Busy Season Begins...

Just finished watching a rather intense Super Bowl, and it's time to get ready for another season of a lot of late nights and take-out food. The same reminder I give every year - if you have your tax records already, now, meaning right now, is the time to send them to your tax professional to complete your tax return. As the season progresses, the backlog grows and the closer to April 15 you wait to request your tax return being prepared, the more likely your professional will need to file an extension for you. Don't procrastinate if you do not need to. Of course, it is understandable that you may not have all your documents until later in the season... still, if you have some but not all of them, send them to your tax professional anyway, as they can be entered and they will be able to move your tax return along that much faster when you have everything else ready.

In any case, do not come to your tax professional on April 14 with all your documents and expect the return to be ready the next day... you may be sorely disappointed. Also, don't be offended if your tax professional doesn't pick up the phone or answer your emails as quickly over the next three months, it isn't anything personal at all, they are simply buried under a lot of work and the phones and email are not as high a priority. Take care everyone, like every tax professional, I'll be coming up for air again in April!