HELLO

FALL

It is hard to believe it is already October. As we race to the finish line with those clients that have extensions due October 15th, we want to share a few important updates.

Election and Prop HH/TABOR

Colorful fo election vote_ hand holding ballot paper for election vote concept at colorful background.

Elections these days can be very divisive and controversial. I simply want to make sure you are aware that the election being held on November 7th in Colorado includes an important proposition that can impact how much you pay in property taxes (residential and non-residential property) as well as how much you potentially receive in TABOR (Taxpayer's Bill of Rights) refunds.

You should have received the "Blue Book" in the mail that gives more details on this vote and the pros/cons. It is not my role to advise you how to vote but simply draw your attention to this important ballot issue. The link below will take you to the Blue Book in case you missed it.

PS - for those that have been asking where their TABOR refund is this year (it was $750 for single taxpayers and $1,500 for families the prior year), the above election and proposition vote must be done first before TABOR amounts can be confirmed so don't expect the actual TABOR refund anytime soon.

Election Blue Book

United States Capitol Building in Washington_ DC with Shutdown stamp effect

Government Shutdown

It is hard to predict if and potentialy how long a government shutdown will occur. In addition, there are mixed insights on which government agencies will remain open during a shutdown. In particular, we have heard the IRS may have enough funding to continue to operate for a period of time but nothing is certain. Hopefully a shutdown is averted but we will stay abreast of any impact an actual shutdown has on the IRS and their ability to process returns, refunds, etc.

Employee Retention Credit ERC is shown on a business photo using the text

ERC

Given their increased concerns about the agressive marketing campaigns on ERC (especially by what the IRS refers to as "ERC Mills"), the IRS has implemented a moratorium through December 31st of this year on processing any new ERC claims.

The IRS has processed 3.6M ERC claims thus far and feels most are valid. However, they have referred over 1,000 ERC claims to audit thus far and have pursued 252 criminal investigaitions on ERC claims that total $2.8 Billion (yes, that means those 252 claims got an average of $11Million in ERC rebates...).

The IRS is also implementing both a withdrawal process (for those ERC claims not processed yet in the event taxpayers feel they were misled and want to withdrawal the claim) as well as a settlement process (for those taxpayers that want to give back ERC rebates received if they feel they were misled and did not qualify). More detials to follow on both of these efforts but the link below has some fact or fiction insights from the AICPA that may be helpful if you feel you were potentialy misled on filing your ERC claim.

As a reminder, the ERC rebates do have tax consequenes so as soon as we are done with the October extensions, we will turn our attention to completing the amended returns required for the ERC rebates received.

ERC Fact or Fiction