 internal revenue service IRS tax news extension filers irs.gov irs.gov irs.gov is the source for summertime tax help agency encourages people to file soon breaking down that headline the irs is basically saying stop calling us just use our website we have neither the capacity nor the desire to talk to you although we did add two brand new bot options to our telephone answering machine also you best get your dang tax returns filed soon if you know what's best for you that's right I'm looking at you Tommy anyways first an attempt at a joke there must be a lot of scientists out there the ones that actually do the grunt work of science oh I'm the one that does the grunt was things like perform a empirical test after empirical test to see how the world really works possibly trying to understand something as complicated as the human genome complicated which complicated which contains so much data it would be like trying to make a detailed map of the multiverse who get fed up with political scientists by political scientists I don't mean philosophers of politics but rather scientists who are really politicians political scientists I know terms are getting confusing these days they must get particularly angry with the scientists who are really politicians political scientists that are primarily self-motivated because that means they're not actually scientifically motivated or motivated by seeking truth I care about the truth scientists are usually a calm and reserved bunch but can you imagine if a real scientists finally got mad at a political scientist like dr. Fauci doctor we believe that the purpose of science is to serve mankind you however seem to regard science as some kind of dodge or hustle your theories are the worst kind of popular tribe your methods are sloppy and your conclusions are highly questionable you are a pool of scientists but what about my gain of function labs in China the Chinese are really treating me well over there and I feel like we're totally in the clear now with that whole COVID thing it being taken care of by my brilliant wet market bat eating story will no longer continue any funding of any kind for your group's activity oh but the communists love us I are 2022-137 July 13th 2022 Washington with millions of people still waiting to file their tax returns procrastinators just kidding the IRS reminds them to file as soon as possible and take advantage of special tools available on the irs.gov irs.gov irs.gov v for victory over tax questions because you're not going to get much victory on the phone they can help them file summer may be a busy time for many but it's a great time to start tax planning so that's the first thing people usually think with summertime comes around I'm going to have a little bit more time I could do some tax planning whether you still need to file a 2021 tax return or start planning for next year's tax season so even if you're up to date on stuff you already filed your tax return on time and you're not on extension of course you still could do some tax planning in summertime that's what it's for that's why we have a summer so the IRS website is the fastest and most convenient way to get tax related information and help so they're basically of course saying here don't call us use the website we have nor the time nor the capacity to talk to people on the phones although we did improve our answering machine as we talked about earlier with a couple bot options the online tools are available anytime so taxpayers can use them at their convenience so 24 7 website it's amazing how does the iris even do that their website's up 24 7 wow so here are some important reasons for taxpayers to visit irs.gov this summer get tax information 24 7 their website never crashes like for the most part taxpayers can use irs.gov to view the filing page there's a link to that here to get information on most federal income tax topics access the interactive tax assistance tool there's a link to that here for answers to many tax law questions signed into their individual irs online account there's a link to that here to view their balance on tax records manage communication preferences make payments and more find the most up-to-date information about their tax refunds using the where's my refund tool and obviously if you call the irs looking for some of these things like the refund for example they're probably just going to be using the same tool to look it up so you might as well be using the website for us for some of this general kind of question stuff taxpayers can check the status of their refund 24 hours after the irs acknowledges receipt of an e-filed return taxpayers can also download the official irs mobile app irs to go which is clearly the super cool way to interact with the irs you could be you know out and about on a roller coaster or something and then pay your tax bill or something i don't have it yet because i'm not super cool but uh i'm going to look into that app the app on my phone so check their refund status make payments find free tax preparation assistance sign up for helpful tax tips and more just right from the irs to go app adjust withholding now to avoid tax surprises next year so make sure you got your withholdings lined up because you know the irs is wheeled in those sticks penalties and interest to hit you with if you don't have metaphorically speaking if you don't pay the right way summer is a great time for taxpayers to check their withholding to avoid a tax surprise next filing season life events like marriage divorce having a child or change in income can affect taxes so any of these big life choices marriage divorce having a child you should of course do the tax planning first and if the tax isn't a favorable uh condition then move forward with like getting married or divorcing or having a child or something but don't just kidding you probably don't want to do it just like that but you do want to have a consideration that they will have a significant tax implication and make sure that you are prepared for that as you make your choices most likely not completely dependent on the tax code so the irs tax withholding estimator there's a link to that here on irs.gov helps employees assess their income tax credits adjustments and deductions and determine whether they need to change their withholding so you can check your withholdings online pretty much everybody wants to kind of do this these days because the last few years have been quite turbulent in terms of the taxes because usually we'd like kind of a static tax code because it's already too complex for us to actually figure out what the taxes will be therefore we have to estimate the taxes that's why we overshoot aiming for a refund uh to get back and now it's even more turbulent because we went through the covid thing people are switching up jobs people are probably taking more than one job in a year for example multiple people might be working and going in and out of jobs and households you might be picking up more gig work we also have families that aren't like single family earning families anymore you got multiple earning families and so on and so forth plus the tax code is changing a lot over the last few years especially for low to moderate income individuals and therefore it's really hard to get the withholdings right so you got to have basically a software to project the withholdings in terms of how much you're going to need to withhold that's what this to tax withholding estimator is getting more and more uh to be basically software that you could use to project your withholdings helping you to fill out your w fours and or make quarterly payments so if a change is recommended the estimator will provide instructions to update their withholding with their employer either online or by submitting a new form w four employee withholding allowance certificate so that's the certificate you give to the employer to tell them that you want to up the withholding don't expect to get uh tax advice from your employer even though they're the ones taking your money because they're not really the ones taking your money the what well they are but they're the ones that are required to take your money by the government and and they don't want to give tax advice because they don't want to get sued so they just want you to file the w four and tell them what to do so they can do it and keep everybody happy including the government and you try not to get sued from either direction so file electronically tax payers who request an extension uh to october 17th or miss the april 18th deadline there's a link to that here can still prepare and file and e file returns for free with irs free files so this is becoming more and more mandatory again as the tax code gets more complicated as the tax code has been changing a lot from the past few years hopefully it'll get back to a static nature so we can plan more better and not have this kind of uncertainty with the laws and whatnot but uh you could still file for free using the free file software the software is becoming more and more useful and necessary to file the tax return so if your income is below a certain threshold you can get access to that if you wait till after the extension filing deadline basically i'm imagining the iris has these tax software companies with their arms behind their back and they're torturing them to offer the software for free due to all the fact that they got all these changes that are happening and low to moderate income people need access to software just to do their tax returns but they can only keep the software providers in that like choke hold until the extension filing deadline and then you'll have to pay for the software if you want the software after that point so take advantage of the software when it's available if that would be applicable to you the irs accepts electronically filed returns 24 7 it's amazing they're they're machine over there doesn't sleep it's like 24 7 you can file the tax return there's just like the mailbox you could put the thing in the mail like at any time and the mailbox doesn't get tired you could open like it opens its mouth like even at midnight but anyway there's no reason to wait until october 17th uh if filers have all the information and documentation they need to file an accurate tax return they can get their refund faster by choosing direct deposit so direct deposit get the refund faster taxpayers who missed the april 18th deadline and oh should file and pay electronically as soon as possible to reduce penalties and interest remember there's a difference between the filing deadline and the payment deadline if you owe money if you owe taxes the irs although you went on extension will still be charging you penalties and interest on the amount that you owe therefore it would behoove you yes behoove you could hoove to be i don't well that's a weird word but it would behoove you to file it sooner or at least pay the taxes that you owe sooner so the iris doesn't have to get their sticks out and start whacking you in the head with penalties in it metaphorically speaking taxpayers can make payments or set up payment plans online find a taxpayer assistance center so the taxpayer assistance center locator tool there's a link to that here has a new look and feel that's great featuring a dynamic map directions button and two tabs for inputting search criteria whew fancieness it's important to remember that taxpayer assistance centers operate by appointment only so you got to make an appointment if you want to talk to the taxpayer assistance center taxpayers can make an appointment by calling the number for the office they want to visit read information in other languages so you can interact with the irs in other languages although no matter what language you're reading in it's still legalese and therefore you won't understand a thing but in any case many irs websites there's a link to that here are now available in spanish vietnamese russian korean hatin krayolian chinese some of the multilingual resources there's a link to that here include taxpayer bill of rights e-file sources and many tax forms and publications access to the alternative media center alternative media it sounds that's that sounds like it's like some kind of uh not not good thing it's why we've got alternative media here instead of anyway at the online alternative media center otherwise known as the amc the amp and taxpayers will find a variety of accessible products to help with the use of assistive technology such as green reading software refreshable braille displays and screen magnifying software so those could be useful obviously for particular situations the braille and the magnification software so these products include tax forms instructions and publications that can be downloaded or viewed online as section 508 compliant pdfs html e braille text and large print so please note that every product is not available in all formats for example tax forms are not available as html to request paper copies of tax forms and instructions or publications and braille or large print taxpayers can call the tax form telephone number at 800 829 3676 there'll be a link to this if you want to go back and check it out here taxpayers can complete form 9 000 alternative media preference there's a link to that here to choose to receive the irs tax notices in braille large print audio or electronic formats this includes notices about additional taxes or penalties owed taxpayers can include the complete form with their tax return mail it as a stand alone form to the irs or they can call 800 829 1040 there'll be a link to this so you can check out all those links and look at the phone numbers i won't read them five times at this time uh keep current with irs tax tips taxpayers can subscribe to irs tax tips here so that's we we're looking at tax tips and well this is tax news you get you can subscribe to tax news too if you want to get easy to read articles sent directly to their email from the irs tax tips are brief to the point and cover various topics tax topics like year-round tax planning and understanding taxpayer rights you've got a right to pay your dang taxes there's links to that here more helpful links there's links below we got the gig economy tax center so if you work in the gig economy the iris likes to remind you that uh you still owe taxes child independent care credit and about form w2 there's links to all that stuff there's links to all the other stuff i said there was a link to and there'll be a link to this in the description