 Internal Revenue Service IRS tax news tax time guide make irs.gov irs.gov the irs website the first stop for tax help why because that's the only help you're gonna get this year actually I added that last bit but anyways here we go IR 2022-35 February 16th 2022 Washington with phone volumes continuing at historic levels the internal revenue service reminds taxpayers irs.gov irs.gov the irs website should be the first stop for taxpayers seeking information and help with their federal taxes so we've known for some time they've been giving information for some time that they're quite backed up both in terms of prior year tax returns that need help for the processing they're currently in tax season and now they're backed up on well they're gonna have the current tax returns that are going through at this point in time as well and the phone volumes is something that they've had a lot of problems with so depending on how you're contacting the irs if you're trying to contact them by phone the likelihood that you actually get through to somebody is fairly low I mean the rates are not that good at this point in time so just for your own sanity you probably want to be starting when asking questions about the irs and taxes going to the irs website possibly trying to set up your account on irs website and see if you could get the information you need from there the irs has multiple different reasons why they're backed up at this point in time partly because through the COVID pandemic thing all the many laws have been changing so the tax code has been changing a lot and a lot of the things that the government is trying to do to help out during this time are basically things that are going through the irs things like stimulus payments things like changing the tax laws things like the child tax credit and the advanced child tax credit so those are all big changes and added work to the irs and then of course when they're trying to trying to force down these mandates on on masking and social distancing and whatnot and trying to trying to enforce that or make businesses do that kind of thing that that means that all those kind of restrictions that are going to make things difficult are actually falling on the Fed first because that's who they have control over first so the Fed and the irs included is probably quite backed up and quite a mess at this point in time so you might not be contacting them by phone too easily and you're going to want to go to their website and pick up the information there and not frustrate yourself too much and just realize that they're most likely very seriously backed up here so available available around the clock irs.gov has a variety of online tools applications and resources there's links to that here available to help people prepare and file their taxes or help with refund tracking research tools like the interactive tax assistance and answers for frequently asked questions there's links to those items here provide in-depth answers on many tax subjects prepare and file taxes online for free taxpayers can use irs free file there's a link to that here that's going to be where you're going to have links third-party software that are typically offering if your income is below a certain threshold the capacity to do this do the tax return for free and with all the changes to the tax law especially for the load of moderate income families and individuals that's where a lot of the changes have happened the low income tax returns are actually probably more complicated due to these refundable credits that can be quite complicated in terms of the earned income tax credit the child tax credit the advanced child tax credit possibly the marketplace deal with the insurance and whatnot those things are kind of complex you need basically software or i would think most people would want software to come come you know calculate that kind of stuff and so you might get access to the free software here out to prepare file their returns they can also set up direct deposit for their refunds which is the fastest way to get their money now remember that if you do anything at this point in time that that makes the tax return not basically be able to automatically be processed it's likely that it's going to be need some actual physical person to take a look at it at the irs and physical people are not allowed in the building because they've sterilized the entire building and that's now that's haven't gone that far but you know there that's where the problem is so they're backed up on that kind of stuff so you want to try to fill out your tax return as properly as possible without any kind of things that are going to trigger their side to need some actual physical people looking at it and so then you want to electronically file typically make sure that you have all your documentation lining up on your tax return to the 1099s the w2s and so on and so forth and if you do the direct deposit if it's a refund then that would make it more automated as well typically so irs free file software products are part of a 20-year partnership with leading tax software providers and make their online tax preparation products available for free with the irs free file is available to any person or family who earns 73 thousand dollars or less in 2021 this represents about 70 percent of taxpayers the irs free file is free when eligible taxpayers go through irs.gov forward slash free file there's a link to that here in addition free file fillable forms the electronic version of paper irs forms are available to all taxpayers earning any income amount now that's a little bit more difficult to use the free file fillable forms because you're basically doing it kind of more by hand but with like pdf files and so that you know that takes a lot more you probably want the software i would try to get the software to help you out with the interview type of process and can give you kind of some internal controls and checks against making errors so they're most useful for those who are comfortable preparing and filling out their own taxes online there's also mill tax there's a link to that here also available for members of the military and qualifying veterans so mill tax if you have the capacity to do that if you're a member of the military it might be more geared towards people in the military but i'm not sure if it's actually better than some of these other free softwares that might have the capacity to fill out the tax return or should you would think for the military as well even though it's not geared towards that the reason i'm kind of i'm not totally sure is because you know obviously the the proprietary software is being tested on the market and so and whereas the mill tax is something that's been done by the government and so i'm not sure if they're keeping up with you know competitive market standards or not maybe they are maybe it's good maybe it's not never used it before but there it is the department of defense program generally offers free online tax preparation and e-filing software for federal returns and up to three state returns users can also set up direct deposit for their refunds find answers with the interactive tax assistant there's a link to that here the interactive tax assistant answers general tax law questions including helping to determine if a type of income is taxable or if someone is eligible to claim certain credits and deductions with changes to income and other life events for many in 2021 tax credits and deductions can mean more money in the taxpayers pocket get an identity protection pin an identity protection pin the ip pin is a six digit number that prevents criminals from filing a fraudulent tax return using another taxpayer social security number the ip pin is known only to the taxpayer and the irs and helps the irs verify taxpayers identity when they file their electronic or paper tax return so obviously at this point in time because of of the changes to the laws and we got the earned income tax credits to recovery rebate credits and the the stimulus payments and basically all this stuff the child tax credit the advanced child tax credits the identity theft is becoming a bigger more valuable type of thing if someone could fraudulently basically prepare tax returns and possibly get access to some of these credits and whatnot so so it's like it's more likely that this kind of identity theft thing could go up so one way you can kind of guard against that you might be said well how am i how in the world am i going to guard against my social security number being out there at this digital age at this point in time when i've had it since i'm a child and i've had to give it to every financial institution and work in institution and whatnot i've ever done business with my entire life and whatnot so one way to do that would be to say well with the irs that you can get another identity pin number so that someone cannot you can preemptively try to stop someone from filing a fraudulent tax return with your personal information if they have access to your social security number so it's a bit more of a hassle on your end to do that but if you prevent someone from filing a fraudulent tax return and have to go through the trouble of then telling the irs no that wasn't me that filed it and then filing it again and whatnot then it could be it could be a good you know a good preventative thing especially if you know that your your identity information has been compromised so locate locate local free tax preparation the irs volunteers income tax assistance the v ita there's a link to that here program offers free basic tax return preparation electronic filing indirect deposit of refunds to qualify taxpayers the program is free for people who generally make $58,000 or less those with disabilities taxpayers with English as a second language the tax counseling for the elderly the tce there's a link to that here program also offers free tax help for taxpayers particularly those age 60 and older the v ita slash tce site locator there's a link to that here can help eligible taxpayers find the nearest community based the ita slash tce site staffed by irs trained and certified volunteers there's a link to that here find a local tax professional irs.gov offers a searchable directory that helps taxpayers find qualified local tax professionals there's a link to that here in their area the list can be sorted by credentials and qualifications irs tips for choosing a tax preparer and how to avoid unethical ghost return preparers there's links to that here are important starting points before hiring a tax professional online account can help taxpayers can securely access their individual online account to view important information they can use to file an accurate tax return this includes so you can log into the irs kind of like you log into your bank and whatnot before they were trying to do facial recognition so you might have thought you know that it was kind of ridiculous to try to log in before because you know it's like my bank doesn't want facial recognition but i think they stopped that now so they stopped that they're not trying to they're not trying to get the facial recognition so it should be easier to get into your online account which would be nice because you might have some information necessary including advanced child tax credit and economic impact payment account amounts total amounts of advanced child tax credit payments and economic impact payments need to take complete an accurate return and fund on the tax records page so they sent out these advanced child tax credit and the economic impact credits we know from last year that the economic impact payments and the related recovery rebate credit was one of the areas that people did not get correct or you know there's problems with it of course and it resulted in part of the reason they got the large backlog at this point in time as well we would expect that to happen again because now the child tax credit is new and the economic impact payment so you got to get those payments you know lined up if you want the tax returned to be processed smoothly so adjusted gross income taxpayers can find their agi from their most recently filed tax return this helps if they use a different tax software or tax preparer this year estimate of tax payment amounts the total of any estimated tax payment made during the year or refunds applied as a credit can be found on the account balance page and a record of each payment appears under payment activity communication preference individuals can update their communication preferences they can request personalized email notifications for new digital notices and go paperless for certain notices from the irs tax transcripts taxpayers can view print or download tax transcripts after the irs has processed the return which can show return and or account data they can also find changes or transactions made after they filed their original return make a tax payment taxpayers can make a payment from their bank account through their online account or with irs direct pay an online account they can view up to five years of their payment history and any pending or scheduled payments taxpayers can see their different payment options on irs.gov which include electronic refunds withdrawal during e-filing credit or debit card check or money order or cash at a participating retail store i love that you can pay it in cash that just cracks me up it just it just makes me think that they're if you are getting income you know from i don't anyways set up a payment plan taxpayers can meet their tax obligation in monthly installments by setting up that payment plan on irs.gov forward slash payment plan in a matter of minutes set up fees may apply for some types of plans and offer and compromise is a way for taxpayers to settle their tax debt for less than the full amount be careful with the offer and compromise because that basically means that that you're you're not you don't have the capacity to file so there's there's pretty standard kind of rules to go go through it and you can check all those out in more detail if that's an option for you a pre-qualifier tool is available online if the irs determines that taxpayer is unable to pay it may temporarily delay collection under the taxpayers financial condition improves track refunds with where's my refund taxpayers can receive the most up-to-date information about their tax refund using where's my refund tool on irs.gov and on the official irs mobile app irs to go the irs to go app the super coolest app ever so you can do your irs stuff on your phone which is that's nice it offers great mobile features users can check the status of income tax refund within 24 hours after the irs accepts their electronically filed return or about four weeks after mailing a paper return the irs to go app also provides easy access to mobile friendly payment options like irs direct pay offering a free secure way to pay directly from a bank account it can locate free tax help connect to the to irs social media accounts and can generate login security codes for certain irs online services allowing the retrieval of codes through irs to go instead of using text messages irs outreach connection the outreach connection page provides information for groups inside and outside the tax community subscribers to outreach connection can keep clients employees customers constituents partners and constituents partners and even family connected to tax related users information and materials for tax topics and issues that affect them this release is part of the tax time guide there's a link to that here a series of news releases designed to help taxpayers get the information they need to file tax accurate return additional help is available in publication 17 your federal income tax for individuals on irs.gov so all that is a long-winded way of the iris saying don't call us just look at our website so there's links to all that information here and there'll be links to this in the description