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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.

For many small business owners, this allocation will have a direct impact on the cost of unemployment tax payments in the coming year, as the allocation will be applied in repayment of the nearly $1.5 billion loan received from the federal government to cover increased unemployment claims paid during the pandemic.

If this loan was not repaid, the federal government would have begun charging interest on the unpaid balance. These interest charges would have resulted in unprecedented increases in employer burdened unemployment taxes of 50 percent, 100 percent and 150 percent in successive years. The Ohio Chamber of Commerce estimates the repayment of the federal loan will save Ohio employers approximately $650 million over the next three years.

“All of this recovery would have been much harder if they would have had to bear the burden of an additional tax on literally hiring people,” said Lt. Gov. John Husted in a prepared statement. “It will help fuel Ohio’s recovery. It will help Ohio employees. It will truly touch every community and every business in the state.”

Topics: Ohio business owners, Taxes - Corporate & Business, Unemployment Benefits, Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services

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.

Topics: Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Individual, tax, taxes, income tax, tax avoidance

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.

Topics: Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Planning, Rules and Returns, Taxes - Individual, ohio, ppp

On Aug. 8, President Donald Trump issued a memorandum on deferring payroll tax obligations in light of the ongoing COVID-19 Disaster, which directed the Treasury Department to suspend collection of the employee portion of Social Security taxes from Sept. 1 through the end of 2020.

Topics: Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Planning, Rules and Returns, deductions, taxes, IRS, Coronavirus, COVID-19

Over the past few weeks, we have received dozens of calls from clients, who have received tax notices from both the Internal Revenue Service and the State of Ohio.

Topics: Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Planning, Rules and Returns, tax, taxes, IRS

On March 18, the Internal Revenue Service provided clarification to special payment relief for individuals and businesses in response to the COVID-19 Outbreak.

For individual returns, income tax payment deadlines with a due date of April 15, 2020, are automatically extended until July 15, 2020, for up to $1 million of their 2019 tax due.

This payment relief applies to all individual returns, including self-employed individuals, and all entities other than C-Corporations, such as trusts or estates. The IRS will automatically provide this relief to taxpayers. Taxpayers do not need to file any additional forms or call the IRS to qualify for this relief.

Topics: tax services, Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Planning, Rules and Returns, Taxes - Individual, tax, taxes, income tax, Zinner & Co., Coronavirus, Treasury Department, COVID-19, Deferring Tax Payments

Tax Deadline Remains April 15

While taxpayers still have to file their taxes by April 15, 2020, the deadline to pay taxes has been extended by 90 days until July 15, 2020.

During a March 17th press conference regarding the coronavirus pandemic, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin announced taxpayers will have an additional 90-days through July 15, 2020 to pay their taxes, penalty-free and interest-free. 

He said individual taxpayers can defer up to $1 million of tax payments and corporations up to $10 million in tax payments.

Topics: tax services, Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Planning, Rules and Returns, Taxes - Individual, tax, taxes, IRS, Coronavirus, Treasury Department, Steven Mnuchin, COVID-19, Deferring Tax Payments

One of the most common tax-related misconceptions is that filing a tax extension increases your risk of a tax audit. 

This longstanding myth is simply not true, as filing a tax extension can statistically decrease the risk of an audit.

In addition to statistically decreasing the risk of an audit, there is also one other benefit to extending a tax return.

Topics: tax services, Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Planning, Rules and Returns, Taxes - Individual, tax, taxes, income tax

Many individuals may think the time to plan for tax season occurs during the tax season, which occurs after their tax year has ended.

Unfortunately, this is often too late to make any adjustments, which may have benefited the taxpayer.  

Similarly, businesses can also fall into this line of thinking and fail to plan for tax season during their tax year.

Topics: tax services, Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Planning, Rules and Returns, Taxes - Individual, tax, taxes, income tax, tax avoidance

Due to many changes in the tax law under numerous tax acts that have been implemented over the past decade, including delay in the issuance of tax forms needed to complete individual income tax returns, the compression of the tax preparation and filing season has become even more severe. 

Topics: Taxes - Corporate & Business, Taxes - Planning, Rules and Returns, Taxes - Individual, taxes