Zinner & Co. Blog and Newsroom

Over the past decade, more people have moved to electronic payments of their monthly bills and expenses.

The days of sitting down and writing checks to pay bills has quickly become a thing of the past. In fact, for many people under the age of 30, they do not know, nor have they ever had a physical checkbook!

Available for the 2020 – 2021 Tax Years

One of the most beneficial and underutilized tax credits introduced as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic relief funds is the Employee Retention Credit (ERC).

To date, our clients have filed and claimed ERC refunds exceeding $2,000,000 under this program. Claims for these refunds are included in the filing of original or amended Federal quarterly payroll tax returns.

According to Accounting Today, the Internal Revenue Service began sending out letters from its Automated Collection System function in June and restarted the income tax levy program in July.

Suspended last year, the IRS tax levy program includes both tax levy and treasury payments.

As small business owners complete the second quarter 2021 filing of their state unemployment tax payments with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, they should be aware that tax saving benefits have been preserved for the coming years.

On June 29, Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 168, which appropriates $2.2 billion of the $2.7 billion that Ohio is slated to receive this year under the federally funded American Rescue Plan.

On July 1, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 110 into law approving the state’s $72 billion two-year budget.

The biennial budget provides funding for state operations, overhauls K-12 school funding, provides $250 million in broadband support for underserved areas and makes numerous tax policy changes.

One of the more notable tax-related changes involves the municipal income tax and working from home.

For many business owners, the Paycheck Protection Program loan journey is not over when they receive acknowledgement of loan forgiveness from their local lender and from the Small Business Administration. From a tax perspective, the map that lays out the tax impact remains unclear.

During the fourth quarter of 2020, the primary question most business owners and tax professionals grappled with was whether or not the expenses paid using PPP Loan proceeds would be tax deductible and/or whether the loan proceeds were considered taxable income. The uncertainty related to these questions made tax planning for the 2020 calendar year difficult

In early June, the Internal Revenue Service started sending letters to families about how they may be able to qualify for monthly Child Tax Credit payments.

The letters are going out to families who may be eligible based on information they included in either their 2019 or 2020 tax return or who used the Non-Filers tool on IRS.gov last year to register for an Economic Impact Payment.

In early June, the U.S. Treasury Department released its general explanations of proposed changes to the U.S. tax code.

Please note, the following items have only been proposed. In order to become law, they must pass through both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed Senate Bill 18 into law, which ensures that expenses paid with forgiven Paycheck Protection Plan loans become deductible for state income tax purposes.

The legislation, which was supported by the Ohio Society of CPAs (OSCPA) will conform tax laws in the Buckeye State with recent changes to federal tax law, including deductibility of expenses from the Paycheck Protection Program and excluding $10,200 in unemployment compensation from income tax.

On Thursday, the Senate voted to extend the Paycheck Protection Program for two months.

A week before the Small Business Administration’s PPP was slated to expire, senators voted 92 to 7 to pass the PPP Extension Act of 2021.

Not only does the legislation extend the program to May 31 from the initial March 31 deadline, but it gives the SBA an additional 30 days to process loans.