If you've got a question for
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Malia or CJ. Love to get you on the air this morning. Telephone
11:41
number at station you know it at six oh eight three two one thirteen ten.
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That's three two one thirteen ten. We'll talk about which you expect,
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what's kind of the cost involved at value there as well, when it comes
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to a tax preparer, I'm having somebody to do your taxes. We'll get
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the details next and take your call as Money in Motion with Cost Financial continues
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right here on thirteen ten wib A. This is Money in Motion with Class
12:07
Financial, a fun and informative show designed to help you get answers to all
12:11
your retirement questions in one place. Hanging out with our retirement planning professionals from
12:16
Class Financial, CJ. Closs and Malia Quavis the website Cossfinancial dot com.
12:22
That's k l a a s Financial dot com. Talk about all the great
12:26
features up on the website. I haven't mentioned the the weekly Market Pulse newsletter.
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Great opportunity sign up for that is put in your email and get a
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weekly then email once a week which just tells you kind of what's been going
12:37
on in the market. Also link to the most recent podcast. It's a
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great way to stay current and connected with the program and with the folks at
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Coss Financial. That's available to you at Clossfinancial dot com. That's k l
12:46
a a s Financial dot com. And their telephone number six oh eight four
12:50
four two five six three seven. No charge for the initial get to know
12:54
you appointment at Coss Financial. It is complementary again their number six oh eight
12:58
four four two five six three seven. And to get on the air this
13:01
morning called station six so eight three two one thirteen ten. That's three two
13:05
one thirteen ten talking taxes this week and CJ set up a little bit about
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some of the benefits of working with a tax preparer or a CPA. Mallia,
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what about cost and obviously, you know, money makes the world go
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round. What should what should folks expect to pay for a tax prepayer or
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to have somebody do their taxes. Yeah, that's a great question. And
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you know it's funny sometimes we run into people who tell us, yeah,
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I mean, I'm being charged fifty dollars to get my taxes done. And
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it's usually like the brother in law or some extended family member who's never you
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know, raised their price if they charge anything. Right, So we like
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to bring people back to kind of reality because these accountants out there really do
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a lot of professional training. I mean, who really wants to sit down
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and read all those tax laws every year? You know, the changes.
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So that's really you have to understand there's a lot of training that goes behind
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them, and you're paying for that expertise, which is kind of important as
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they're filing your taxes. So when we looked at the National Society of Accountants
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the NSA, they said that the national average currently of tax return filing ranges
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from around two hundred and twenty dollars or more. It can range depending on
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your region in the country, certainly, but a basic filing usually we're seeing
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in the three hundred dollars range or above. Obviously, the complexity surrounding all
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those tax schedules depending on what types of income you're realizing, what types of
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small businesses you might be involved with, that's going to definitely increase the costs
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as well. But another avenue to consider, because cost does matter, we
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don't disagree, is if you if you qualify, you can possibly file your
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taxes free through the IRS, which has partnered with many companies that will help
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you file for free if you meet thus meet certain conditions. So the IRS
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Free File Program, as they've labeled it, basically as a public private partnership
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between the IRS and several tax preps tax preparation services together with certain software and
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they will allow you to file free using their what they call guided tax software
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if your tax if taxpayers have an AGI and it changes every year, but
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if it's seventy nine thousand dollars or less, you could qualify for using their
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free file partner offers. So you can find this on the IRS dot gov
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website and find out how you could possibly do that. And again this is
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going to be if you have AGI of seventy nine thousand or less, if
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your income is greater than that, then you can also access their free file
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fillable forms, although this is not going to be guided, it's just going
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to be the forms themselves. So if you choose that option, you really
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do need to know how to prepare your own tax return, so definitely check
16:08
that out if you're looking to save money, and perhaps if you have limited
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items that you need to put down so you know if you want to do
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it yourself. Again, a lot of people listening, they have fairly simple
16:22
taxes to process every year. You can simply purchase that tax software or pay
16:27
for the update. So some big names out there that are still recommended are
16:32
Turbo Tax h and R Block, tax Layer, and tax Act and those
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usually are going to cost the neighborhood of seventy dollars to one hundred and fifty
16:41
dollars to complete both your state and federal taxes. So the tax software itself
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will ask for specific forms that you'll need to have to access to complete the
16:51
returns. You know, it's a great Sunday afternoon project while the football is
16:55
in the background, because because I heard the Packers aren't playing. No,
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I'm going to the point now I'm getting getting no no, no, no,
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no, I'm just saying in the background, in the background, she's
17:07
from the other side of the border. You got so again. People like
17:12
the word free, right, So companies like H and R Block do offer
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a free version, but be clear what these free versions can and can't do.
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Right, So what they can do if you're just filing a form ten
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forty and limited schedules like one, two and three, you have income W
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two income and maybe some bank interest forms, some dividends, student loan interests,
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these forms can work for you, okay, free forms, but what
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they can't do is the other side of it, itemized deductions your schedule A
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deductions and expenses for freelancer, self employment or HSA distributions. So be clear
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what free can do for you and what free can't. And free does not
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show up for the audit. So as as CJ mentioned, that's kind of
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an important thing for some people. I feel like you, just you,
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just Malia made a commercial for a tax prepare Free doesn't show up for the
18:07
like I can see it all. Yes, very good. I wonder how
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long until AI starts getting involved in this world. But that's for a that's
18:12
for an entirely different for such such fantastic information as always from our retirement planning
18:18
professionals from Class Financial, Malia Quavis and CJ. Class. You can learn
18:22
more online their website COSS Financial dot com. That's k l a A S
18:26
Financial dot com. Telphon number six so eight four four two five six three
18:30
seven. No charge for that initial get you know you appoyment tech Costs Financial.
18:33
It will be complimentary to you. So, Malia, are there some
18:37
other things that we should be keeping in mind when it comes to our twenty
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twenty three taxes? And also you know, some tips for tax preparation this
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year? And of course looking I know, h preparation and planning is very
18:48
very important to what you guys do at Costs Financial. What about on the
18:51
tax side of the things you can do be doing to to kind of prepare
18:53
and make things a little easier for next year. Yeah, So, you
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know, I feel like sometimes we sound redundant and for our loyal listeners.
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Two weeks ago, we were just talking about planning for you know, twenty
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twenty four and all the tax changes that are going to happen this year.
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Now we're going kind of retro, going back and saying what to do for
19:11
this year's filing, which is based off of last year. So so again
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we're planners. So if you haven't already done, so, we want you
19:18
to create a twenty twenty three tax file. It could be on your computer,
19:23
a folder there, or a physical folder. And we want you to
19:26
secure all your W twos as they come in, you're ten ninety nine's as
19:32
they show up, and at the same time, go ahead and create a
19:34
twenty twenty four to one as well, because then your processes are already in
19:37
place, and we love that. See what you're going to be wanting to
19:41
watch for right now, and honestly, for all your IRA IRA accounts and
19:48
even your work retirement accounts, you're going to watch out for W twos and
19:55
your ten ninety nine and the ten ninety nine are going to reflect other sources
19:59
of income which may be coming your way. So common ten ninety nine,
20:02
there's a whole host of them, but the common ones are ten ninety nine
20:04
dividends ten ninety nine rs, which the RS showed the distributions from pensions,
20:11
annuities, retirement plans iras. Those are things people are like, well,
20:15
I didn't even think I was going to get one of these, so that's
20:18
sometimes a surprise. And remember a lot of these statements aren't showing up in
20:22
your mail any longer because they're available online. So if you're sweating that,
20:26
just know if you go into your online portals for your different different investment companies,
20:32
that's probably where they're being hosted, so you can download them as soon
20:36
as they become available. Usually we see them by the thirtieth of January.
20:41
Make a list of what documents you may need to prepare your taxes. So
20:45
a good starting point is last year, what documents were used there, and
20:48
then kind of check them off as they come in. We would say to
20:53
remember that while IRA documents are usually required by the thirtieth of the month of
20:59
January ones, there's other deadlines February fifteenth and March fifteenth for after tax accounts,
21:07
your corporate k ones and so forth, or small businesses. You're going
21:11
to see those come out a little later. And then we want you to
21:15
figure out who's going to do your taxes. So back to CJ's point,
21:18
if you're going to prepare your own with tax software, hire a tax prepare
21:22
or a CPA, figure out is this the year to make a change or
21:26
are you going to just do it yourself. I would suggest you get on
21:30
the phone sooner than later to at least get an appointment scheduled, even if
21:34
it's going to be in March or early April, because those tax preparers tend
21:40
to not want to answer their phone here in about two weeks, so keep
21:44
that in mind. We also want to remind you you can still contribute to
21:48
your traditional or roth iras for tax your twenty twenty three. A lot of
21:53
people are sweating this on December thirty first. In fact, we see a
21:56
lot of contributions rolling the door right then. But you actually have up until
22:00
April fifteenth for those IRA contributions for last year. Now it is too late
22:07
to add money to your four oh one K from last year, but you
22:11
can still do the iras if that's if you qualify for that. So remember
22:15
the balances or the contribution levels for last year was sixty five hundred per person
22:22
under the age of fifty with earned income seventy five hundred for those over fifty,
22:27
So keep that in mind if you still need to make a contribution anything
22:32
there also, Yes, I would say also if you're age seventy three or
22:36
older, and you've waited to take your first RMD as a whole nother conversation
22:40
till this year. So you just turned seventy three last year, remember the
22:45
first year you are allowed to postpone it, but you have to take it
22:48
by April first of twenty twenty four if you turn seventy three last year.
22:52
And remember you're going to need to also take your twenty twenty four ARMD by
22:56
December thirty first of this year as well, so you're kind of doubling up
23:00
on that first year really important guidance. So you mentioned rmds. I know,
23:04
we recently did a whole program, got very in depth about required minimum
23:08
distributions, what they're about, what you need to know. If you missed
23:11
that program, you can always listen back and subscribe to the podcast as well
23:15
at Cossfinancial dot com. That's k l aas Financial dot com. Also a
23:19
telephone number for COSS Financial their office right here in Madison. No charge for
23:22
that initial get to know your appointment. It will be complementary to you.
23:26
The number six oh eight four four two five six three seven. I get
23:30
no charge for the initial get to know you appointment. Tech co Loss Financial
23:32
It is complementary. And again they're telephone number six, soh eight four four
23:36
to two five six three seven. We have some final reminders. Also,
23:40
maybe you're saying, do I actually have to file taxes? We'll get the
23:44
details next as Money in Motion with Cost Financial continues here on thirteen ten.
23:48
Wuibi. This is Money in Motion with Coss Financial, a fun and informative
23:56
show designed to help you get answers to all your retirement questions in one place,
24:00
or just moments away from the cost quiz question. A week your chance
24:03
to win a twenty five dollars gift card to Ace Hardware. Talking this morning
24:07
with our retirement planning professionals from COSS Financial, Malia Quavis and CJ Closs.
24:11
The website coss financial dot com. That's k laa as Financial dot com and
24:17
they're telephone number six, So eight four four two five six three seven.
24:21
CJ. Are there certain things that we need to remember for you know,
24:23
as we look back to twenty twenty three as we're putting together our taxes.
24:27
Yeah, there are a few things, and I will admit that this feels
24:30
like a laundry list of items, so so feel free to call in if
24:34
you have additional questions, or we can kind of point you in in a
24:37
direction of some resources that we have that summarize all of this. But here's
24:41
a few items to remember as it relates to kind of the twenty twenty three
24:47
tax. Here, the standard deduction increased slightly last year after an inflation adjustment.
24:52
The twenty twenty three standard deduction increased to thirteen thy eight hundred and fifty
24:56
for single filers, and for married couples filing jointly, the standard deduction rose
25:00
to twenty seven to seven. Again, that is, for twenty twenty three,
25:04
itemized deductions remain mostly the same, and for most filers, taking the
25:08
higher standard deduction is more practical and saves the hassle of keeping track of receipts.
25:14
But of course, if you have a large itemized deduction, then you
25:15
may want to at least add them all up to see if they would get
25:18
over the standard. And if you don't know what I'm talking about intern of
25:22
itemize versus standard, you probably need to work with an accountant because this concept
25:27
of itemization or standard deduction is actually one of the one of the pillars that
25:32
you need to understand when it comes to filing your income taxes, state and
25:36
local taxes. So the deduction for state and local income taxes, property taxes,
25:40
and real estate taxes is capped at ten thousand dollars for twenty twenty three.
25:44
Your mortgage and interest deduction. The mortgage interest deduction is limited to seven
25:48
hundred and fifty thousand of indebtedness or three hundred and seventy five thousand if you're
25:52
married and filing separately. Medical expenses. Only medical expenses that exceed seven and
25:59
a half percent of your AGI can be deducted in twenty twenty three. And
26:03
then, of course charitable donations. The allowable deductions for charitable donations have some
26:11
limits on them, and the income tax deduction limits for gifts to public charities
26:15
are thirty percent of your AGI for contributions of non cash assets if it's held
26:22
for and that's if it's held for more than one year, and then it's
26:23
sixty percent of AGI for cash contributions. Now, again, if you don't
26:27
know what I'm talking about, another reason to work with an account. Now,
26:32
what I just went over there is the is the what makes up the
26:34
itemization State and local income tax is also known as salt deductions mortgage interests,
26:38
medical expenses, and charitable donations. That's what you can use to itemize to
26:44
see if you went over. The standard and final reminder of this section is
26:48
just if you completed a qualified charitable distribution during twenty twenty three. This is
26:52
known as a QCD for those who are aged seventy and a half or older.
26:57
Here's the key. Make sure you notify your accountant because many custodians will
27:03
not delineate between what was a distribution to you and what was a distribution to
27:08
the charity. They'll just kick out a ten ninety nine, say from your
27:12
IRA, saying you pulled out twenty thousand dollars. You have to notify your
27:15
accountant, or if you're doing your taxes on your own, you have to
27:18
specifically identify no, no, no, no, that twenty thousand that came
27:23
out, or ten of the twenty thousand, whatever it is. You have
27:27
to identify how much was for qualified charitable distributions and if you don't, it's
27:32
lost. And that's the whole point of doing the QCD is to avoid the
27:37
taxes on it. So please, please, please, this is one of
27:38
the biggest errors we see happen in our client's tax returns who are over seventy
27:42
and a half is they do not claim the QCDS and they just pay taxes
27:47
on all of the distribution from their IRA. So that's one to be careful
27:52
of. Really important there. And finally, CJ. I think folks listening
27:56
some say, so I actually have to file a tax return and how long
28:00
do I get to hold on to this stuff after I filed? Yeah,
28:03
so there are situations where you don't need to file. The IRS considers your
28:07
age, your filing status, and your income. And if you didn't have
28:11
any income, then you probably don't need to file, but it would still
28:15
be worth discussing with an accountant to make sure you're not missing any credits or
28:19
anything else that would be available to you in twenty twenty three. Here's kind
28:23
of a way to filter this for yourself. In twenty twenty three, you
28:27
likely will not need to file a tax return if all of the following are
28:32
true for you. You're underage sixty five, your single, you don't have
28:37
any special circumstances that require you to file, like self employment income. You
28:41
earn less than thirteen eight hundred and fifty dollars, which is the twenty twenty
28:45
three standard deduction for single filers or you, or twenty seven to seven for
28:48
those who are married and filing jointly. Also, in most cases, if
28:53
you only receive Social Security benefits as your source of income, you generally wouldn't
28:57
have any taxable income and wouldn't potentially not need to file. However, one
29:02
thing to watch out with social Security benefits is if you're married but file a
29:06
separate tax return from your spouse who you live with during the year, then
29:11
you might want to actually file an income tax return or be forced two.
29:15
Again. All of this goes to say, double check with an accountant.
29:21
I have had many clients say, you know, somebody told me they don't
29:22
think I need to file an income tax return. I go, great,
29:26
here's the name and number of an accountant to confirm that with, because I
29:29
would never want to make that assumption. And turns out that you did have
29:33
taxable income. Because it takes a couple of years, but Uncle Sam will
29:36
eventually circle back around with you and go, we never got an income tax
29:40
return from you, and that is not a fun experience to be a year
29:44
or two out from a year that you skipped filing a tax return, only
29:47
to come to find out that you should have talking this morning with CJ.
29:49
Colossom Lea Quavis our retirement planning professionals from Class Financial the website class financial dot
29:55
com. That's k l aa S financial dot com. They're telephe number six,
29:57
so eight four four to two five six three seven. Speaking of the
30:02
IRS, circling back around CJ. What about old tax returns and files?
30:07
How long should you hold on to those type of things? So the IRS
30:11
suggests that you keep your records for three years from the date you filed your
30:17
original original return or two years from the date you paid the tax, whichever
30:22
is later. If you file a claim for credit or refund after you file
30:26
your return, then you just you really want to make sure you keep those
30:30
records, keep your records for seven years if you file a claim for a
30:34
loss from worthless securities or bad debt deductions. And then of course the question
30:41
becomes how far can the IRS go back to autit and a return, And
30:45
generally the IRS can include returns filed within the last three years in an audit.
30:49
They don't generally go back more than six years. Now, if you
30:55
do not file a tax return, because we just talked about do I really
30:57
have to if you do not file it time tax return, keep those records
31:02
forever? Meaning why did you not file a tax return? And you say,
31:07
well, because I'm my only source of income with Social Security between me
31:08
and my spouse, and I was thirty thousand dollars. Okay, fair enough,
31:12
keep those records because that is something that the IRS could come back on
31:18
many years later and say we'd missed a return for you, and you have
31:21
to prove why you didn't need to file a return. So long story short,
31:25
think of this as around I just keep your records for around six or
31:27
seven years for the most part, and the only exception to that would be
31:30
if if you didn't file a tax return, then keep those indefinitely. You
31:36
don't want to, you don't want to mess around with the IRS, and
31:37
I want to keep this stuff in line. Really important. Great show.
31:41
If you missed any part of this week's program, don't forget. You can
31:44
always listen back right online Cossfinancial dot com. That's k l aas Financial dot
31:49
com. Listen back to this show. Also subscribe to the podcast all online
31:52
again, the website class Financial dot com and the telephone number six O eight
31:56
four four two five six three seven. No charge for initial gets to know
32:00
you appointment tech costs financial It will be complimentary to you again the number six
32:04
oh eight four four two five six three seven. Speaking of the telephone number
32:07
for Co Loss Financials Office right here in Madison. It's time now for the
32:10
COSS Quiz Question of the week. It works like this. In just a
32:13
moment, I'll ask you the COSS Quiz question the week. We'll then have
32:15
thirty minutes from the inter Today's program to call the COSS Financial Office right here
32:19
in Madison at six oh eight four four two five six three seven. If
32:22
you are the first call correct answer, you win this week's prize, which
32:25
is a twenty five dollars gift card to Ace Hardware. This week's cost Quiz
32:30
question of the week is this, how many individual tax returns did the IRS
32:36
process last year for tax year twenty twenty two? Was it seventy five million
32:42
or more? Or excuse me? Was it seventy five million or more than
32:47
one hundred and fifty million? Tax returns? Again? Was it seventy five
32:51
million or more than one hundred and fifty million? Telephone number six oh eight
32:54
four four two five six three seven first call with correct answer, win that
32:59
twenty five dollars gift card Ace Hardware Again. That's Class Financials office right here
33:01
in Madison. The number six SOH eight four four two five six three seven
33:07
C J. Maleia. It's always great chatting with you guys. Enjoy this
33:08
fantastic day. Thank you, Sean. Take care. It's a second annual
33:13
Builder Model Expo coming up this weekend. We'll get the details from Chad Lawler
33:15
with MABA Medisinarian Builds Association. He'll join us next year on thirteen ten WIBA.
33:25
This is Money in Motion with Coss Financial Asset Advisors, LLC, a
33:30
registered investment advisor registered with the SEC. The content of this show is for
33:37
informational purposes only and should not be considered individual investment advice. Class Financial does
33:43
not offer tax or legal advice. Any opinion offered during the course of this
33:47
show is the opinion of that particular investment advisor representative, and not necessarily the
33:52
opinion of Coss Financial. What was that said? A stup