Welcome to the

"It's Only 45 Days to April 15th and I Haven't Even Started my Organizer!"

Edition of the

South Bay Tax Report

It's February 28th and we here at Wayland & Vukadinovich are in the midst of tax season, working days, nights and weekends, living on coffee, soft drinks and Girl Scout cookies, and making every effort to save you EVERY last dollar.

For new clients, this may be your first

Wayland & Vukadinovich South Bay Tax Report 

Welcome!

It's our opportunity to provide updates on tax news and interesting insights into the lives of Gary & Mike

(okay we admit, Gary & Mike HAVE no interesting insights into their lives except finding new, creative, and legal ways for you to save taxes - isn't that what you want from your accountant??

Our Appointments....

We're running low on available appointment times.

Be sure to call as soon as possible to schedule something as the magical April 15th fast approaches.

Remember, you can still submit your data to us via mail, via fax, or using one of our long-form organizers

(either the paper or electronic version); for this,

call Gina in our office.

As she previously interrogated suspects for the FBI, she understands privacy issues and will ask several questions to make sure you are who you say you are before she sends you an organizer.

If you've used a paper long-form organizer in the past, consider upgrading to an electronic version - they're easy to use and helpful for us.

Alas, the electronic organizers are NOT MAC compatible.

Our regular, traditional 1-page organizers, the short-form version, went out in the mail at year-end, but if you used your copy to write a note to your children, then call us and we can send another.

Copies are also available at our world famous website:

www.wvcpas.com

Troubles in IRS-ville

Many of you know that we generally complete returns in less than a week. You're surprised when you have not yet seen your return -

(of course, remember, we can't complete the return until you send us the information).

Why is it taking somewhat longer this year?

Well, due to the "Fiscal Cliff" negotiations in Congress at

year-end, the IRS has found it necessary to adjust a number of tax forms, causing a delay in the processing season.

If you have a credit for energy savings, if you took a distribution from your health savings account, or if you have a rental property, it may be early March before the IRS will release forms we need to complete your returns.

Hang in there -

We're sure the IRS is working 24/7 - well, maybe 8/5, to remedy this.

Beware of bogus IRS Email

The IRS is warning taxpayers about potential e-mail scammers who claim to be the IRS

(why would any sane person claim to be the IRS??).

Anyway, the IRS indicates that scammers use the IRS name or logo to make the message look authentic so you will respond to it. In reality, it's a scam, attempting to trick you into revealing you personal and financial information.

The IRS DOES NOT initiate contact with taxpayers by email, and trust us, they certainly don't use Facebook or Twitter. Never share confidential information via email with someone alleging to be the IRS.

When Shall I Expect that - Fantastic- Refund

The IRS issued more than 9 out of 10 refunds to taxpayers last year in less than 21 days.

That's their story and they are sticking to it.

They believe the same results will be available this year. Even though the IRS issues most refunds in less than 21 days, it's possible your tax return may require additional review and take longer.

You can use the Where's My Refund feature on the IRS website, irs.gov, to check the status of your refund.

Where's My Refund has a new look for 2013 - remember, this is the IRS, not Apple - the tool will include a tracker that displays progress through 3 stages: (1) Return received, (2) Refund approved, and (3) Refund Sent.

You will get personalized refund information based on the processing of your tax return. The tool will provide an actual refund date as soon as the IRS processes your tax return and approves your refund. Remember, the IRS says confidently, most refunds will be issued in 21 days or less.

In 2013, you will be able to start checking on the status of your return sooner - within 24 hours after the IRS has received your e-filed return or 4 weeks after you mail a paper return.

While we always like to speak with you, we have no special information regarding the status of your refund - contact the IRS website at irs.gov and click on the "Where's My Refund" tool.

Some Tax Facts

It's tax season around here - have we mentioned that often enough?

As a result, we'll take the easy route in this month's newsletter with some interesting facts about the 2010 tax year. That's right, it's the 2010 tax year; they've no completed work on their 2011 analysis.

According to the Internal Revenue Service -

142.9 million returns were filed (and it seemed to us here at Wayland & Vukadinovich that we filed 42.9 million of them);

The US Treasury collected $951 billion in income tax;

About 89% of you e-filed and about 57% of you used paid preparers like us;

The average total itemized deductions were about $26,700;

If you want to brag that you were in the top 1% of earners, you needed adjusted gross income of $369,000 in the 2010 tax year;

The IRS issued 110 million refunds and the average refund was about $2,953;

And let's finish this up with some of our favorite statistics: that there are about 4 million words in the US Tax Code, there have been 4,680 changes to the Tax Code since 2001, and the height of the printed explanation of the Internal Revenue Code is 1 foot!

 Did We Prepare Your 1099s?

If we prepared your 1099s, be sure you have returned the electronic filing authorizations or Gina will not be pleased, and all us prefer to keep her in a pleasant frame of mind.

Send/scan or fax those authorizations to us as soon as possible.