Welcome to Tax Season 2022!
Hello my wonderful tax clients!
 
What a year it has been, 2021 felt like the never-ending hangover from 2020, but I feel like I am starting to crawl out of the mess and I hope you are too! I am very much looking forward to what I hope will be a normal tax season, with no extensions or midyear law changes, but I am still holding my breath cause I don't want to jinx it! I hope you are well, or at least well in 2020 adjusted terms. That being said, there are some MAJOR changes to how things are working this year, so please read this letter carefully! And if you lose it, it will be posted on my blog!
 

1. New E-Signature requirements: The state of NY has decided to require e-signatures to meet a relatively high standard of security. If you have to file in NY (resident, part-year, or nonresident!) and we are doing things online, then when you sign documents you have to use what is called Knowledge-Based Authentication, or KBA. You've probably done something like this if you have applied for a credit card online or opened a bank account, you will be asked 4 or so questions about addresses you have lived at, cars you have owned, etc. I will not see any of this information, it is done by the credit bureaus. Rest assured, this is NOT a hard credit check and will not affect your credit in any way, it's merely a way to verify your identity securely. If for some reason, you are unable to verify your identity this way, you will have to print out the NY signature page and sign it and scan or mail it back to me. This is only needed for NY documents, everything else can use regular e-signature. This shouldn't be a big deal, but it is a change so I wanted everyone to have a heads up so there are no surprises!
   
   
2. New signature and document system: To comply with these new requirements, I have switched to a new signature and document storage system. Where I used to use AdobeSign and Sharefile, now both functions will be handled by a new system called TaxDome. This shouldn't be a big deal for you, but you will notice that where you send me files will look different than last year. I have updated my how-to videos for the new system, so hopefully you will have no troubles.
   
   
3. In Person Appts return! At least that is my hope! As long as nothing drastic happens, I plan on coming to NY to see people in late March, tentatively March 12-23. If you think there is a high possibility you would want one of these appts, please let me know of your interest by signing up here at SignUp Genius. This is NOT a guarantee/obligation of an appt, this is just for me to get a potential headcount so I can plan how long/short my trip should be. I will finalize plans for my trip by February 15, and that's when sign up for NY appts will open on my website, so keep an eye out for that! And if anything changes with this, it will be announced on my blog. All in-person appts will require proof of vaccination and whatever masking recommendation is in effect from NYC and/or the CDC at the time. In Person appts will also require a $50 deposit as I expect them to be in pretty high demand, the full policy will be on the website.
   
   
4. New Videos! I have done/will be doing a whole series of videos on how to fill out my forms and spreadsheets, and hopefully answer most questions you would have, so that we can spend our appointment time more efficiently, and hopefully to make filling all this out feel less daunting. Please do let me know if you find these helpful! They should be coming out over the next couple of weeks.
   
   
5. Pricing: I have made a few minor changes to pricing this year. Base prices are remaining the same in general. However, last year for 2020, I brought back the sliding scale because I knew a lot of you had a bad year and needed a break. I know 2021 was hopefully somewhat better, but definitely not back to normal, so I am doing one more year of the sliding scale, but cutting the discounts in half. So if last year, you got $40 off from the sliding scale, this year it would be $20, etc. Then we will be back to normal for 2022 (I hope!) I have also slightly changed the early-bird discount. Way back when I first started, most people paid me in cash so I tried to keep my discounts in $10 increments. I realized this is now totally silly in a Venmo world! So now, the early-bird discount goes down each week instead of two weeks, and by $5 instead of $10. Here is the schedule:
   By Jan 30 $50 off
   By Feb 6 $45 off
   By Feb 13 $40 off
   By Feb 20 $35 off
   By Feb 27 $30 off
   By Mar 6 $25 off
   By Mar 13 $20 off
   By Mar 20 $15 off
   By Mar 27 $10 off
   By Apr 3 $5 off
   The final change is that I am limiting the returning client discount to a max of 11 years, or $50. I'm a little amazed that I have managed to do this so long to have people that have been with me 11 years, but I realized if I am gonna keep going with this I better make a policy about it sooner rather than later! And just like last year, you can get a price quote using the tool on my website, please do not email to ask for a more specific quote.
   
   
6. New Appt Readiness tool! My amazing husband who programmed the price quote tool has programmed me a new one debuting this year: Are You Ready to Schedule Your Tax Appt? I get lots of emails each year asking if it's ok to schedule despite missing this or that thing, so I made a flow chart and my husband put it on the website. Go through the questions to see if you are ready to schedule, or if you need to wait for that document to come in!
   
   
7. On the subject of readiness: This is our first normal season in two years without an extension of time, so it's going to be a fun season fitting everyone in to the compressed time. Please be conscientious about scheduling your appointment – be sure you will be able to get all your docs together and have all your forms and spreadsheets filled out before we start. Please try not to abuse the cancellation system. And please have everything uploaded to me on time. If you feel you need a pre-tax appt chat to help get you ready, you can schedule a Personal Financial Planning Appt during January on the website at $50/hr.
   
   
8. New for Email Only Returns: I have decided to offer optional 15 minute finish up calls for people who are doing their returns just through email and not a regular appt. Once we are done, you've paid, and you see your full copy of your return, if you have a desire to go over anything with me, you can sign up for a short call then. This will not be on the website, the link will come from me in an email.

 

1. New forms for 2021: Just about all of you hopefully received that third stimulus last March/April for $1400 per person, and if so you should be getting a letter confirming how much you got. In order to get your refund in a timely manner, it is very important you keep that letter and give it to me with your documents, especially if you didn't get the full amount! If we have to guess and put in the wrong number, it will delay things. This even MORE important if you have been getting the Advanced Child Tax Credit. You will be getting a letter, Letter 6419, stating how much you already got so I can reconcile the credit, and it will be a major issue if we get it wrong, so when that letter comes in, SAVE IT! And if your address has changed, make sure you update it on the CTC portal so the letter comes to the right place!
   
   
2. Fall Warning: Tax season should (hopefully!) end as normal this year on April 18th (the 15th is on a Friday so we get an extra weekend) This being an election year, I will be very focused on other things the rest of the year (doing political parody shows, volunteering for campaigns, etc) So I am strongly urging you to get your taxes done during the season or shortly thereafter. Come Aug/Sep/Oct, I will not have a lot of time to do extended returns, and prices will reflect that.
   
   
3. 4th Quarter Estimated Tax Payments are due Jan 15, for the months of September, October, November, and December! There are how-to videoson my website that walk you through actually making a payment, and feel free to email me if you need any advice about how much to pay. If you just got a contracting job late in the year, if you want to avoid penalties it is a good idea to make a payment now rather than wait til tax time!
   
   
4. Health Insurance: The marketplace is still open and will be til Jan 15! You can still get coverage starting in February. This year the subsidies have been extended past the income limit they used to have (was around 50k for a single person in NY) and can be given to much higher income levels based on how expensive insurance is. Also the subsidies are much more generous for people in lower incomes (24k-30kish) so if you haven't found it worth it in the past, you might now. Feel free to schedule a personal financial planning appt with me to discuss your options, free of charge!
   
   
5. Communications: As always, please only use email to communicate with me about taxes, please do not call/text/DM me unless we have something scheduled. And if you have a question about general procedure, like scheduling, prices, uploading etc, there is a 90% chance the answer is on the website or I have a video to help you with it. Please check those resources first before you email me, so I can focus on answering those tricky tax questions you have! If something tax-related happens in the news, check my blog, though I really really hope I won't need to keep updating things like last year! Whew!

 
Alright, I think that's enough for today, thanks for sticking with me through all that! I can't wait to hear about how everything is going for you all, so head over to the website when ready!
 
Safely distanced, vaxxed, and masked love to you all!
 
Your Friendly Neighborhood Tax Preparer,
Jennifer