LEXINGTON, Ky. (WDKY) – Less than two weeks remain until the cut-off date for the individual tax return on May 17th.
With all of the stimulus packages and late tax changes by Congress, some accountants have dubbed this the most unusual tax season ever.
CPAs face a lot of change.
“I’ve been training for 32 years and with all the changes I haven’t seen anything as crazy as this season,” said CPA Dana Overall.
Overall, it says it all starts with the Cares Act in March 2020. Part of the bill allowed people to get out of retirement with no penalty … but they had to pay taxes on income.
“Whenever we deal with someone filing tax returns now, we have to do some calculations. Is it better to pay taxes now? Overall, said.
Then came December 27th, 2020
Another Covid law with more tax regulations.
“That date was so close to the date the IRS traditionally began accepting tax returns that the IRS had to postpone tax returns for an additional three weeks, except for tax returns,” said Overall.
Lots of changes, but overall it got worse.
“And then, in the middle of the tax season, at a point where I was working 74 days in a row because of all these tax changes, Congress passed another Covid bill on March 10,” Overall said
More tax regulations.
And a week later, the IRS moved the single filing due date to May 17th.
At this point, some of its 700 customers had already submitted an application for 2020. With all this change, Overall was looking for a clarification of tax law.
“It got to the point where we update our professional tax software once or twice a week,” said Overall.
Then there was a record number of Kentuckians filing for unemployment, along with three major Covid tax relief regulations. It was a lot of adjustment for 2020.
“With these three Covid relief bills, all of these tax returns have multiplied. It was just too much to keep up, but we did it,” said Overall.
Overall, it means bring your information together and take it to your accountant. Don’t wait until the last minute because it’s been a long tax season for CPAs.
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