Now easier to qualify for a penalty-free retirement distribution
The CARES Act provided taxpayers with the option to take penalty-free coronavirus-related withdrawals of retirement funds of up to $100,000 in the aggregate between January 1, 2020, and December 31, 2020. To qualify for the penalty relief, taxpayers must have... Read More →
Rule Change for the PPP!
In the tradition of having a major tax law change every few days during 2020, Congress has now passed the PPP Flexibility Act and the President is expected to sign it. The key features of the bill: Extending the loan... Read More →
Stimulus Check by Prepaid Debit Card
The Treasury recently announced that nearly four million people are being sent their Economic Impact Payment by prepaid debit card, instead of paper check. The determination of which taxpayers receive a debit card was made by the Bureau of the... Read More →
California Unemployment – more benefits are coming
Increased Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) benefits The EDD recently announced that as of May 20, the EDD is now able to increase the weekly benefit amounts paid to eligible workers applying for the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program or already... Read More →
I got PPP money and EIDL money… now what?!
When the pandemic hit, many nervous business owners applied for everything that they could to keep their businesses afloat. Now they are seeing random amounts of money being deposited in their bank account and don’t know what to do. Economic... Read More →
Worksheet for Calculating PPP forgiveness
On May 15, 2020 the SBA released a worksheet for calculating PPP loan forgiveness. Note: this worksheet does not provide any more official guidance or definitions on what is forgivable. So taxpayers and their advisors are still in the dark about... Read More →
Refund of Room and Board that was paid with a 529 plan. What do I do with the money?
[UPDATED] The IRS released Notice 2020-23 which extends the deadline for returning refunds to the 529 plan for taxpayers impacted by COVID-19. For any recontribution that has a due date between April 1 and July 15th the “60-day deadline” is... Read More →
Last Chance to get Direct Deposit of your Stimulus Check
If you want your stimulus check to arrive soon and by direct deposit, you need to update your information in Get My Payment by noon on Wednesday, May 13th, the IRS announced today. Starting later this month, the number of... Read More →
Property Tax – Relief from Penalties
If you were unable to pay your California property taxes on time due to COVID-19, you can get relief from penalties, costs, and interest between April 10th when they were due and May 6th. The governor signed an executive order... Read More →
California does not follow Federal law for all the CARES Act benefit
Being a California tax preparer is an exciting job because we get to memorize two versions of the tax law: Federal Tax Law and California Tax Law. Sometimes the Feds and CA are the same… and sometimes they are different. But,... Read More →