2024 Tax Organizers

Both electronic and paper organizers have been sent out to all of our 1040 clients. If you have not received yours, please call or email Kim at the office. If you received your organizer electronically last year and you haven't seen an invitation in your email, please check your junk/spam folder, it may have landed there.

As with last year, you are more than welcome to complete the organizer online, and then drop off your documents to the office. We are asking that you at least sign the engagement letter, answer the custom questions and review the information in the organizer. Then come in with your documents and get your cookie!

For those with the electronic organizer, there are some people that are struggling with the signatures on the engagement letter. SafeSend requires that the taxpayer signs first and then the spouse will be able to sign. We have requested SafeSend change this feature and are hopeful that they will. Until then, if you go into the organizer and everything is greyed out, your spouse has to go in first. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Once you have completed each section, you must hit the FINISH button. That is the only way we know in the office that you have completed the entire organizer. We know that there are organizers that sit far too long because we aren't sure if you are done or not.

Not sure if you should send something? You have two options:

1. Send it! The tax preparer can go through and weed out the things that aren't necessary.
2. Put a note in the notes section of the organizer or add a note with your drop off documents. For example, note that you have $500 in receipts for charitable donations, the preparer will see the note and if they believe that you can use those donations for the return, they will reach out and advise you to send them in.

Don't forget, March 14 is the deadline to turn in your documents if you want a guarantee that your return is done by April 15. Anything submitted after March 30 will have an extension filed.

SafeSend Portal

We are excited to be working again with SafeSend. We feel that the platform is offering more and more positive and helpful products that not only make sharing information and documentation with clients easier and safer, but also allows us to get you the things you need more efficiently.

You may have noticed when opening your organizer, there was an option to open the portal. This is a new feature for SafeSend and one that allows you to see the pending tasks you have as well as documents that you have received and tax payments you need to make.

To get started you will need to enter your email and create a pin. The pin needs to be 6 numbers and you will share the same pin with your spouse. Once inside, if you are married, I recommend that you go to the security setting (on the left) and under merge emails add your spouse's email, or anyone that you would want to have access to your portal. On the home screen anything that you need to do, such as completing the organizer or signing the tax return will be listed. Under the documents tab, you will see correspondence and items that have been sent to you through our secure exchange email. Finally the tax payments tab will show you any invoices for tax returns, vouchers for tax payments and tax estimates.

Please note: if you write a check for a tax payment or estimate, SafeSend does not know you did that unless you document it in the system. It will only acknowledge online payments you make through the SafeSend.

Business Standard Mileage Rate Increases for 2025

The IRS increased the optional standard mileage rate used to calculate the deductible costs of operating a vehicle for business to 70 cents per mile driven, up 3 cents from 2024. The increased rate is effective as of Jan. 1, 2025 (Notice 2025-5).

The notice, released Thursday, sets the 2025 standard mileage rates at 21 cents per mile driven for medical purposes and at 21 cents per mile for moving purposes for qualified active-duty members of the armed forces, which is unchanged from 2024.

The rate per mile driven in service of charitable organizations is set by statute and will remain at 14 cents per mile.

The rates apply to electric and hybrid-electric automobiles, as well as gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles.