Friday, December 28, 2018

Questionable help for furloughed Fed employees ...




The U.S. Office of Personnel Management on Thursday tweeted advice to furloughed federal workers on how to explain their precarious financial situation to creditors and landlords.
There's even one sample letter with the suggestion that they offer to perform chores in exchange for rent payments.
I'm not sure I'd want some of my tenants running around with hammers or sharp objects.
You can download the sample letters here: https://t.co/t6h6OzALsS.

#OPM, #landlords, #rent




Wednesday, December 26, 2018

The IRS is open for business … sort of



Just before Trump’s shutdown of the government, a spokesman for the IRS said,

“The IRS is making great progress moving towards the opening of the filing season. Each year, we test our programming and make sure we have the right guidance and instructions ready to go for a successful launch of the filing season.
“We are on track to be able to do that between January and February, and of course as soon as we have completed all of our testing, we’ll come out with a formal announcement for the opening of the filing season.
“The IRS is positioned along with Treasury to have the right personnel and staff available for us to continue with our on-time plans to be able to deliver and open the filing season, so right now we are tracking very well to have another successful filing season in 2019 as we did in 2018.”
Sending refunds and providing taxpayer assistance, however, is a different story …
In late November, the agency came up with a Lapsed Appropriations Contingency Plan for what they’d do if Trump shutdown the government.
9,946 IRS employees are considered essential and would continue working. The balance of the 79,868 would be sent home, without pay.
How could this affect you?
During the shutdown, the IRS will stop:
·       Issuing refunds
·       Processing Form 1040X amended returns
·       All audits
·       Processing paper tax returns that include payments
·       Answering your questions
Needless to say, none of this is good in the light of recent tax law changes and filing season days away.

#IRS, #incometax, #filingseason