Happy New Year!
Welcome to the first ZP newsletter of the year (and the follow up to our first one ever last month – what did you think of it, by the way? Drop us a note and let us know if it wasn’t a total snoozer). We hope everyone had a safe and fun night ringing in 2020. As for myself, it was a quiet evening with my family watching movies until the clock struck midnight – a far cry from past new year’s eves spent celebrating in Las Vegas, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Marsha threw coins at her kids, including one recovering from the flu – apparently, it’s a Filipino thing (throwing coins, not having the flu).
We’re very excited to work with you this upcoming season! Some of you have been around for awhile and are familiar with our comfortable, easy-going approach to tackling everything tax-related to make tax season as pleasant and as stress-free as possible. Others are new to our circle and haven’t experienced just how, dare I say, fun…tax season can be! Ok, maybe not fun, but definitely better than going to the dentist for a root canal or cleaning up a diaper explosion.
For our monthly clients (hey there, superstars!), we’re just about finished reconciling December and will automatically conduct a year-end review of your QuickBooks to resolve any outstanding questions, close out the year, and finalize your financial statements. We’ll be in touch soon to talk shop in the coming weeks to discuss how 2019 went and to help set goals for 2020 that are important and meaningful to you. It’s going to be an amazing year, we just know it!
For those of you who have QuickBooks but manage the account yourselves, congratulations! You’ve officially moved to the head of the class and get a gold star. We’d like to offer a year-end review of all those transactions you so lovingly tracked and categorized to make sure everything is properly recorded, reconciled, and accurate before we move on to tax prep. This includes possibly highlighting things that seem to be a bit of a mystery or need your input and explanation. Once the review is complete we can prepare your business tax return, and if you don’t have a separate business entity (ask us about that!), we’ll hang tight until you’ve received all the rest of your tax documents needed to prepare your personal tax return.
If you don’t have QuickBooks but have been diligently tracking your income and expenses throughout the year, you’re also winning! We’ll still want to do a cursory review of your spreadsheet, Google doc, or similar file type to make sure we understand everything, and it’s 2020 – don’t send us a shoe box of receipts. That’s truly no bueno for everyone involved and since we don’t need to see that kind of documentation anyway, save your shoe box, add up your receipts and put the totals by category in Excel or a Google Sheet. Whatever format works best for you, but please, no shoe boxes!
If none of the above applies to you, all I can say is … good luck! Of course, I’m only kidding…please reach out and we can help you get a system in place to organize all of your 2019 numbers and to stay on top of your business income and expenses for this year and beyond. Help us help you save time and money, while avoiding the possibility of delays, filing extensions, penalties and fees. Nobody likes to pay the IRS more than their share! Try not to procrastinate though – April 15th will sneak up on you faster than your 40th birthday (at least that’s how I feel…mine is next week, yikes!).
Here are some quick bits of information you need to know:
- Tax season officially begins Monday, January 27th. This is the first day the IRS will begin accepting electronically filed tax returns.
- Our tax season office hours will also begin on January 27th – if you are local, stop by to say hi, drop off your tax papers, bring us coffee, admire my Snoopy collection or just hang out. We love to see your faces! I’ll be here with my tax ‘gang’ Monday through Friday from 10-7pm and Saturday 10-5pm through tax day, April 15th.
- If you’re not in the Chicagoland area (hopefully it’s somewhere warm!) then you will need to submit all of your documents via the Google Drive shared folder we’ve set up for you. Let us know if you need a re-link and we’ll get on that right away.
I want to introduce you to Sylvia, our newest addition to the ZP staff. She’s not only an accounting and bookkeeping whiz (much to Marsha’s delight), but she’s EXCITED TO DIVE INTO TAX PREP. Alert! Alert! I’ve found a kindred soul and I couldn’t be happier to have another set of hands on deck this tax season. If you happen to swing by our office I’ll introduce you to Sylvia, my young padawan (baby Yoda?).
We also want to remind you that it’s our goal to take care of our clients as we would take care of our own family. Our services stretch far beyond tax preparation and we would love to help guide you in the right direction of achieving any financial goals you have in mind throughout the year. From bookkeeping, accounting, planning for retirement, saving for college, getting married, buying a home, planning for the unexpected or simply maximizing tax savings, we are happy to help you crunch the numbers and offer sound recommendations. Remember, we are always available year round, not just during tax season. Don’t be a stranger!
Well, that’s it for this ‘tax’ edition of our newsletter! If you’re thoroughly confused, your head is spinning, or just click the button below and get in touch with us. We promise to do everything we can to help.