Huge IRS Deadline - What you should know. . .

About the irs. You may have not filed your taxes yet and you filed an extension. You may owe the irs. You haven't paid your full bill. If you're freaking out, you got a letter from the irs. This is the show today. I want to be there for you. I can, I'm just emotional about it because I talked to so many clients around the country that are scared to death about what the IRS might do to them. It's not as bad ever as you may think it is. It's something that's, that's gotta be dealt with. We've got deadlines, we've got bills to pay. We live in an, a great, in an amazing, great country. But I'm here for you in this section right now, live. Don't go anywhere. I want to hit the, the deadlines that are coming the next three months. This is it. This is the end of the year deadlines. There's a lot of them coming down the pipe. And the first big one right now or the next big one I need to bring up is if you file an extension back in April, October 15th is your deadline. And because it's on a weekend, it bumps to Monday. So you've got to file your tax return by Monday. And I know there's some of you that are like, well, I, oh, and I can't pay. We're going to talk about that. Because if you don't file, it's worse than not paying. And I know that sounds weird, but we're going to talk about it. So any question you have about the IRS coming after you, you're concerned about a deadline, I can't pay, I haven't filed in five years or whatever. This is your safe place. Use an anonymous handle, use your brother in law's name, sister in law's name, use your whatever and just say, I got a question, I'm freaked out and I'm going to try to answer it here for you. We'll be live here for the next 30 minutes or so. And I'm grateful to be with you. I love the American dream, I love small business. But you have a partner. You have a partner that you can't get rid of. And that is Uncle Sam. If you want to do business in the United States, you got to deal with that partner because they're going to, they're going to want their cut and you got to know how to deal with it. So here's the first thing I want to mention. Filing. A lot of people say, well, I can't pay, so I'm not going to file. And they hope the IRS is going to go away or give them some mercy. No, let's go to the whiteboard. Tristan. I've got to show you all how bad this is. See, in a given, let's say this is over that two years, and if I've got two years worth here, and so this is 2022, and we're coming up on 2023. Let's try to do it this way. See back here, April 15, your tax returns were due. Kinda. The beauty is you could punt. So if I was John Madden with NFL here, I'd have like, some sort of X's and O's, you know? But here's the thing. You can punt over to October 15th, and the IRS says, hey, if you owe us, there's going to be some penalties in here and some interest, but it's not too bad, but you better freaking file by the 15th. You have until October 15th to file, which is this weekend. If you don't file. And think of it like you're going out on this hot new date with this guy or this girl, and you're so excited, and you're like, oh, well, we ought to hang out more often. Oh, let me get your phone number. And then you ghost them. Oh, not good, right? They want to know what the hell happened. This ends up getting your car keyed, right? This is not good. A lot of good country songs on this issue. So you never want to ghost that first date. You want to be like, you know, what didn't work out. Let them know the IRS is the same freaking way. They want to know what the. What's going on, that they're more upset if you don't keep them in the loop. If you're like, well, I owe you some stuff. All right, that's cool, you owe me. But at least you communicated, you know, You've been on that first date. You're like, oh, yeah, I've got some of your stuff here. I got to get it to you. Okay, that's all right. But we're not serious. No, we're not serious, but I got to let you know. So you got to keep the IRS in loop, because here's what happens if you don't file with the IRS. The penalty is 5% of what you owe. 5% every month up to 25%. So for five months, they're killing you, and they're saying, if you owe us, we're going to nail you a five times five for 25% of what you owe, plus Interest on what you owe. So this is just the penalty. So 25% then if you're like, oh, well, okay, I just didn't file. All right? And this 5% is brutal. If you owe them, it's a half a percent. And so the half a percent kicks in. And it's usually a half a percent here every month. Half a percent every month. Then when the you didn't file kicks in, it goes to five. It's really four and a half plus the five or half a percent plus the four and a half. Then after it hits 25%, you think, well, it's all over. Nope. Is still a half a percent up to 45 freaking months for another 22 and a half percent. That's a total of 47 and a half percent in penalties. People, this is so I want to tell you, we want to file no matter what. So take me off the whiteboard if you hit Tristan. So let me look you in the eye and tell you, I know it's scary. I know that you can't pay your bill to the IRS or you don't know how to file your tax return. But people, I'm telling you, go buy TurboTax this weekend. Walk into an H and R block, walk into a Liberty, our office for slam. We've already got our client list for this year. We're trying to get everybody out the door. I haven't even filed yet. I'm going to be filing on Monday. But get somewhere and file your tax return, even if it's not completely accurate, but it's your best guess and honesty, you're going to amend it later. That's better because this penalty goes away as long as you file. Just let the IRS know you're got a pulse and you're alive and that's cool. That's all they want to know. Now, if you owe them, it's a half a percent of what you owe in penalty per month. Half a percent per month plus interest on the penalty and interest on what you owe. It gets. It does get ugly, but not as ugly as not filing. So that's my main issue is I just wanted to say to everybody, this big deadline this weekend, make sure that you're filing at the very least. Now, let's say some of you owe the irs. You've got two or three options. Now, I've got an article on this and I want this to be down in the link. I should have give this to my producer in advance. Can you share this screen too or not? If can you, they're still staring my screen. Okay everybody, if you go to markjkohler.com and just type blog in the blog at the top, can't pay my taxes by October 15th. I go through the all the details here so you folks can read it, print it out, talk to your significant other, whatever and say, what do I do? And I want to talk about three major options. And I'm going to go through four major options here that you can deal with if still owe the irs. So it's all here in this article, the link, if you'll put that down in the description, James, I'd really appreciate it. So what to do if I can't pay my taxes by October 15th? Now let's go to our whiteboard here and let's see. Here we go. So on the whiteboard, what I want to point out is your four main options. If you owe the IRS right now. Now if it's recent, like this current year, you owe the IRS. You can get kind of a 90 day grace period. You have to call them up and go, hey, I'm going to pay you. Don't collect. Don't send me nasty letters. Don't freak out, just give me 90 days to get my crap together. I promise I'll pay you. It's kind of like just give me a little, give me a little leeway is what you're shooting for here. That's your first option. And if you can get that going right out of the gate, call the IRS and let them know and they're going to give you some breathing room. Now you're still paying the half a percent and you're still paying interest. You're not getting out of it, but at least they're not sending you nasty letters and going to threatening your life, Right? So use the 90 day grace period and get some breathing room. Now I want to divert and say this for an important point too. The IRS will never call you. It is a scam. Everybody. If someone calls you and goes, hey, we're at the IRS and you know if you don't pay this in the next three hours, we're going to levy your house or lien this or whatever it is a scam, don't listen to them. Now you don't want to be rude. These scammers can get very vindictive and you don't know what they're going to do with your info. So just say, oh, thank you for the information. I'll call my accountant. Thank you. I got to go, bye. And hang up. Don't call them dirtbags, don't call them cheaters, don't, don't call them the scum of the earth, even though you want to. And because you never know what they could do to retaliate. So just say, thank you so much. I'm going to call my accountant. I appreciate it, bye. And hang up. Even if they're like, no, no, no, no, just hang up. Be say you're in an emergency or something, but the IRS will never call you, okay? They're going to send you nasty letters. Now the next option that you can do here is you can get an installment agreement. And they're really easy to get. The IRS is actually required to give you the installment agreement relief. It's a five year payment plan and you're going to have interest and you'll have some penalties still, but you're going to get that installment agreement so the IRS doesn't come and collect with you. And so you want to look at all the options there of getting an installment agreement. The one that I want to emphasize with so many people is, is before you try to cut a deal with the irs, which is your fourth option, I want you to go borrow from someone. Go borrow somewhere, people. The interest you're going to pay somewhere else is cheaper than dealing with the irs. Borrow on a credit card, borrow on a second on your home, refinance, hawk your car, whatever. I mean, yes, you've got to compare interest rates this and that, but I'm telling you, nine times out of 10, borrow from a third party is better than owing the IRS. There's a lot of details in all this. Is the IRS going to hit your credit? Is there going to be a lien on your credit? All these different things that we're not going to go there today, but I would recommend you buy the 90 day grace period, go borrow money and get the IRS off your back and always file the installment agreement. Heck, I've been on two of these in my life. I just owed the irs and I'm like, hey, can you give me a payment plan? It's not the end of the world. You're not a criminal. The IRS isn't going to knock down your door and take away your house or garnish your wages. Just get an installment agreement. The fourth one is really another buyer beware scam, in my opinion, because it is legitimate. But very few people qualify. And that's called the offer in compromise. Offer and compromise. And this is where you see those commercials, radio, TV ads, where, oh, we can settle with the IRS for pennies on the dollar? Yeah, you can, but it's very difficult and it's called an oic. And a lot of companies will take money up front, promise you an offer and compromise, and then nothing happens and you get ripped off. And it adds insult to injury. You're trying to kind of deal with the IRS and you end up getting scammed. Be careful. Now, let me just say, generally, if you want an offer in compromise, the IRS is going to look for any equity you have in any asset, including your home. And if you have equity somewhere, they're not going to cut you a deal. They're going to take that equity and then cut you a deal. So a lot of people, you see these testimonials. I settled for 10 cents on the dollar. It's. Yeah, because they were broke anyway and the IRS knew they couldn't get anything. That's why they gave them 10 cents on the frickin dollar. So if you have any assets anywhere, the IRS is going to say, screw you, we're not cutting you a deal. Also, you got to prove that you're not making hardly any money. And they're going to sit on it. It can take up to 24 months to get an offer finally approved. And so you got to live broke and poor. You go out and start making money, they're going to go, oh, you're making money now. Well, we're not going to cut you a deal because you're making money. You can pay us. So they're going to look at this time period of 24 months of are you really making money? And then they're also going to be looking at your assets. And you've got to show you're basically poor and broke and have nothing for at least 24 months. Then, yes, you can settle with the IRS and you're going to pay someone to work with the IRS on this offer. Man, we're going to charge three to five grand. It takes a lot of hours. But make sure you're paying someone to do this for you that you trust. And they're going to be. You're going to be paying per hour as you go. Don't give someone big money up front to do this. Be very careful. So, all right, well, let's go off the whiteboard. Tristan. Thank you. So, everybody, here's the deal. Make sure that you're filing in the next three days, no matter what. Get on an installment agreement. Borrow from Someone. Ask the IRS for 90 days. Never listen to anyone that's calling saying they're from the irs. And you know what? This too, will pass. You can recover from this. It's okay. I have clients that are making a million dollars a year with IRS headaches. I get a nasty letter from the IRS every couple years. There's some problem on the return here. 1099 showed up here. It's okay. Whenever you get a notice from the irs, immediately talk to your accountant. Find an accountant, call our office and say, I need a consult. I need help dealing with irs. Don't put your head in the sand. It only gets worse. You've got to take the sliver out. Get. Get some hydrogen peroxide on it. Get a band aid on it, and be careful. In fact, I should comment probably in the mid. In the camera here. I've cut myself this morning on my blender. I've got blood everywhere. So I finally. I'm just like, recovering myself, but I'm dealing with it. You know, you got to deal with it. You can't ignore it. It'll get infected. So don't let those IRS letters get infected. Deal with them. All right, well, James, I wanted to field some questions from our viewers today. Have you got any good questions from someone out there?

All right, let's see. We've got a. Have a. James.

So what I want to do is. Let's go back to the whiteboard, Tristan. And what I want to do is throw this out. There's a couple other deadlines that you want to be thinking about before year end. So if this is, I'm going to do it. So we have our four quarters here. This is really important, everybody, boom, boom. So if this is 2022, we've got first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, fourth quarter. We're sitting right here at the beginning of fourth quarter. A lot of people say Q4, Q3, Q2. Okay, so we're here in October, and for any of you that have an S corporation, you've got to make sure you're sending in a deposit at the end of each quarter. So you have until the end of October 31st. No, October 31st exists. That's Halloween. And that's I think on a Tuesday, Monday, or Tuesday this year, Monday, I think you've got to file your 941 or your payroll report. So any of you that have an S corporation or an LLC taxed as an S Corp, October 31 is your next big deadline, which is in a couple weeks. Next when it comes to the year end. And I'm going to be holding several podcast. And on this is all of the deadlines coming up with the end of fourth quarter. Are you going to do any Roth conversions? Are you going to have your HSA set up by December 1st? I should say, are you going to set up a 401k? Have you paid your kids? Have you paid your spouse? How much have you paid yourself? And there's a lot of year end strategies that if we don't talk about and deal with in the next three months, December 31st is fatal is the end. Now you have until April 15th to put money into your HSA or IRA to put money in. But you have to have your 401k set up by year end or convert anything you want to to Roth by year end. So these deadlines are just absolutely critical before the end of the year. All right, we got our technical difficulties figured out. Can James, you got any questions there from our call?

Yes, sir. Can you hear me?

Gotta make sure I'm the technical difficulty. My earpiece is out at the moment. Okay, there we go. All right, James, I was the problem. Okay, what do we got?

All right, so rip curls. He asks have a 160k tax bill. I'm disabled. No way to pay. Am I going to jail?

Oh my gosh. Well, I'll say it this way, you don't have to go to jail. There are so many options. But if you ignore the IRS and you ignore them and ignore them and flip them the bird, yes, you would ultimately go to jail. But you're not going to do that. What what we want. If you're disabled, your income is extremely low or fixed and you don't have 160 grand in assets sitting in your home or rental property or somewhere, you are a perfect candidate for the offer and compromise. So you want to get this offer started? I've got some referrals for you that we could get you set up on an offer and compromise. I don't know if we do it, handle it with our workload at our firm right now, but let's put my whiteboard up. I want you to email me any of you that need an offer and compromise. I'll send you two or three referrals and you can interview them and you can trust these places. They're not going to rip you off. So mark@markjkohler.com and we'll maybe help you that our law firm or whatever too. But put in the subject line offer in compromise. Offer in compromise. And then just maybe say, mark, send me your referrals. Need some help. But that's the subject Line. And so if you need an offer, please email me and we'll send you some referrals. And so back to the screen. My video here. I would just recommend that you not ignore the IRS. If you owe the IRS 100 grand, 160 grand, or 10 grand, it only snowballs and get worse and worse and worse. And the longer you wait, the less IRS is willing to cut a deal, too. They get pissed. So if you owe the irs, let's make sure your tax returns are caught up. They're not going to cut a deal until all of your tax returns are caught up and filed. And then let's get you a professional that can file the offer and compromise. It is a big. It's a big form. Multiple. Multiple pages and disclosures, people. There's no way you do an offer on your own. I would be reaching out to my team members that do them all the time if I had to do an offer that. You just want to be doing it every day to make sure you don't miss anything so you're not going to jail. Get. Get your offer and compromise filed. Next, James.

All right, we've got superstar customs, and his question is, I forgot to file an extension. As long as I don't owe any money, I should be okay, right?

Yes. Now, that's an important point, everybody. And maybe I feel bad that I should have brought that up earlier, too. If you don't owe the irs, there's no penalty. Now, that doesn't mean don't file. Let me come back to that. But first of all, if you do not owe the irs, the penalty is zero. There's no interest, because you don't know. But here is the crazy part that'll blow your mind. I think it was like $3 billion last year, something like that went unclaimed in refunds. Many, many people think, well, I don't owe, so I'm not gonna file. You might be owing a refund. And if you don't file, the refund in three years is gone. You got three years to file, and then the refund's gone. In fact, Jack, I know you're in the studio, Jack, while you're in the studio, why don't you just Google for everybody? Everybody else could Google at home. But help us out. If you just Google leftover unclaimed IRS refunds last year, and the IRS publishes it, they are like, file, we'll give you your money. Let's find out the figure there, James. But people, you want to file because you might be due a refund and then again, you may say, I don't have a. I don't owe, so there's no penalty. But what's the IRS going to do? They're going to. They don't know that. They're going to get pissed. They're going to be upset. They're going to send you letters. Why the hell haven't you filed? And you're like, well, I don't know. Well, they don't know that, people. It's always better if you at least freaking file. Send it what we call it a zero return. Just send it a zero. That way the IRS is like, oh, Mark doesn't owe. Cool. And they leave you alone. You don't want to be a problem child at irs people. I was a problem child in elementary school. I was always writing. You know, I like little Bart Simpson. I will be good in class. I will be good in class like a thousand times, you know, Anyway, you don't want to be the problem child. Just. Just communicate. Let them know what's going on. All right, next question.

Well, just to hit that, the. The number I could find was 1.5 billion was unclaimed, but the most recent date was from 2018, so I imagine 2021 was far, far higher.

Wow. Wow. 1.5 billion in 2018. That's why I had heard from somewhere it was 2 to 3 billion. And it's probably graduated to that. So that. That's. Thank you for getting that factoid. So, wow, people, there's money out there on the table. Now, here's another important point. If some of you file an extension three years ago and you never filed and you're due a refund, if you don't file by this weekend, you lose the refund from three years ago. See, you've got to file by the deadline or when you extended. And you have three years to do that. So if you're owed a refund, you want to file right now, in the next two to three days if you want to get that refund, or it's gone. So some of you are like, well, I don't owe the irs. Well, you may. This deadline could be huge to get a refund. You're sitting on that. You're going to lose anyway. I got a good one.

This even happened to my brother. Same thing the IRS is. This first is from Stephanie S. The IRS is Relentless People. I owed $297, and they personally knocked on my door and handed me a notice and asked me for the money on the spot. I had it that Day. Thank God it was my grocery money and it was paid. What do you have to say about that?

Well, it'll happen. The IRS is not going to go away. People you think no matter how small it is, the IRS will go away. They will not. And you know what? I'm going to be a little. I'm going to flip sides here for a minute, and some of you might be a little offended by this, but I'm going to be blunt. I'm glad the IRS is collecting. I want. I pay my damn fair share. And if someone out there doesn't want to pay their $300, I think, and they owe it, I kind of want the IRS to ultimately collect it. Some of you may be like, how dare the IRS collect on me? Well, how special are you? Like, why are. I mean, what, did you invent, plutonium? Like, why are you not paying? But I am. You know, if you don't like it, move to a country that doesn't charge tax. You know, I, I just. So I, I want to pay my fair share. I want to use every loophole I can. I'm gonna put the screws on the IRS to make sure I. I don't pay more than I have to. But at the end of the day, you owe. And anybody living under the table, that's like a white. Cash only. You know what? Freaking move somewhere else. What the hell? You drive on the same roads I do. You enjoy national freedoms. You enjoy the defense that we provide ourselves here to live in this country safely, generally. And I know there's police issues and there's social issues out there, but still, if you don't want to pay your taxes, then go somewhere else. But let's try to live within the boundaries here. And I'm going to try to minimize the penalties. I'm going to ask the IRS for patience. I'm going to ask them for leniency and to try to get you guys out of it, but still. I don't know. That's my take. Many of you may have not expected me to say that, but on top

of that, Mark, how do you. What would you say? How can you know that it's actually the IRS that's knocking at your door collecting money? Well, the second part of that question.

Yeah. If. If someone shows up your door and says, we're the IRS and you owe us money, if they've gotten to the point of knocking on your door, you kind of knew you owed. Right. So it shouldn't be a shocker if. Now, if someone shows up to your door and says, we're from the irs. You owe us money, and this is the first you've heard of it? I'm going to say scam. You know, just say, oh, thank you. Give me the paper. I have no money on me. I'll get with my accountant. I'll get back to you. Let me have your card. Thank you. Bye. But if someone's knocking on your door for that $297, I have a feeling you already got a few letters in the mail that you owe $297. So the fact they showed up at your door, you're like, damn, they finally got me. So unless it sounds completely far fetched and this is the first you heard of it, I would presume it would be a scam. Impersonating a federal agent. Wow. Felony. Not good. So take a picture of them. Say, can I get a selfie with you? Really trying to figure out who the hell this is that's trying to scam me here. But people, people, they will show up at your door if you owe. By then, you should have known that you owe. And it'll happen. And I've had clients call me. Literally, James, you would laugh. They'd call me if they're hiding behind the couch on the phone. I got an IRS agent at the door. What do I do? I'm like, go answer the door. It's okay. How much do you owe? Let's figure this out. But, guys, that's the thing. You cannot ultimately hide from the irs. They will get you. It's going to be on your credit forever. It's going to be. It'll. It's going to be liens on your assets. It'll garnish your wages. Get. Get rid of that tax bill.

Right on. I appreciate that answer. So we have another question here from one casual one. October 15th is on a Saturday. Not sure if you knew that. Does that mean we really have until the 17th? Joanne? California.

Yes. Joanne and I mentioned it earlier. You may have heard me gloss over that.

Yes.

Yes. Because the deadline is on Saturday the 15th. Then you have until Monday the 17th. Whenever the deadline hits on a weekend, the IRS bumps it to Monday. So in my handy dandy calendar, the new 2023 calendar will be. Let's see. Where can I put this on the screen? My new 2023 calendar will be coming out shortly in the next six weeks, and I have all the deadlines every month here and important notices and things like that. And right here on my calendar for those that have it. You're Going to see all the deadlines for Monday. I may want to run through these. Joanne, your 1040. If you extended your C Corp. If extended contributions to your SEP. If you extended contributions to your 401k people, if you had a solo 401k in your S Corp, you, you have until Monday to make your deposits and file. It's the deadline to file your 5500EZ. If you have a solo 401k, it's deadline to file your 990T. If you had a self directed IRA with UBIT or UDFI. So those are some of the deadlines. A few more unique ones there. But it is Monday. Don't worry everybody. The deadlines is on Saturday but you actually have until Monday at midnight Tuesday. Get it postmarked and in the mail.

Ready for next question?

Yes, sir.

Got a question from Lou. I filed my 2020 taxes without my daughter who was born August 2020 because we hadn't received her Social Security yet. I still haven't filed my 2021 taxes either. Can I amend 2020 to include my daughter?

Absolutely. I, I love it. Now one thing you might do is for 50 bucks you might be able to use an online program or buy TurboTax because TurboTax is going to do some free filing the year of. But if you go back an extra year, you're probably going to have to buy it or pay for a software package online or something to go back and do 2020. But what I'd recommend you do is give it a shot doing it yourself. Go in and just input that information. Take your old 2020, input it, drop your daughter's information in there and see if it does generate a refund. So that's what I would do first. Just go out and just hack out a rough draft of your 2020 on your own and see if it generates a refund. If your best guess is, ooh, I'm getting a refund of a couple grand or whatever, then I would go pay a professional to actually file it. Go in and pay even a H and R block or something like that, a strip mall preparer, and they can go back and amend your 2020 quite affordably. But if you go in there and say, I don't know, I want you to amend it, you're going to pay them more to see if you even have a refund than you could by just knocking it out yourself. Now some of you are like, I don't have time for that, whatever, then just go to H and R. But you can amend your 2020. Absolutely. And then hurry and file your 2021. My fine, sir. If you owe for 2021, get in there and amend your 20. File your 21. Knock it out this weekend. Go stand in line somewhere if you have to. And again, at a kind of a sweatshop tax preparer service and get it done or go online and do it yourself if you have that skill set. All right.

All right. So next question is from Melissa Carnes. So my son, who was mostly homeless, has not filed since 2017. I went and personally hunted down all of his W2S restaurant work, usually less than 30k a year. He is now stable. How should we move forward?

You first of all, thanks for being a great parent. It's huge. Our kids go through things. It's a hard world out there right now and the stress and anxiety and just everything in our faces where Even in the 80s, the awesome 80s that I grew up in, so different. So any of you out there that have a child or a loved one that you know is struggling, getting legit and on the on the board, if you will, with the IRS and building their credit, this is a great place to start. If you want to help your kids and your family build credit, get legit and start to feel confident about their American dream. Getting their taxes filed is one of those first steps. Getting them a credit card, helping them just a $500 limit credit card and co signing with them and helping them get back on their feet. So God bless you for what you're doing for your son. Now what you want to do is get all those returns filed. Let's get them filed. If you want to email me again, let's put that up on the board. Markjkohler.com in the subject line instead of offer and compromise, say prior year returns. Prior year returns. And I'll give you two or three referral sources there. We don't generally at our firm go back and do prior years. We're about forward tax planning at our firm. But I've got referral sources that I can give you for prior year returns that are going to be really quite affordable. It's not cheap. I mean, you may say take that off. Tristan, if you could. Some of you that say, well I haven't done prior year returns. It's got to be if it costs you usually $200 to do your return when you were supposed to, doing your prior year is probably going to be 250 or 300. Whenever you go back in time, it costs more than when you should have Done it. So don't be upset by that, Mom. If you're going to do 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, you got five years returns, at least two to $300 per return, I would think. So you're going to be out about 1,500 bucks and that's okay. Get those prior returns done. You might have refunds the last three years. That's could be a great thing, that refund could be another head start for him to start a small business, get back on his feet, get out of debt. And when you say w, he was essentially homeless and had W2s of less than 30 grand, there's going to be withholdings on those W2s, it could be a refund and he may actually owe. So you, you may think, oh, there's nothing I don't owe. Buckle up there. You might have some o, you might have some refunds. I don't know. But get those returns done. Email me mark@markjcohler.com and put in their prior year returns and we'll get you some referrals.

Next question from Johnny Midas.

Let's see.

I made one. I made only one crypto sale for only $393 in profit. Do I need to claim that or is there a cutoff amount?

There is no cutoff amount. You need to claim it. People. Let me say it this way. There is a cutoff in the sense you do not need to file a tax return this year if you made in total less than $12,950. Now that's federal. See, that's your standard deduction. So if you made last year in 2021, let me get the exact number I gave you, the 2022 number. Okay. Last year, if you made less than $12,550 from all your sources of income w small business, day job, side side hustle, crypto sales, stock sales, whatever. If your total income was less than 12,009, 12,005 50, you don't need to file. But if you made at least 12,000 5:50 on your day job and you had $300 of crypto income, you got to report it. It would be tax evasion not to. You will get a nasty letter from the irs. They have a task force going out in the blockchain finding people's income from crypto sales. Now if you may say some of you, I already filed. I didn't claim that. Amend your return. Check the box on the very first page that yes, I had crypto sales and get over to some of these Crypto services that you can pull your crypto transactions from and amend your tax return. For those of you that haven't filed yet, do the best you can to estimate it and check the box. I had crypto transactions. I don't. I'm still figuring out all mine this weekend. I'm working on my crypto transactions. So there's some great services out there that. Well, Taxbit is the company that sponsored our events this last year. And Tax Bit does a great job helping you pull your crypto transactions, they say. And I've had some clients say it's been good and bad from even your defi wallets, your MetaMask wallet and all those. So you don't have to have mainline mainstream exchanges and you can still get your information from Voyager even though Voyager is a bankruptcy. So make sure you get with those companies and you pull your crypto transactions. Now, I have to give a caveat. You may say, well, I made less than 12,550, so I don't have to file a tax return last year. That's federal in the states. There's about 20 states that are like, oh, our exemption is not 12,550. For example, the big one is California. The standard deduction this year in California is $4,803. So if you made more than 4,800 $803, you've got to file a California return even though you don't have to file a federal return. Now, again, I recommended earlier, always file federal, even if you don't owe. The IRS wants to know what's going on. Here's some other states. Arkansas, $2,200. More than that. You got to file. Georgia, 5,400. Hawaii, 2,200. Illinois, 2325. Indiana, $1,000. That's your standard deduction. A thousand. Any more than that, you got to file in Indiana. Louisiana, 4500. Maryland, 2350. Massachusetts, 4400. So the standard deduction is not 12,000 550 in all the states. That's just your federal. So make sure you look at your state tax return to people. All right, this is my calendar. Get my calendar. Okay, go ahead, James. Sorry, Mike.

This is going to be the last question. I filed my taxes back in April and the IRS still has not processed it. Should I call them to follow up? That's from Crypto Benny.

Oh, crypto Benny. Okay, now everybody, I'm going to repeat that. If you filed your tax return and you haven't heard anything from the irs, maybe you were due a refund and you haven't seen anything before, you call, go to IRS.gov and log in. In fact, that's. I want to just show you here real quick. I think we can get there without too much work. Can you show my screen here? Over here? And okay, you guys can see my screen. This is IRS.gov believe it or not. The IRS has spent billions doing better with their website. And so look right here. I wish I could write on my screen, but I can't. But over on the bottom left, get your refund status. You can go log in. So you may have to create a username and password, yada yada. They want to verify who you are, but have your social available and some other statements. But you can, once you get your username and password, you can check with the IRS constantly on your refund status and other things. So get, get. And you can get your tax record. Mom, you said you've been working on collecting all the statements for your son who was homeless for a while. You may have thought you collected everything. You may have not. Get in there and look at your tax record for the last four years or his son, your son's tax record for the last five years. You can pull the records and find out maybe, oh, he had another W2. We had no idea. So make sure you get all the information. And the IRS website can be very helpful for that. So before you call the irs, give the website a shot and then, yes, call them. It's okay. You give them a call. You know, it's really quite straightforward and they've got, where's my refund? Look at tools and applications, tax withholding information, and then you can contact them right away. The website is actually quite helpful, believe it or not. All right, well, everybody, I want to say thank you for being here. I know it's a little dose of medicine to talk about the irs, but it's okay. The IRS is not going to throw you in jail after you flip them. You're going to have to flip them the bird for a long time. But if you cooperate, you call them, you get in touch with them, you can get things worked out. No one's going to jail. Just communicate. That's the big one. Communicate, Communicate. Communicate and I'll send you some referral help here on those two items on an OIC or prior year's returns. And we're always here for a tax consultation. Be forward thinking. Get with my tax lawyers and talk about doing a tax consultation moving forward and we'll help get you dialed in so that you're making money and saving money as you go, and you're not dealing with this headache in the arrears. So thanks, everybody, and I'll see you next week for another live.