Welcome to the Tax Tips and Insights series of First Response Resolution, LLC’s official blog! We are a specialty tax firm practicing right here near Medford in Southern Oregon and the focus of my practice is solving tax problems for individuals and businesses and representing taxpayers before the IRS and State Departments of Revenue. We offer our services online nationwide from the comfort of our client’s homes and will provide services on-site to businesses in our area upon request. Think of our firm as your Financial First Responders who specialize in saving troubled taxpayers. We help people who are struggling with tax problems get their lives back on track so they can focus on what matters most to them.
In this edition of our Tax Tips and Insights series, we address a common question that we receive from taxpayers. While we focus specifically on Solving Tax Problems, we also help taxpayers AVOID Tax Problems in the first place. The question is posed in various ways, but the common thread is: At what point in retirement can we just stop filing taxes already? Is there a specific age at which we are no longer required to file our tax returns? What if we only receive Social Security and a modest pension or Required Minimum Distribution from a retirement plan? What if every year we file we get every dollar that we had withheld refunded? Can we just get off this train already and be done with this? We know of many other people in our situation who claim that they just stopped filing tax returns years ago and have never looked back!
Questions around this topic are not surprising. Having to file tax returns year after year and pay a tax preparer increasing prices each year to handle the tax return can be inconvenient and annoying. Unfortunately, there is no set age or point in retirement at which Americans can legally stop filing their tax returns. Congress has established the laws that govern how the Internal Revenue Service operates and interacts with the taxpaying public and they hold the power to change existing tax law or implement new laws and regulations. We have clients that we prepare taxes for who are in their 90’s and are in these exact situations in terms of income and still have an obligation to file tax returns because they have a filing requirement due to receiving taxable income above the Gross Income threshold, even if they can qualify to have all tax withheld refunded. The IRS is currently focused on pursuing those that they know to be non-filers and have a myriad of ways that they know about these people, most notably through third party reporting and information returns submitted to the government such as the various versions of Form 1099.
The IRS has some great FREE tools and resources on their website located at irs.gov. They genuinely make efforts to inform the public and provide insight and guidance to taxpayers on a wide range of topics. The information may be complex at times, but they offer assistance in a variety of ways. If you are wondering if you have a filing requirement, they have a tool to help you determine this each year located here: https://www.irs.gov/filing/individuals/who-should-file
If you are retired, the IRS has tax information just for Seniors and Retirees which is located here: https://www.irs.gov/individuals/seniors-retirees
Taking a step further, the IRS has Publication 554: A Tax Guide for Seniors that is very thorough, which is located here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p554.pdf
Stay tuned for the next posts on this topic as we dive in further and discuss the background, consequences of not filing a tax return when required, and our recommendations on the subject.
If you or someone you know is in the midst of an IRS issue, contact me at either 541-293-8449, by email at zach@firstresponseirs.com, or through our website. We specialize in solving tax problems! We will thoroughly investigate and evaluate your specific situation and consider ALL OPTIONS available to you. All discussions are kept strictly confidential, and we offer no obligation initial consultations of up to one hour.
Is your agency interested in having me speak to your team of realtors in person or over Zoom at one of your weekly sales meetings free of charge? I have a presentation developed to address the following:
- Taxation and your clients,
- Tax tips for saving on your own tax returns, and
- Tax Problem Solutions.
Comments(0)