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Hawaii Constitutional Refunds (ACT 115 Refunds) Set to Begin Rolling Out 1st Week of September

8/28/2022

Act 115, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022 (Act 115), provides a one-time constitutional refund to each qualifying resident taxpayer who files an individual income tax return for the 2021 tax year on or before December 31, 2022.

How much will my Act 115 refund be?
Your Act 115 refund amount is based on your filing status, federal adjusted gross income, and the number of exemptions you are allowed to claim. For the Act 115 credit, only one refund per person will be allowed. The Act 115 refund is $100 or $300 per person as follows:

When will I receive my Act 115 refund?
Act 115 refund will be issued based on the order in which the 2021 individual income tax returns are filed. The Department of Taxation will begin issuing Act 115 refunds in the first week of September 2022.

Will I receive my Act 115 refund by electronic direct deposit or paper check?
If you claimed a refund on your 2021 individual income tax return and requested an electronic direct deposit, your Act 115 refund will be deposited into the same bank account. If you requested a paper check refund or owed additional taxes, you will receive your Act 115 refund by paper check.

Will my Act 115 refund be offset by taxes that I owed?
Act 115 refund will be used to offset taxes owed to IRS and any outstanding debt to external agencies, such as for child support payment. However, Act 115 refund will not be used to offset taxes owed to State of Hawaii.

For more information: Act 115 Refund | Department of Taxation (hawaii.gov)

COVID tax relief: IRS provides broad-based penalty relief for certain 2019 and 2020 returns due to the pandemic; $1.2 billion in penalties being refunded to 1.6 million taxpayers

8/24/2022

WASHINGTON ̶ To help struggling taxpayers affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, the Internal Revenue Service today issued Notice 2022-36,which provides penalty relief to most people and businesses who file certain 2019 or 2020 returns late.

The IRS is also taking an additional step to help those who paid these penalties already. Nearly 1.6 million taxpayers will automatically receive more than $1.2 billion in refunds or credits. Many of these payments will be completed by the end of September.

Besides providing relief to both individuals and businesses impacted by the pandemic, this step is designed to allow the IRS to focus its resources on processing backlogged tax returns and taxpayer correspondence to help return to normal operations for the 2023 filing season.

The relief applies to the failure to file penalty. The penalty is typically assessed at a rate of 5% per month and up to 25% of the unpaid tax when a federal income tax return is filed late. This relief applies to forms in both the Form 1040 and 1120 series, as well as others listed in Notice 2022-36, posted today on IRS.gov.

Relief is automatic; most of $1.2 billion in refunds delivered to eligible taxpayers by next month

To qualify for this relief, any eligible income tax return must be filed on or before Sept. 30, 2022.

For More Information: COVID tax relief: IRS provides broad-based penalty relief for certain 2019 and 2020 returns due to the pandemic; $1.2 billion in penalties being refunded to 1.6 million taxpayers | Internal Revenue Service

AICPA demands IRS pick up the phone faster for tax pros

8/17/2022

The American Institute of CPAs wants the Internal Revenue Service to pick up the phone faster on its so-called Practitioner Priority Service for tax professionals and make other fixes, pointing to a “plummeting” level of service in recent years.

Taxpayers and tax pros alike have long complained about the difficulty of reaching the IRS over the phone and those complaints have mounted during the COVID-19 pandemic. and wants IRS pick up the phone faster for tax pros.

Despite recent efforts by the IRS to ease the burden that the backlog has caused for taxpayers and practitioners, the AICPA notes that service levels for the practitioner priority service phone line had been in continuous decline for several years.

https://us.aicpa.org/content/dam/aicpa/interestareas/peerreview/prprompts/downloadabledocuments/56175896-pps-line-issues-final.pdf

IRS Statement on balance due notices (CP-14)

8/3/2022

The IRS is aware that some payments made for 2021 tax returns have not been correctly applied to joint taxpayer accounts, and these taxpayers are receiving erroneous balance due notices (CP-14 notices) or notices showing the incorrect amount.

For more information: IRS Statement on balance due notices (CP-14) | Internal Revenue Service

Newsline

Hawaii Constitutional Refunds (ACT 115 Refunds) Set to Begin Rolling Out 1st Week of September

COVID tax relief: IRS provides broad-based penalty relief for certain 2019 and 2020 returns due to the pandemic; $1.2 billion in penalties being refunded to 1.6 million taxpayers

AICPA demands IRS pick up the phone faster for tax pros

IRS Statement on balance due notices (CP-14)

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