I feel that I must present this blog with an initial warning: there is nothing earthshattering included herein.
In fact, I’ll even tag that with a second warning: there is a lot of nerdy information included. But hey, I find it pretty interesting. With that being said, this all refers to an article that reports on some of the numbers behind the current tax season until early April. Much of the point of the reporting was comparing 2024 numbers to 2023’s, and really, there aren’t a whole lot of differences. The biggest difference was in the number of visits to the IRS.gov website, which was up 19% this year as compared to 2023. Of course, it isn’t super surprising that the amount of people gaining confidence in using the interest is on the rise. The fact that it increased by such a large percentage, however, is still a bit jarring. Like has internet usage really increased by 1/5 in the last year? Hopefully a takeaway from this will be the IRS further commits itself to its digital presence and what taxpayers and tax preparers can do online. This has definitely been an area where the agency has lagged. And even if in the other numbers there aren’t a whole lot of takeaways, I think it’s worth still reminding ourselves about how big these numbers are. Starting right at the top, at the time of these numbers there had already been 80 million returns processed. Take a moment to think about just how big that number is and how much work the IRS is really required to do. And that’s before the end-of-season push followed by everyone who gets an extension. Of those returns, about 55 million of them received a refund. So it is probably also worth pointing out that even though the idea of paying taxes weighs on the mind of many, most people who file taxes actually get some money back. And now when you add all those refunds together, we come to the biggest number that is difficult to fully appreciate. The total amount refunded at this point was $169,411,000,000. Look at how many zeroes that is. That means this amount is in the billions. And not just a few billions, but almost 170 of them. So when one tries to contact the IRS and is sometimes amazed at how slow (or impossible) that can feel like … well, the agency should still do better and people deserve it to better, but at least when looking at some of these numbers, maybe we can understand a little more. Warmly, Josh Bousquet Connect to Us ~ Facebook ~ Twitter
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I could start off this post telling you how the tax deadline is approaching and you would shake your head in the most time-honored “oh, I know” tradition. And yes, the calendar has turned to April so how quickly the 15th is coming is well known. There is another deadline coming, though, and it is not nearly as obvious.
For see, if you own the IRS money and do not file your taxes on time, the agency will hop on that and immediately start charging you fees and interest. If you do not owe the IRS money, though, and do not file your taxes, the agency is not going to track you down so that it can hand you a check. And it’s not as if the IRS doesn’t know it owes people money. The agency gives you three years to file your taxes if you are in this situation. That means it has been sending out notices for those who have not filed for tax year 2020. And the IRS estimates that there is more than $1 billion out there for that year which has not been claimed. Yeah, billion … with a B. So yeah, they know they owe people money. But it’s not as if there are some secret ways that must be followed to get this money. All that must be done is to file a tax return (you have until May 17 to do so). And at that point, even if the IRS hasn’t tracked you down, they will get you that check. It is April then, so yes, tax deadlines are coming. And if this is now a new one that you are aware of, you may want to jump on it before your time goes away to get what amounts to essentially free money. Warmly, Josh Bousquet Connect to Us ~ Facebook ~ Twitter One really can’t sit on your laurels forever, no matter how popular you are. So then - having already shown up in some stores, and coming everywhere next month, are reimagined Chips Ahoy! cookies.
Now when is the last time you thought about a Chips Ahoy! cookie? I imagine it has probably been a long time even if you keep them in your pantry all the time. At some point some things become so ubiquitous that they are just there. Their presence becomes comfortable and at that point they no longer take up any space among conscious thoughts. Getting to this point is obviously a great thing for a product, you gain built-in business by becoming a habit. At the same time, though, that type of omnipresence must also make it difficult to draw in new customers. If you have just always been there, then people think they know what you are, and moving up in someone’s mind becomes difficult. This type of reimagining that Chips Ahoy! is doing then makes sense. First, one must imagine that in the end the cookie isn’t going to be THAT different. If that were the case, then it would likely be packaged as a new product so as not to lose those who do have the habit of enjoying the original. But then one must also think that making such a move will drive some who have not had their cookies in a while to try it again. For this change is enough to shift thinking of their product to the forefront of someone’s mind. After all, I am discussing them here. Last week I never imagined this space would be filled with cookie talk. The lesson here is that it doesn’t always take huge changes to gain some business advantage. Sometimes you just want to frame something in a new way to gain a little extra notice – and hey, maybe after that, your higher cocoa content and Madagascar vanilla extract will even grab some new longtime fans. Also key is that such moves are difficult to turn into losing propositions. Those who are already avid users of your product will not be turned away for you haven’t done anything monstrous to what they are already enjoying. Instead, you just give yourself a chance for growth. So if you are a business owner who has been wanting to grow a little without making any drastic changes, sit back, have a cookie, and think of the power of sounding new. Warmly, Josh Bousquet Connect to Us ~ Facebook ~ Twitter Somehow this year I haven’t been feeling this space with nothing but warnings about how the tax deadline is approaching. At this point, though, I must show up with one since there is less than a month to go before April 15th.
How did that happen? If you find yourself wondering that, then there are a couple things you can do. The first is obviously to gather all your tax information together and get yourself in a position where the time crunch doesn’t feel too terrible. Unfortunately, though, even if you do that, it may already be too late to guarantee that your return can be finished by April 15. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, though. For the second thing you can do when feeling the calendar has whizzed by is to be aware of the possibility of filing an extension. This is a fairly straightforward process where you can gain yourself an extra six months to file your taxes. Six months, really? Yes, really, and that is a significant amount of time that is as long as it feels. Unfortunately, this means that when an extension does come up, it can feel so long that it pushes people right back into further procrastination. This is not something one should immediately fall into, though, for although an extension does give you those extra months to file, it does not give you extra time to pay any taxes you may owe. So while April 15 can pass and the IRS still won’t be expecting your tax return yet, you will begin piling fees and interest on top of what you already owe. If you happen to be on the other end of equation and are expecting a refund, this would not affect you, but why would you want to wait on getting money that is owed to you? Even if you don’t need it, you can earn some interest on it with it in your hands instead of allowing the government to do so. Beyond that, even industry articles have to admit that this is a pretty regular tax season, so there is little up in the air that is holding up the tax season. There is not any doom and gloom to be spouting and things to tell you to worry about. The time has come, though, to make the final regular moves for it is now spring, whether your weather feels like it or not, and that means the crunch is on. Warmly, Josh Bousquet Connect to Us ~ Facebook ~ Twitter Remember not all that long ago when the idea of AI coming into our lives was full of wonders, scares, frights, and worries? Well, that didn’t last long, did it?
In a short time, AI has now become present just about everywhere. And personally, I must admit to being very impressed and more than a little surprised at how well it can perform some tasks. With that being said, however, there are many things that I would not yet be comfortable trusting it with. And certainly, taxes are one of them. Tax law is complicated due to a lot of push and pull from competing sides and ideologies and is always open to change. This isn’t necessarily a good or bad thing in itself, but it means you want to be sure that when you have questions, you get correct answers. So that makes it a little disconcerting that TurboTax and H&R Block have added AI chatbots that do not seem to be doing the best job according to a recent article in the Washington Post. It’s one thing to have some chatbots, say in customer service, that do not give the answers you want. Those you can shrug off and move to another tactic without any loss but a little bit of time. With taxes, though, you could be looking at something could result in a smaller refund, end in someone paying more than they had to, or potentially even open the possibility of an audit. A tricky piece here is that it is difficult to really address how to handle this. These tax chatbots are being made by trusted providers, so it is not some wild act for someone to believe in it. So how should we travel these waters? Well, I will admit to stealing a bit from the Post article, but what it says about this is simple and makes complete sense – AI is great for when there are no real-life consequences. And there is not even debate here about whether or not this is a real-life situation. In conclusion, I am not going to be alarmist and say don’t ever use these AI bots to get an answer. I will, however, say that these answers should not be taken as gospel. If you are going to use one, you at least also owe it to yourself to do another search elsewhere and confirm the answer. Warmly, Josh Bousquet Connect to Us ~ Facebook ~ Twitter |
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