SACRAMENTO, Calif. — It’s that time of year again…
Tax season is here and if you have questions about filing, we want to help get you answers. Everyone is asking?
Do California taxpayers who received stimulus checks have to pay taxes on them?
The short answer for 2022 filers is no. The IRS says California’s middle-class tax refund doesn’t need to be reported as taxable.
Contact us if you have any additional questions? 818 899-9617
How to qualify, you must:
When you’ll receive your payment:
We anticipate that payments will begin in September 2021.
To make sure you receive your payment, file a complete 2020 tax return by October 15, 2021.
If you have an ITIN and meet all the GSS II requirements, these are the amounts you may receive.
| Scenario | Stimulus amount |
|---|---|
| Qualified for GSS I Claimed a credit for 1 or more dependents) | $1,000 |
| Qualified for GSS I Did not claim a credit for 1 or more dependents | You do not qualify for GSS II |
If you are married filing separately, visit Married filing separately for more details.
The $1.9 trillion Covid relief bill gives a tax break on unemployment benefits received last year. The measure allows each person to exclude up to $10,200 in aid from federal tax.
The bill made the first $10,200 of unemployment income, or $20,400 for married couples filing jointly, tax-free for filers with 2020 adjusted gross income of less than $150,000 (for both singles and couples). This applies to your federal tax return. In California Unemployment is nontaxable.
Not everyone qualifies for the tax cut. Only people who earned less than $150,000 in 2020 are eligible.
This income threshold operates as a cliff: Anyone who earned $150,000 or more last year doesn’t get any of the tax break.
The $150,000 ceiling is the same for all taxpayers, regardless of filing status, such as single or married.
One wrinkle: Taxpayers must use their total unemployment benefits received when determining their income eligibility for the tax break.
Are you getting a w-2 because you provide In-Home Supportive Services? If you do not pay taxes on this income, can you still get an earned income credit? And child tax credit? There is not (yet) a published IRS regulation on this topic. However, in this court ruling, it was found that tax credits can be claimed. Please consult with your Yessenias Income agent for more information on In-Home Supportive Services.
IHSS In-Home Supportive Services payments can still be included on taxes and excluded from gross income. This is critical because they still can affect the tax credits or other tax-related matters, such as qualifying income for contributing to a Roth IRA. Make sure to bring in all your forms when you come to do your income taxes so that a tax consultant can go over the benefits and help you get the maximum refund you qualify for.
See more information on Medicaid Waiver Payments May Be Excludable on the IRS website. This is new information relating to this subject. It is important to file your income tax and remind your tax preparer about IHHS services you are providing for your clients. If you come to Yessenias our agents will remind you if you provide this service as we like to go into detail with our customers and find them the maximum return. If you are not a customer come to one of our offices for a free estimate. In-Home Supportive Services is a very complex topic and we are here to help.
Most states have mandatory minimum auto insurance laws, but some people still drive as uninsured drivers. The Insurance Information Institute (III) reports that in a recent study, 13%, or one in eight drivers in the U.S. is operating a vehicle without insurance. Many such drivers cannot afford the cost of car insurance, which makes it difficult to collect damages after an accident. Fortunately, there are ways to protect yourself if you have been involved in a wreck with an uninsured driver.
Uninsured motorist protection is a type of auto insurance designed to protect you if a driver without insurance causes a car collision. Hit and run accidents are also covered. This coverage is optional in most states but required in others. If the driver who caused the crash has no car insurance, your uninsured motorist coverage will kick in to cover your damages, up to your policy limits.
What DOES this include?
Places like:
– Non-essential manufacturing (toys, furniture, clothing, etc.)
– florists
– bookstores
– sporting goods stores
-Schools & Childcare facilities
-Offices where working remotely isn’t possible, but can be modified to make the environment safer for employees
All with curbside pick-up.
What does this NOT include at this time?
Places like:
– -Shopping Malls
– Restaurants (seated dining)
– Offices (can continue telework)
Individuals who do not normally have a filing obligation (non-filers) and have children under the age of 17 who also don’t have a filing obligation, have until 9:00 a.m. PST (12:00 p.m. EST) Wednesday, April 22, to visit the IRS “special non-filer tool” to enter information in order to add $500 per eligible child to their automatic payment of $1,200!
The $1,200 automatic payments will be starting soon for those receiving Social Security retirement, survivor or disability benefits (SSDI), Railroad Retirement benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Veterans Affairs beneficiaries. Those that fall into any of these categories and who didn’t file a tax return in the last two years, must act now to add $500 per eligible child under the age of 17 to that payment.
However, according to IRS COVID Tax Tip 2020-40, if you miss the deadline, the payment will be $1,200 and, by law, the additional $500 per eligible child amount would be paid in association with a return filing for tax year 2020.
To read the entire notice click here!
If you filed your 2018 or 2019 taxes, were due a refund, and signed up to receive that money via direct deposit, you may already be sitting on your stimulus payment. But if you didn’t file a 2018 or 2019 tax return, or you filed one but weren’t due a refund and therefore didn’t include bank account details, then you’ll need to give the IRS that information so your stimulus payment can be processed quickly.
The most recent bank account information the IRS has on file will be used to determine where your stimulus payment should land. But if you’ve since closed that account, any stimulus money that gets sent there will be bounced back, thereby delaying your payment
If the IRS doesn’t have bank account details for you on file, and you have no intention of providing direct deposit information, then you’ll need to wait for a physical stimulus check to arrive in your mailbox. And that could take a while. It’s anticipated that physical checks will start getting sent out in early May, but only a certain number will be issued per week. Meanwhile, those paper checks will be prioritized so that low-income households receive them first, and all told, it could take up to 20 weeks to mail all of them out.
The CDC has recently updated its recommendations for preventing the spread of COVID-19. While the guidelines are similar to those for preventing the flu, few recent, notable additions is the wearing of a cloth mask, gloves when out in public and stay 6ft apart from others.
Traffic lights in Los Angeles have been adjusted to attempt to reduce speeding on the uncongested streets during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation announced Wednesday.
Traffic signals across the city have been indefinitely put on “nighttime mode,” which allow them to operate independently to serve cars as they arrive, instead of coordinating automatically to ease traffic congestion, LADOT said.
This will prevent drivers from speeding through consecutive intersections without any red lights stopping them.