WHAT’S THE BUZZ, TELL ME WHAT’S A HAPPENNIN’?

* Attention NJ taxpayers – you may soon be getting a check in the mail from your Uncle Phil for up to $500 (highlight is mine) -   
 
“Beginning July 2, 2021, the Middle Class Tax Rebate will be issued to eligible New Jersey residents that file a 2020 resident Income Tax return (NJ-1040) with a tax balance of $1 or more. There is no need to apply for this rebate. A rebate will be calculated automatically for eligible taxpayers when you file your NJ-1040.”
 
For more information go here.
 
* Kay Bell provides a “Guide to IRS online ways to get, track or change Advance Child Tax Credit payments” at DON’T MESS WITH TAXES.
 
She prefaces the post with a warning –
 
“Don't fall for scammers who falsely say they can help you get, or get more, of the enhanced Child Tax Credit amounts that started going out this week. Instead, get help from a tax pro or use the Internal Revenue Service's online tools.”
 

* The recent report by the National Taxpayer Advocate reported that at the end of the 2021 tax filing season the IRS faced a backlog of over 35 million individual and business income tax returns that require manual processing.  This includes about 16.8 million manual (paper) returns waiting to be processed and about 2.7 million amended returns awaiting processing.  And that does not count the backlog of correspondence.

 

Russ Fox emphasizes what you need when waiting for a federal refund or a response to correspondence in “At Least I’m Not Classified as “Dead” at TAXABLE TALK -

 

“The overall theme when dealing with the IRS remains the same: patience.  You need it when dealing with the IRS.  I do expect things to slowly improve once the IRS moves employees back to the Service Centers (probably this Fall), but given the humongous backlog it will takes years for the IRS to be back to normal.”

 

There is hope for those waiting for refunds.  I have heard from 3 clients recently who have finally received their 2020 refunds.

 

BTW – a few years ago I also had a client who received a letter from the IRS telling him the Service was not issuing his requested refund because he was dead.  Thankfully it did not take 7 years to fix.

 

TTFN

{Once again I DID NOT enter the first few paragraphs in all caps. The Blogger system is apparently totally FU-ed and automatically does this - I have no idea why.}