October

Newsletter

It may seem a bit early, but at Jellison CPA, we are already making plans for the upcoming tax season. It's easy to think that you have a lot of time to get yourself organized and then next thing you know, April 15 is right around the corner. One comment I often get is "I can't remember what was needed to do my taxes". So for the upcoming tax year, here is a list of must haves (if they are applicable) for every tax return. Some of our clients will have additional items, but these items you want to look out for in your mail or email, and put them in your designated "tax paperwork spot".

This is going to be a challenging year for us at Jellison CPA. The staffing vacancy that we have had for the last few months remains open, meaning that we have one less person to process tax returns. In years past, if you brought in your tax documents before our March 15 deadline, we could almost guarantee that your return would be done before April 15. Unfortunately, this year we can't be as accommodating as we have in the past.

A few things to keep in mind if you bring us your documents after March 15th and we tell you your return is going to be extended:

1. We intend for this to be a one time only event. Our plan is to have a new team member in place before next fall and ready for the 2024 tax season.
2. We plan to have all extended tax returns (that have all their documents submitted) completed by May 30.
3. No tax return will be started unless we have at least 90% of your documents submitted. If you bring in the organizer and your W2 and we still need all the rest of the items listed above, we will not start your return until you provide the rest of the documentation.

We understand that this is not an ideal situation, and certainly not one that we wanted to be in, but we are hoping that you will be patient and kind and know that our team is working long hours and doing our very best to continue to provide you with the service and product that you have known and valued.

NEW PHONE SERVICE

As many of our business clients know our payroll team is mostly working remotely and speaking directly to them has been difficult. Until now! We are happy to announce that we are partnering with a new phone company that allows us to transfer calls to our payroll staff directly. If they are not available, you will be able to leave them a voicemail and they will return your call as soon as possible. We are hoping that with this new system, working with our payroll team will be a easier.

Be sure you are using the correct phone number: 810-991-1761. With our old phone system, we had 3 different lines in order to accomodate our staff. The other two lines are no longer active, so double check your phone directory to be sure you have the correct line saved!

PAYROLL Clients...

Please, if you are emailing our office regarding a matter relating to payroll, use the payroll email, [email protected]. That way, anyone on the team can address your question.

Federal Form I-9 has been released!

All new hires and rehires will need to use the new forms. The most notable addition to the new form is the inclusion of a checkbox that allows employers enrolled in E-Verify to indicate that they have examined the employee’s identity and employment authorization documents remotely, if applicable. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) authorized an alternate procedure for remote document examination for employers, which must fulfill the following requirements: 

·    Be enrolled in E-Verify and in good standing;

·    Examine and retain copies (front and back) of all relevant identity and employment authorization documents;

·    Conduct a live video interaction with the employee to verify the authenticity of the presented documents, front and back; and

·    Create an E-Verify case for new hires to ensure compliance with the employment eligibility verification process.

This is great news for employers that already use E-Verify, as they now have an easier, compliant way to verify documents for employees operating remotely. Simply using FaceTime, Zoom or Teams will make this process quick and easy for employers going forward.

To find the new form and instructions, click on the link.

1040 CLIENTS: if you dropped off documents earlier in the year for tax preparation and didn't get them back, you have until Friday November 3, 2023 to arrange to pick them up. Any documents remaining in our office at the end of the day on the 3rd will be shredded.

Client Portal

After much consideration and recognizing the struggle that many of our clients have with the authentication piece of the portal, we will be discontinuing access to the portal for all 1040 clients at the end of the year. If you have returns prior to 2022 in the portal that you haven't saved to your home storage, please do so before December 30, 2023. Feel free to contact the office if you need assistance. Keep in mind, all 2022 returns sent electronically will be found on the new platform Safe Send. If you did not save the original link to return to Safe Send, please let us know and we will provide one for you.

Have a safe and spooky Halloween!

Office Hours

Monday-Friday

9:00am-4:000pm