Lost Tapes: Tax Anxiety

[00:00:00] How many people are Robin, Peter, PayPal? Right? How many people are not paying taxes

[00:00:10] throughout the year so they can make ends meet and then at the end of the year they know I'm going to owe all this money to taxes.

[00:00:19] I'm going to owe this. I'm going to have to start an agreement plan or payment plan or something like that.

[00:00:24] But that's a reality that people face during this time. And like you said, it goes back to that fear of making a mistake, the complexity and the confusion.

[00:00:33] If I don't do this, I'm not going to be able to feed my kids. I'm not going to be able to feed myself. Right? It's an unfortunate reality.

[00:00:40] Welcome back folks. This is episode 12 of Safe Talk. We're talking about tax anxiety as we move into the tax season, as they change and update the brackets.

[00:00:52] But before that, what's up Walt? How you doing sir? I'm getting anxious just thinking about taxes. I know right? No, I'm good man. I'm good.

[00:01:00] I'm loving the series. This little mini series that we're doing on the tax brackets and tax anxiety.

[00:01:05] I think it's something that's super important, especially in today's climate with inflation and rising costs, rising home costs, rising food costs.

[00:01:13] I know that things have been getting a little bit better here in the last few months. I think that is important.

[00:01:18] It's an important subject to talk about. So I'm excited to get into it and have this safe space for us to agree, disagree, work things out.

[00:01:26] I love this show because of course folks, this is Safe Talk. This is a safe place to talk.

[00:01:34] On our other shows, it's about payroll. We talked about how the tax brackets impact payroll professionals.

[00:01:41] We talked about, and it's about your paycheck, how the tax brackets impact us as individuals, as employees.

[00:01:47] And here is just, I want to just talk about why. Why does it get us anxious? And how can we combat that a little bit?

[00:01:54] The money, like my wife always says, oh you get so tense when we talk money.

[00:01:58] And what I realized recently is that I start worrying about my future immediately. Oh my gosh. Right?

[00:02:04] Because payroll folks, we're aging. We're aging folks. So it's not Asian, aging.

[00:02:10] And most of us are over 40. That's another thing we're going to do this season is trying to get young people excited about payroll.

[00:02:19] But with that being said, I get anxious because I'm thinking about the future.

[00:02:24] So I wanted to share a few things of why we get anxious. Right? Like why do we get anxious when we talk taxes?

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[00:03:31] Let's go. Let's go.

[00:03:35] Because one, it's complex and confusing. Right? Tax laws are just overwhelming.

[00:03:41] Two, we have a fear of making a mistake.

[00:03:44] There's a common fear of making those errors that could lead to paying more taxes or worse, we miss our payments and we're facing penalties.

[00:03:52] And then people threaten to get divorced. People threaten to get arrested.

[00:03:57] And you go into jail or whatever.

[00:03:59] You might get divorced too.

[00:04:02] That's so funny because my wife said, look, you make me go broke.

[00:04:06] We are done. That's the deal breaker.

[00:04:09] This fear is intense when people are self-employed or you have multiple income sources.

[00:04:15] Remember we talked with Tabitha Brown.

[00:04:17] She said it gets overwhelming because of the multiple places money is coming from.

[00:04:22] She's her own business now. She's self-employed.

[00:04:24] So she's getting different deals, does a million different things.

[00:04:28] So yeah, it's all great. But God, you have to keep it in track.

[00:04:31] Employees, we get lulled into this. Oh, we get the check. We get the one check. We get the one check. We get the one check.

[00:04:36] It's easy, but it gets more stressful for self-employed folks.

[00:04:42] And then another one is financial impact.

[00:04:45] Taxes have a direct impact on our money.

[00:04:48] So the possibility of owing is it can be anxiety, especially if you already living paycheck to paycheck and you're not planning.

[00:04:59] Yeah. How many people are robbing Peter to pay Paul?

[00:05:05] How many people are not paying taxes throughout the year so they can make ends meet?

[00:05:14] And then at the end of the year, they know I'm going to owe all this money to taxes.

[00:05:18] I'm going to owe this. I'm going to have to start an agreement plan or a payment plan or something like that.

[00:05:23] But that's a reality that people face during this time.

[00:05:27] And like you said, it goes back to that fear of making a mistake, the complexity and the confusion.

[00:05:31] If I don't do this way, then I'm not going to be able to feed my kids.

[00:05:35] I'm not going to be able to feed myself. Right? It's an unfortunate reality.

[00:05:40] Yeah. And another one, it's super time consuming. Right.

[00:05:45] And the more different things you have going, the more paperwork you have to get involved in.

[00:05:50] I got to put all the documents together. I need this one. Did I get my 1095 yet? Did I get this yet?

[00:05:55] Did I get that yet? Oh gosh. So it's time consuming.

[00:05:59] There's also privacy and security concerns. And I know I got this one when I'm sharing my own.

[00:06:06] Now, when I'm sharing all these documents, I'm like, oh my gosh, like I get so nervous.

[00:06:13] What I do appreciate is that when the whoever your tax preparer, they have a secure share drive

[00:06:21] and you can upload it directly to something instead of emailing your things across the world or whatever.

[00:06:27] That didn't mean across town. If it's on the internet, it's in the world. So that makes me nervous.

[00:06:35] I'm also an advocate of not doing mail W-2s. Like you should get your digital.

[00:06:40] You should just log in and download it. That in and of itself is dangerous because if you're on an internet connection, that's not secure.

[00:06:46] It's more dangerous though for your W-2 to go out on paper and somebody sees it.

[00:06:52] It's nothing to just grab it, right? If some carrier or handlers or your mailboxes or whatever people do,

[00:07:00] it's easy to just steal it. Your whole identity is on this freaking W-2.

[00:07:04] Man, if you have a think about it, if you have an unsecured connection or your connection, your internet, your Web, your Wi-Fi is acceptable.

[00:07:15] Oh, I got to go public. I got to go to a library to use it. No.

[00:07:18] Yes, go to a library. You're in a Starbucks. You're in this and that or whatever.

[00:07:23] There's different people that are just waiting around. One of the tactics, and I know this is a different show,

[00:07:29] but one of the tactics people use is that they have a little portable router that they take to open spots

[00:07:35] and they wait for people to connect and they name their router the same thing like Starbucks Guest.

[00:07:41] And you think you're connected to the actual restaurant or the actual establishment Wi-Fi,

[00:07:48] but nope, you're really on somebody's hot spot and they're tracking everything that you do.

[00:07:53] So I get the privacy and security concerns because you never know, man.

[00:07:58] That's a great call out though. They know it's not a different show.

[00:08:00] That's every show we do, cybersecurity is, that's a really good call out. I did not know folks did that.

[00:08:06] Thank you for that. It's probably on that list of 50 cybersecurity thing threats that we only got three into it.

[00:08:13] But yes, cybersecurity again, that's the point. The security of it all is like what?

[00:08:17] And then the last thing with the anxiety of it is past experiences.

[00:08:21] If you didn't have a good experience with your last tax person, I remember one year I went to an H&R block

[00:08:26] and I had to tell the person what to do and I just got up and left.

[00:08:30] I was like, hey, you know what? We're done here. I'm good. I'm not. We're not doing this.

[00:08:34] If I know more, if I know more than you, what you're doing?

[00:08:37] Because folks, you got to be careful. A lot of these tax preparers, they just, they usher them in during tax seasons.

[00:08:44] They don't have, they don't need prior knowledge.

[00:08:46] They teach you how to key buttons, ask questions and hit the buttons and you're filed.

[00:08:51] Oh, I want a tax preparer that actually understands some code. You know what I mean?

[00:08:56] I had a great CPA, God rest his soul, that had this saying up, to evade is illegal. To avoid is legal.

[00:09:06] And what that meant is if you know what you qualify for, what your benefits are and what your tax credits are

[00:09:15] and all these things, if you know the code and you know where you fit, you can apply it to your filing accordingly.

[00:09:23] Man, you got me feeling like I'm in church, man. Say that again. Say that one more time.

[00:09:26] To evade is what?

[00:09:28] To evade is illegal. To avoid is legal. But that means just knowing the code, knowing how to file,

[00:09:36] knowing all the things that are applicable to you. And it is complicated.

[00:09:40] We just talked about it on the other show. It's about your paycheck and it's about payroll. Go check those out.

[00:09:46] Those are free shows, right? God bless. Thank you folks for being on our Safe Talk and to our subscribers.

[00:09:51] We love you. We're still coming with the content for you. But go check out the free shows because we're talking about the more detailed stuff there. What's up?

[00:09:59] So going back into these past experiences, right? Like I've heard stories of people trusting someone and their family

[00:10:06] or trusting someone they were referred to to file their taxes and this person stole their money.

[00:10:14] Oh, no.

[00:10:16] I've heard stories of that. I'm sure you have too, where this person filed and say, hey, I'm going to get you a refund.

[00:10:21] The check is going to come to me and then I'll release the payment to you. And this person just disappears.

[00:10:28] Like how does this person disappear? Like where did they go?

[00:10:31] I've heard stories of that, of people getting taken advantage of. And so that makes people a little leery.

[00:10:36] That makes them and see, and that causes what that force is, is that forces the individuals to go to a TurboTax or a tax act

[00:10:44] or one of these self filing programs that are out there. And you still don't know, really don't know, even though they have breakdowns and explain everything to you.

[00:10:52] Honestly, some people really don't know. Okay, this thing is suggesting that I do this. Then I'm going to follow the suggestion.

[00:10:58] I'm going to do this and I'm going to do that.

[00:11:00] Nah, make sure you make sure like those past experiences, I think really play into why there's so much anxiety around tax time because there's some crazy stories out there, man, about how people have impacted.

[00:11:13] Yeah, I would say be careful with these pop ups right? The storefront was empty a week ago, but now it's tax season and boom, it's a pop up tax preparer office.

[00:11:22] Where were you before?

[00:11:24] And at the end of the day, the unfortunate thing is that the government was like, oh, I'm sorry that happened to you.

[00:11:32] But you still owe on that.

[00:11:39] It's it can be really. Yes, all that all that and overall it contributes to our anxiety the combination of these financial implications the need for it to be exact.

[00:11:51] The complexity of the laws, it stresses us out period. So on that note, what can we do to battle some of these anxieties and the stress of it all?

[00:12:04] As employees, these are just suggestions, but these things may help you along the path.

[00:12:09] You may consider doing all of them or some of them, depending on your tolerance or whatever you need.

[00:12:15] Right. The first thing is, you know, tax season often brings waves of anxiety to us as employees.

[00:12:24] So what could you do? You can acknowledge that anxiety.

[00:12:28] You can acknowledge that stress and try to understand the undermined things of it all.

[00:12:34] Now, that may seem like burdensome and a lot to do.

[00:12:38] So we may be able to do that or you may not be able to do that, but you can try to acknowledge it and say, OK, hey, I understand why I'm stressed.

[00:12:46] It's like almost like having self awareness within yourself.

[00:12:50] Yeah. Being able to realize that.

[00:12:51] No, it's coming. It's coming. Yeah.

[00:12:53] Yeah. And so the next step is early planning and being organized.

[00:12:59] So procrastinating and waiting until the last minute is only going to amplify or increase that stress, especially when it comes to taxes.

[00:13:11] Start early. So that means start now.

[00:13:14] I remember my dad, to his credit, he used to have one of those not a Rolodex, but one of those accordion type file things that stretch out.

[00:13:23] And he would put things in there by alphabetical order. OK, this is going under A, B, C, D.

[00:13:28] Like he used to have those things and prepare himself for those tax season.

[00:13:34] So like he had everything, every receipt, everything.

[00:13:37] So he had it already organized.

[00:13:39] So by the time the end of the year came, I got all my stuff right here.

[00:13:42] All you got to do is just hand it over to your tax preparer or you just pull it out when you're ready to file your taxes.

[00:13:48] So early planning and being organized will help relieve some of that stress.

[00:13:53] Start early. Yeah.

[00:13:55] I tell myself that every year I'm OK with it, but I still end up waiting too long to have two buckets of receipts that I got to go through and make and pick out the one.

[00:14:07] But I should be more intentional because I know which ones are going to impact me tax wise at the end of the year.

[00:14:12] So I need to be like maybe this year I think I want to be more intentional as I save new receipts.

[00:14:18] So yeah, I'm a victim of this too. I wait too long.

[00:14:20] And then it takes me like a whole day to prepare.

[00:14:23] And then you're scrabbling. Yeah.

[00:14:24] I got to take a day off.

[00:14:25] I literally, I think I have to get some PTO, take a day off.

[00:14:28] I'm serious and get all my stuff because it's too much. It's too much.

[00:14:32] I waited too long. I don't want it to take away from my weekends.

[00:14:35] So think about it. If you have multiple accounts, multiple streams of income, like you mentioned, multiple streams of income and all these different things is going to factor in.

[00:14:45] That's just you as an individual. Imagine if you have family and dependents that you're responsible for.

[00:14:51] That's even more stress.

[00:14:52] Side business. You got a side hustle and you're doing this and that.

[00:14:55] Yes. You got to have everything accounted for.

[00:14:59] Even if you're into sports betting as an employee, you have to pay taxes on those winnings.

[00:15:05] So you need to make sure you have good call out.

[00:15:08] Yes. So you have to pay taxes.

[00:15:10] You have to pay taxes. So that's something to think about as well.

[00:15:13] You can report that on your taxes. If you're taking a loss, you can report that.

[00:15:17] This is just a fun tip for you. Yep.

[00:15:20] So another thing is trusted professional guidance. I want to throw that word ahead.

[00:15:25] It just says seek professional guidance, but no trusted professional guidance.

[00:15:28] So do your research, review and see, hey, what has been people's experience using these people to file their taxes?

[00:15:37] So as we know, tax codes are intricate and navigating them can be overwhelming.

[00:15:44] So you should consider getting the assistance of some trusted tax professionals.

[00:15:49] If you can afford it also. That's the other thing I throw in there.

[00:15:52] If you can afford it, sometimes you can't not afford it. You can afford not to do it.

[00:15:56] But of course, it's tough.

[00:15:59] It may be a little bit more expensive, but it may be well worth it.

[00:16:04] So instead of you paying that sixty dollars that you pay by doing it yourself on tax act or turbo tax, you may have to pay double or triple that.

[00:16:13] But they know those tax professionals are on their stuff.

[00:16:18] They know where to get you more money and what to write off and stuff like that.

[00:16:22] I give you a good personal advice is like a good one is going to take an hour or two to interview you and understand your life and everything that impacts it.

[00:16:36] Because that is where you that's the void part. Right.

[00:16:40] What if you do something that you have a credit for? You don't even know you don't even know.

[00:16:47] So a good tax person is going to interview your life.

[00:16:50] You may think it's invasive.

[00:16:52] What you asking me all these questions for? Because you could be contributing to the local this and oh, that's a tax credit.

[00:17:00] Oh, you have an elderly person that you care for in the house. That's a tax credit.

[00:17:04] You have children, your tax. You don't know.

[00:17:07] Some people think that, oh, I just had a child.

[00:17:10] Twelve thirty one. Guess what? You can write them up. It's a whole year now.

[00:17:14] Yep. They don't know that you don't even know. Oh, I figured because it was twelve thirty one they were born that I can't do it for this.

[00:17:21] No, you can't. But that's what I'm saying.

[00:17:24] So guess something like if they're really digging in, then you know they're good.

[00:17:27] There should be a better sign of a good size. A good sign. That's a good flash. Sorry.

[00:17:33] No, you're good. Thank you, sir. The next one is utilizing technology.

[00:17:37] So there are numerous apps and online tools that can simplify the tax filing process.

[00:17:43] Again, I mentioned some like TurboTax, TaxAct.

[00:17:46] They can walk you through, but you should still do your research, right?

[00:17:49] Even some employers provide electronic access to W-2 forms.

[00:17:54] But as you as an employee don't know, you have that capability and you prefer not getting it through the mail, but an electronic version.

[00:18:03] Your employer may have that option, but you may not even know that as an employee.

[00:18:10] Then there's tax software that can guide individuals through the filing process, helping eliminate errors and streamlining the process.

[00:18:20] So you will definitely want to embrace technology to make the process more manageable.

[00:18:25] I will say I use TurboTax myself and it is easier to put your data in.

[00:18:33] And so what TurboTax that you can put in, there's a number that's on your W-2 that you can enter and it will pull it, pull in the data and your information.

[00:18:43] So you don't have to upload anything. You don't have to scan anything. So you're protected.

[00:18:48] So this technology, it can work for you if you know how to use it.

[00:18:53] And it could also help you, like you mentioned in the first two, that you can do early planning.

[00:19:00] If you start scanning things in and budgeting and it starts putting it in the buckets that you need it to be in and you get your write-offs.

[00:19:06] So folks who are preparing early and if you do write-off instead of the standard deduction, we cover that in the other two shows.

[00:19:13] So go there. That could help you get organized. You can start accounting for it.

[00:19:17] And if I'm intentional this year, I won't end up with what my bucket is right over here.

[00:19:21] That's why I'm looking at it. And I can scan things in and start accounting for it early so I can watch my stuff early on.

[00:19:28] So yeah, technology is good.

[00:19:31] Yep. Yes, correct. If you use right.

[00:19:35] That's the big caveat there. So if the next one, you want to, you said it just now, you want a budget for those tax liabilities.

[00:19:43] So say I may have a nine to five, but I do some side work and I have my own business or I'm a contractor and I'm 1099.

[00:19:53] Ten ninety nine employees are contractors. You're reliable for your own taxes at the end of the year.

[00:20:01] So understanding that and planning for these tax liabilities throughout the year can help you mitigate that anxiety associated with your potential tax bill.

[00:20:11] Again, prepare preparing yourself and early planning and organization throughout the year can help you do that.

[00:20:19] And if you do the math, it'll help you save accordingly.

[00:20:23] So like you want to prepare yourself and make sure that you're tracking that if you are a 1099 contractor and you say, OK, I owe this much.

[00:20:34] Tool out there, a tax calculator or estimator.

[00:20:37] And you can say, hey, this is how much I've made as a 1099 employee.

[00:20:41] How much should I have to pay? There's I know there's a percentage out there that you like to throw out there.

[00:20:45] Would you say 30, 35 percent? Right.

[00:20:48] For what? Paying taxes? Yes. Yes.

[00:20:51] Twenty five to 35 percent. You can estimate that's what you're going to pay total state, local federal, that type of thing.

[00:20:58] So that's something that you can use. It's like that 25 to 35 percent like that.

[00:21:03] But the estimator is better.

[00:21:05] That's the way it is because it'll give you a more targeted number, right?

[00:21:10] You would have to do so. That's just something for you to utilize.

[00:21:14] And when it comes to budgeting for tax liabilities, the next thing you want to do is you want to take advantage of deductions and credits.

[00:21:21] Like familiarize yourself with any available deductions or credits that may reduce your tax liability.

[00:21:27] Common deductions include those related to education, home ownership and charitable contributions.

[00:21:34] So let's say you are a religious person, you go to church or you go to your mosque or whatever religion you're into and you pay contributions and you give to charity.

[00:21:42] Whether that's your tithes or you're just giving a gift.

[00:21:46] Those things can be considered charitable contributions.

[00:21:51] Right. And so you as an employee should know that you just bought a home.

[00:21:55] You may get some deductions or some credits.

[00:21:59] You're in school, you may get some deductions and credits, even if you have a nine to five, but you're also going to school.

[00:22:05] You may be eligible for some of those things.

[00:22:08] So take advantage of those things.

[00:22:11] And realizing that can help in some ways can help alleviate certain stress.

[00:22:16] Another big thing that we're really advocates of and we've all have been saying is practicing self-care.

[00:22:23] Give yourself some grace. Tax related anxiety can definitely and will definitely take a toll on your mental well-being.

[00:22:31] Practice some self-care techniques such as exercise, being mindful, getting adequate sleep to manage that stress.

[00:22:39] Taking breaks during the tax prep process can help you maintain focus and prevent burnout.

[00:22:46] Just think about it. If you're scrambling at the last minute and you're already in a heightened, anxious state, you could miss something.

[00:22:55] I got to request my day off.

[00:23:00] I don't want to be distressed out. If I have the day, it's like an eight hour period where I'm working anyway.

[00:23:07] I can just tackle it because I waited too long.

[00:23:12] And then the last tip to help alleviate that can potentially help alleviate some anxiety and stress during tax time is communicating with your employers.

[00:23:23] So if you're uncertain or you have concerns that arise from tax related matters.

[00:23:29] If you don't know where to start. Yeah, yeah. Don't hesitate to communicate with your payroll team or your HR team at your employer.

[00:23:38] Employers may provide resources and clarification on company specific matter tax matters and offer some reassurance and support.

[00:23:48] If you work for a company that has a good HR and or payroll team, they should have some resources available.

[00:23:56] Now, again, I want to let you know that your payroll professional, your average payroll professional should not be giving you legal tax advice on what you should file.

[00:24:06] No guidance. Yeah.

[00:24:08] Guide you and point you in the right direction. Hey, you may want to go look over here.

[00:24:13] But those signs that say, hey, this way.

[00:24:16] Follow the signs. Yeah. And it depends, right? If you have a good relationship with them and whatnot.

[00:24:22] Yeah, they're not going to give you advice, but the guidance may get better.

[00:24:25] Little pointers and tips like, you know, one of the things when we fill out the W to new W for it used to be easy single whatever this now it's oh put $2,000 for every child you have.

[00:24:40] And they're like, what? How many folks get caught up there.

[00:24:43] And so you got to multiply that for every child. And there's these new boxes that you got to check off.

[00:24:48] So you can, again, I can't tell you what to put there. But look out for this. Okay.

[00:24:53] People get tripped up on this part all the time. Look out for that.

[00:24:56] If you're listening to this and you're like, oh, that W for stinks.

[00:24:59] Check out our boy, Gerard Hall, that payroll guy, that payroll guy dot com.

[00:25:04] He built a spreadsheet to help you go through the process and you can see your number change and you can see that it's a great tool.

[00:25:15] And go check it out. And just if you have in trouble, that is a we've used it.

[00:25:19] Me and Walt took an hour one day and just walk through it and related it to what we saw and the pay.

[00:25:26] And I think we use like an employee, a random employee as an example to see, oh, this is actually working.

[00:25:32] This works. So we proved it out and it works. It's good. It's a good tool.

[00:25:38] Yep, it is. In conclusion,

[00:25:42] We're going to recap some of these bullet points and give you some of the key takeaways.

[00:25:47] So, Brian, your opinion, what are some of the key takeaways from this?

[00:25:51] I think it's confusing. Be prepared. Prepare yourself for the complexity of it.

[00:25:57] Right. It's going to be complex. We have we're scared. There's a financial impact.

[00:26:03] It's time consuming. There's privacy concerns and that you had a bad past experience.

[00:26:08] Right. So just if it's too late for you now, like it is for me, I blew it. I'm done next year.

[00:26:14] I'm going to I'm going to I'm not only am I going to take time to deal with this year or rather the 23 tax filing.

[00:26:21] But now for next year, I'm going to be more mindful.

[00:26:24] I'm going to use some technology and get myself prepared in advance.

[00:26:29] Yes. Again, one of the key things for me is like you just said, like you just ended on start early.

[00:26:36] Yeah. Also educate yourself. You know that, yes, that the normal deadline to file is April.

[00:26:44] But you can request an extension through the IRS that you may be approved to file later on in the year to give yourself more time to prep.

[00:26:54] Yep. So say because things happen in life, right? We get busy and we forget.

[00:26:58] You know how many people have reached out to me saying, man, I forgot that I have to I got to file my taxes now.

[00:27:03] You can avoid that by educating yourself and knowing these different deadlines and these workarounds that you can like file later on in the year.

[00:27:11] OK, I'm going to file in October instead of April.

[00:27:14] I give myself more time to collect all my data, get everything together, and then I can file for the prior year later on in this year.

[00:27:22] Right. You want to make sure you budget for potential tax liabilities, especially if you do get work or you're 1099 or self-employed.

[00:27:31] And you want to make sure that you really watch those things so you don't end up owning or you break even at the end of the year.

[00:27:38] Right. Know what works for you. Get trusted professional guidance and help on these things.

[00:27:45] And the most important thing is to not allow yourself to become burdened so much more than you have to take breaks.

[00:27:53] Yeah. Man, practice self-care. Give yourself some grace when it comes to these things.

[00:27:59] And really just utilize technology. I've known of some people, I've dealt with people in the past.

[00:28:05] They were like, I don't trust anybody to do my taxes for me.

[00:28:09] I don't trust no, I don't trust any technology or system or website to do it for me.

[00:28:15] I'm going to do it myself. Yeah. That's you. That's fine.

[00:28:19] Be educated though. Get educated. Yeah.

[00:28:22] And prepare yourself and make sure that you're taking advantage of any potential deductions and credits that are out there.

[00:28:30] And again, prepare early.

[00:28:34] I just want to call one thing out there for you said the extension, the filing extension.

[00:28:40] Be careful because it's technically only the extension to file.

[00:28:45] If you know you pay every year, you're supposed to still pay on April 15th and then you can file.

[00:28:52] You have more time to file. So just be careful.

[00:28:56] If you get back money every year, then you should be safe.

[00:29:00] But again, educate yourself. If you're going to take advantage of the filing extension, just go right to the IRS.

[00:29:06] The IRS, they define what you can do for the extension. I just went there to check it out.

[00:29:10] And because I remember it, I was like, wait a minute, I think it's just to file, not to pay.

[00:29:14] But if you pay and it's true and if you pay every year, then you're going to have to pay something and then can file.

[00:29:21] Yeah. Thank you for saying that. I know I said I think I said file, but I didn't conclude all the extra stuff.

[00:29:26] So thank you. Yeah, no, no problem. Yeah.

[00:29:28] It's just this while we're talking about it, the things that make us anxious is just being educated.

[00:29:33] I had somebody recently reach out to me and was like, oh, I want to be exempt.

[00:29:39] But IRS defines exemption very specifically.

[00:29:43] You qualified last you got all your money back last year and you expect the same scenario this year.

[00:29:49] Oh, yes. If you think about it, so there are some that classify them as if you're a international person

[00:29:57] and you came in and you have a work exemption and you may not have to pay certain taxes.

[00:30:03] You want to make sure that you're set up correctly because that can cause some different.

[00:30:07] That's part of the prep prep. Yep. Students. We talked about students real quick.

[00:30:12] Students have an exemption. You're full time college student.

[00:30:15] There's an exemption. You don't get all your money back.

[00:30:17] And if you set it up right, you don't have to pay out the gate. Little things like that, folks.

[00:30:22] Right. Again, those things makes us anxious. Just get educated about it. Get better about it.

[00:30:27] Reach out to us if you have trouble. We can guide you and point you in the right direction.

[00:30:31] At some point, I want to get a tax professional come on and help us do these things.

[00:30:36] And but that if you know somebody good, let us know. We'll have them on.

[00:30:39] But yeah, folks, that is it for this week's safe talk as we prepare for tax season.

[00:30:46] Don't get too stressed out. Get prepared. I like that one.

[00:30:50] I think that's the biggest call out is get prepared, get educated and really be proactive instead of letting it just come full rain down on us like I did.

[00:31:00] Now I got to request a day off so I can do my taxes for real.

[00:31:05] But all right. Until then, until the next time, folks again, look out for this season in our ecosystem of shows.

[00:31:12] We are this season we're talking about getting folks getting young folks excited about getting into payroll because we're aging.

[00:31:19] We're an aging group and we really need some young folks to backfill payroll because if not, what's going to happen?

[00:31:27] So that's what we'll be talking about throughout the season. We're going to have some guests.

[00:31:31] We're going to have some young payroll folks come on and tell us about being in payroll.

[00:31:35] I want to get my daughter on talk about just the paycheck side of it like the anxiety of oh my gosh, I'm a new employee.

[00:31:42] Right. So we're going to get all kind of different point of views.

[00:31:45] And maybe that'll be a good safe talk to have them on.

[00:31:48] My daughter and her girlfriend want to come on and talk to us about because they're brand new to the workforce.

[00:31:52] So we've been planning it like putting it off, but now it's perfect. This is the perfect season.

[00:31:56] This is what we're talking about. And yeah, just look out. We're going to have fun with it, man.

[00:32:01] Okay. Yep. Cool. To the next time, folks. Yep. We love you. Peace.

[00:32:06] Before we sign off, here are a couple quick things.

[00:32:09] Don't forget to follow It's About Payroll on LinkedIn and it's about your paycheck on Facebook and TikTok.

[00:32:16] Thank you for being part of our payroll community and thank you for being a part of this journey with us.

[00:32:22] Until the next time, keep learning, keep growing, and most importantly, keep going.

[00:32:27] Thank you for tuning in to It's About Payroll.

[00:32:32] Until next time, keep learning, keep growing, and most importantly, keep going.