Have you filed your 2023 taxes? (Episode 24)

[00:00:00] its a tough process to go through. But yeah, you got to just be careful out there folks. Pay attention to your Paycheck. Welcome back folks. This is episode 24. It's about your Paycheck.

[00:00:30] I'm not sure if that so man is good. It's a good day. We have everything I'm speaking for me, from my point of view I have everything I need. I'm good man. I am good. Life has its challenges from day to day.

[00:00:47] But bro, we are here. We're made for this. We can do this if you're listening to this episode whether you're an employee or whatever whoever or whatever you are you can do this. You got it.

[00:01:01] So that's all I need when I say it.

[00:01:03] I'm good man. Don't matter.

[00:01:05] Chicken.

[00:01:08] Chicken. You said, come out chicken. I'll see you're going to get me hungry. I have a knee in yet.

[00:01:13] Hey.

[00:01:14] I love it.

[00:01:16] What was that?

[00:01:18] I said a cow or a chicken. You are a cow or chicken.

[00:01:21] Yeah.

[00:01:22] Are you tired of compiling?

[00:01:24] I'm good man. I'm good loving Friday. Friday is good. Friday is always a good day.

[00:01:29] I got my mom down from New York visiting so it's cool and get to hang out with her today in this weekend and whatnot.

[00:01:34] I was raised Catholic. So this is a holy day, a holy weekend and growing up. Yeah.

[00:01:40] Just enjoy the day.

[00:01:42] And that's it man.

[00:01:43] I was I was we were supposed to record this last weekend but it's just got so tough.

[00:01:48] Backed up and going through things.

[00:01:52] But I'm excited for this show we are talking about a few different things right?

[00:01:57] We're doing season one and two review because we've been doing this show.

[00:02:04] And it's like the add to and we're still finding our way and we'll get into that.

[00:02:08] But we're doing the season one and two review.

[00:02:10] And we also have a tax file reminder for everyone of you to and 1099 employees.

[00:02:18] I think 1099s have a different schedule but still we must file our taxes and we're going to talk about some of those things in the little nuances that folks might not know.

[00:02:28] But before we get into it, we as always we have some pay news updates that we like to share.

[00:02:33] Walt's up first with a good one, a good little nuggy.

[00:02:39] Excuse me bro. I'm sorry man. You okay?

[00:02:44] Now I feel a little sick which reminds me crap man.

[00:02:48] I need to put in my sick time.

[00:02:51] Oh what system do you use?

[00:02:54] Well time track go. The simply better employee time clock software that is going to make your life easier.

[00:03:02] I don't know if you know man but it already has a unique graphical employee time card and it's awesome because it helps you quickly identify and fix the mistakes.

[00:03:12] That's right now did you say that they just announced the addition of automatic PTO crew earnings so you can say goodbye to those manual calculations.

[00:03:20] Time track goes new automatic PTO crew feature takes the hassle out of tracking those earned in accrued times, ensuring accuracy and consistency for both employees and HR teams.

[00:03:33] Oh that's golden. That's awesome. You know what? That's right I remember that I read that you can choose from various rules like yearly monthly pay period hourly and hourly percentage to seamless.

[00:03:49] Align with your company's policies. It includes new state sick leave awesome because I'm not feeling good that's going to help.

[00:03:59] And you can do vacation hours that automatically increase with length of service.

[00:04:05] Man like how can someone find out what a simply better solution could do for their business?

[00:04:10] Oh to learn more they're always doing a 14 day free trial. Someone should go to their website at www.TimeTrackGo.com. That's T-I-M-E-T-R-A-K-Go.com.

[00:04:30] Or if they want to call the number is 888-321-9922. Let's go.

[00:04:39] Let's go.

[00:04:40] Yeah so for those of you who are San Francisco 49ers fans this might have upped you a little bit.

[00:04:47] Yeah it worked.

[00:04:48] There was an article a couple of weeks ago that came out about a payroll error from 2022 that ended up costing the 49ers a draft pick in 2025 and a dip in the 2024 draft that's going to be going on next month.

[00:05:08] So they dropped it like four or five spots in round four of the 2024 draft and so that could have some impact.

[00:05:17] It might not we don't know right now but this payroll error basically what happened is that they understated the some money that should have been wasn't an egregious error that was found but they had to have some penalty for it as a result.

[00:05:33] So I just these penalties happened to them.

[00:05:35] Oh and no the 90 trans are happy about it so yeah.

[00:05:38] But you say it wasn't egregious because it even though if I remember right even though it was an error it still didn't bring them under the cap when this should have been over the cap they were still under the cap but it was still error.

[00:05:52] So we shared this on our other show too but I think it's so relevant for us employees right because remember this is this about your paycheck.

[00:06:00] It's the first step in your financial wellness journey and it's the only stop for employee information now the reason I think it impacts employees is because look how something at the payroll department level whatever that now has a trickle down effect throughout the whole organization right.

[00:06:20] Now if they suffer in the future in the next few years because of that it impacts all the employees.

[00:06:28] The players the players are employees I think I don't know if we forget folks forget sometimes that these players are actually employees as well it impacts them and so it's we have to be mindful of these things and be aware you got a I don't know what to say but it just impacts all and I think that's something that folks got to be respectful.

[00:06:48] Yes this happened in 2022 but it's having consequences in 2024 2025 for the happenings.

[00:06:55] 22?

[00:06:56] Yeah that what I missed wow so look at that yeah so think about that that's why is F for you as an employee who's listening to this it's important for you to check your text stocks in case your socials wrong.

[00:07:09] Your name is misspelled something is wrong on your W2 and your wages are overstated or understated.

[00:07:17] That could have impact you get in a way with something because that has impact right I've known business owners in the past that try to understate their salary and it's impacted them later on when they try to go and get by a house or buy a car because now your salary is not whatever really is you understated it thinking you were slick.

[00:07:37] I think you was bored in taxes no you are you are really evading so think about that so it could have been a clerical error from HR payroll entering your data during onboarding or something like that they could have put in one extra one digit off for your social or put in somebody else's social on your record and and you try to go file or you're able to file and hopefully they would have caught it before you.

[00:08:02] If they process your stuff imagine it goes through and then next thing you know like you get a letter from the IRS last year you found this but it actually incorrect you owe us $9,000.

[00:08:14] Damn you hit them in a gut punch good gosh.

[00:08:20] But no it is very true and you think about it I know we're so far in advance so far along with technology but there's still a lot of challenges right and people folks company some small companies are still preparing W2s very manually don't think that all this should be automated it should be we need to automate to elevate but it's not there that everyone's not there yet even with the age of AI and all this stuff company still not there's still technology that needs to catch up.

[00:08:49] A lot of technologies built a long time ago and they're just like look if it ain't broke don't fix it it costs a lot of money to overhaul we know firsthand developers are expensive they can be shady they can be difficult tough business it's a tough process to go through yeah you got to just get be careful out there folks pay attention to your paycheck pay look at your stub I think we got to come out with some rules for the show like you've got to look at your stuff got to look at your W2 things that we guess have to do as an example.

[00:09:19] So yeah ready for my what you got man I got some stuff is really alarming we always talk about paycheck to paycheck and we were throwing out that stat of 70% of Americans that paycheck to paycheck unfortunately has grown Forbes and

[00:09:39] they partner with somebody here somewhere in the article of say before Forbes put out a survey and now it's up to 78% of Americans pay check to pay to yes it's tough and we throw around that term pages but what does that really mean because that's what got me going as like what does this really mean so the definition for the purposes of this survey living paycheck to paycheck describes a financial scenario in which an individual or family

[00:10:06] it families income barely covers essential living expenses like housing utilities groceries transportation one missed paycheck would put someone living paycheck to paycheck in a difficult spot.

[00:10:20] When you live in paycheck to paycheck it's difficult or impossible to save let alone invest this makes you even more vulnerable in times of emergency or lost income.

[00:10:31] And then there were a few stats that we like we love stats here but I don't want to overstat people but I just thought these were these particular were important to share 2023 Forbes advisor survey revealed that nearly 70% of respondents either identified as living paycheck to paycheck or even more concerning that their income doesn't even cover their standard expenses of those of those 70% that responded 40%.

[00:11:01] Identified as living paycheck to paycheck 30% said they can't even cover their standard expenses so every month they're falling behind more than half of these respondents reported living paycheck to paycheck however families with five or more children reported the lowest incidence of living paycheck to paycheck.

[00:11:20] So it's crazy right you have got five kids is that those are the folks are less likely to be paycheck to paycheck and for me I think in all right they had to get frugal really quick they had to learn they had to learn to be conscious of their dollar they're not miss spending they are actively saving right aggressively save right and it makes sense you got five kids.

[00:11:43] Yeah yeah you got five kids but you could have been a different place in your life when you had your first or second kid and then career things happen and change like our other show when we were speaking to one of the gentlemen about our wage access Chris he said that he started out with his wife and they had one kid and it was a struggle.

[00:12:05] And then when they got to four kids it was life had gotten better so maybe that has something to do with it but I do like your point about about the them having to learn how to be frugal and how to budget thank you for saying that's what I'm looking for.

[00:12:23] And before you continue here I want to put it in a different way for our people to understand when Brian said 78% of Americans think eight out of 10 people yeah.

[00:12:36] Out of 10 people can't afford the home that they're living in or the car that are driving that's what that means they're living paycheck to paycheck that means hey out of 10 people so if you were one of 10 people in a room yeah 80.

[00:12:49] You're like we want those people yeah 80 all can't afford to live the life that you're living that yeah that's yeah that's a scary way to put it man yeah and it's funny because the other the flip side of it like you said the one kid that was the biggest stat of paycheck.

[00:13:05] And another one is more American more Americans experienced an increase in spending rather an increase in income in 2022 and we talk about that all the time the bag of groceries went from 40 to 80 bucks you know what I mean.

[00:13:19] It says according to the federal reserves report on the economic well being a US household two fifths or 40% of adults four out of every 10 adults reported an increase in their families monthly spending compared to the previous year.

[00:13:34] And we talk about that all the time the bag of groceries just shot up out of nowhere my mom always sells me to so my gosh this went up and this went up the prices just keep jumping up.

[00:13:45] A few more little nuggets and then I'll be done here let's see Jen's ears they broke it down by generation Jen's ears cited highly monthly high monthly living expenses basically these are what the generations are saying so the Jen's ears said there's a high monthly living expenses Millennials said there's a lack of money.

[00:14:03] And then I just said there's a lack of budgeting and financial planning Jen exers reported low income.

[00:14:11] And baby boomers cited rises in cost of living yep makes sense.

[00:14:17] And then I just have a little quick how do we offset that what are some things that folks can do to offset it the most common response was reducing expenses you want to cut the

[00:14:29] maybe you don't need Netflix, Hulu, Disney prime paramount peacock and then especially if you have cable and most smart and most smart TVs now they have live TV that you can turn to on the actual television if you just have Wi-Fi.

[00:14:48] You're still channels you can get the local stations there.

[00:14:51] Yeah, free that's right. That's right could call out thank you for that so reducing expenses was the first one creating a budget like we always say right with this this is again first step in your financial wellness budgeting is huge saving and investing is the other part of that 123 combo

[00:15:10] and then the last one was respondents were inclined to relocate to more affordable state or country or to measures to break the paycheck to paycheck cycle.

[00:15:21] Yeah, more Americans are becoming exxx yeah, and they're leaving the country for instance, Mexico I think the Mexican peso to the dollars like 20 to 1.

[00:15:33] Yeah, South America. Remember Chris Chris from the other show we had a guest on the other show about earn wage access if you guys want to read that conversation he lived in Costa Rica for a year and guess what how you know what inspired him have you have I don't know if you guys have watched

[00:15:51] House Hunters and a national yes, and I've watched that show and I mean wifey have been inspired the same way we're like we saw like little mini mansions for 500,000 dollars a month we're like wow let's do yeah, but no these are big, big,

[00:16:07] really nice apartments for two three hundred dollars, but US dollars right so yeah, so those are things that folks are doing offset that and yeah let's get into it man this is a fun this is a fun show because I always love the reviews and talking back on what where we add what we've done you're up first.

[00:16:26] What's your reflections on the past two seasons.

[00:16:30] These these last few seasons have been exciting and I think I go back to the why behind it all for us while we decided to add to this one was because of someone that's that we connected with on our other show about payroll draw them all that payroll guy.

[00:16:51] They mentioned about the consumer or the employee needing to be empowered needing to be educated needed to be informed about how their pay works so that's what really put the bug and our what you've been saying battery and our battery battery in our back.

[00:17:07] That's really what did that was the why when we started doing it we were just like oh man this is great, this is we're going to help people out and we've learned stuff ourselves like doing this research for this show has helped me.

[00:17:20] And help me on track to when we talk to you about budgeting it had me check myself to when we talked to you about cutting out expenses I was actually going to looking at my questions as Brian mentioned and going and cutting things off the man okay yeah this is true you know what I don't need this I do need to cook more I need to stop eating out I need to start doing this and doing that meal prep more and do this and do that.

[00:17:41] And self care and all those different things and so that was the first thing I had and then how we've grown along this along the way man how we've become more empowered and how that is trickling down and we're putting that out there for the people who are listening and tapping into the show.

[00:17:59] The challenges that is brought like trying to navigate two different shows on two different social medias and we have more.

[00:18:07] Oh my god, but you know I try to navigate everything and editing and all this stuff like it's how we've grown because at first we were just like oh man I know me I was like oh man it's a lot and then I just had to change the mindset and just okay hey this is what we got to do got a lot some time to do it and so I've seen us grow.

[00:18:28] Along this journey in these first two seasons and I think that as we progress the creativity, the things that we put out there are just going to be even more more impactful on the people that we're trying to serve and we're trying to help and empower here.

[00:18:48] Brian always says this is your first stop and your wellness journey, your financial wellness journey.

[00:18:55] This is your first stop checking with us listening we got some great stuff coming that we're going to talk about a little bit later before we close out the show but those are really the things that stuck out to me during these first two seasons man and I'm excited for what's to come what about you.

[00:19:12] All that and you made me think of when we say a lot and stuff like that like the phrase that has been is as a quote I read one day and said you can't complain about what's on your plate if your goal was to eat in a lot but we're working through it we're figuring it out and I think this is a great opportunity to say folks hey what you will see on our social media is a consolidation of both shows right.

[00:19:38] When you go to those pages you're going to see two great hosts two great shows just like our website so it's a unification of our branding it's a streamlining of it all because we were struggling it's tough to I forgot who I was just talking to this about but all I think my new team shout out to both the old team new team everybody is cool.

[00:19:59] No, no disrespect to anybody really.

[00:20:02] Well saying to the to my team my team members that these influencers people think that these influencers just post a few videos even Tabitha Brown right she said it I've heard her say it in her post she's she said oh they just think I post three times a day there's so much work that goes beyond behind the posting the recording video and the editing the being thoughtful about what you're actually going to talk about planning out the topics getting

[00:20:28] researching and updating it's a lot of work and it's only if you like it that's why you got to pick subjects that makes sense and you got to do things that make sense.

[00:20:38] Funny who you'll see that on our branding you'll see now two great host to great shows and that will be unified you'll see both shows you see the branding in the background is two different shows same topic two different sides of the coin though right payroll and employees it's very different right it's the folks creating the check but there's the folks also impacted by that check right payroll is life

[00:20:59] and we're talking about all those aspects of it so that it made me think about that and my notes is we're still developing this product for you right it's still a work in progress so as you reach out to us tell us what you want to hear about right because that will help us craft the next show for you payroll is a bit easier but the paycheck topics range widely like you you can we could pay check like your paycheck

[00:21:28] check talking about our paycheck could take us in so many different directions and I don't and I try to be mindful of not going too far off the mark right because I think a lot of folks take a lot of liberties and then they start talking about things that are like it's not really a hey if it's about your paycheck let's talk about that let's keep it focused there but this even still like we so we're still trying to make sure that we're delivering worthy content

[00:21:52] and we even tried to figure we had we were constantly talking about who our audience is right we get sidetracked sometimes and the stuff is going on and heavy yet but it blends over and although it lends well to blending over we still have to be mindful of who our audiences who we're talking to

[00:22:11] and honestly what one of the things that grounds me in who I'm talking to is one of my best friends Elmo's name is Elmer him we call him Elmo shout out to L.

[00:22:21] he and he's really helped he helps me because he was really he's a big fan of the show great supporter but he also challenged me and was like yo I'm having a problem

[00:22:31] and I don't get this part and I was like oh wow when he's really helping I think we even we were like let the start of doing this

[00:22:41] when we had that he was the one who brought you to his actual pay stuff yeah yeah I was in New York last year

[00:22:50] and unfortunately for a very sad event we lost a good friend of ours just the salt of the earth they say the good die young in the bad die hard

[00:23:01] and he was definitely a good one shout out to Phil during that time that I was there he brought up though he was kidding right he brought his paycheck

[00:23:11] and I was like oh my gosh and it was a small thing wasn't it wasn't a huge deal but it was just some something that just wasn't really clear on the explanation

[00:23:20] the breakdowns of things and whatever and and that really oh wow this is needed folks still doesn't matter like how old you are how long you've been in the game

[00:23:30] you still may have a question about your paycheck and that's really the goal of it for me is to and it's like Gerard said we're not doing good at customer service

[00:23:40] we're not doing it at the payroll level for our payroll department folks if you're a payroll professional listening to this do better be better

[00:23:48] be a better customer service proponent for payroll there's plenty of opportunity there what up

[00:23:56] let me see for that before you continue on really quick I think that's it so to the customer service aspect like

[00:24:05] it you may think Brian I have to challenge you on that because we do really good with customer service and this and that

[00:24:13] we follow up in time what I think Brian is trying to articulate and what you know you said Gerard or whoever said that

[00:24:22] Gerard home yeah yeah it's that we need to do better which is why we started the show of educating the employee

[00:24:32] we need to step it up a level yes what the employee knows and equip them so they know okay if I have a question I can go to my employee guide

[00:24:43] that was given to me by payroll and look on this page and oh the answer is right there for me yeah bro so and then you

[00:24:50] could teach them about actually how their pay works that is another level of customer service or so then sitting back and waiting for the

[00:24:57] employee to come to you yes so I think that is where we could definitely improve just to just I'm just trying to add some

[00:25:06] right word to it no I think you're being fair I think that's fair and you made me think of like what you done in your

[00:25:12] department you put out an in a survey customer service survey so as a professional if you think

[00:25:18] you're doing well and whatever you do how do you really know that are you had done a survey to your customers

[00:25:24] and have you gotten feedback yes and so that's the thing because you could have a great overall score and say 80% of my

[00:25:32] customers that were applied said we're doing great but you may need to work on that 20% that's right how can we get this how can

[00:25:41] we get this to 90% and that's right 100% that's right you know that's right because you will have those people that have had a

[00:25:48] bad experience with whether you're in payroll or whatever industry and they've had a bad experience with somebody

[00:25:56] giving them custom customer support somebody's told them right thing is something else happens they send an email or they made a call

[00:26:03] and somebody didn't return their call at all or didn't respond to their email and that's their experience even if it's not the norm

[00:26:10] right yeah I'm sorry to stay in this but I just want to speak on that a little bit no I think it's very relevant no it's

[00:26:16] it's relevant yeah yeah it's all good man so yeah I think you know so that's been my review that's my thoughts of the

[00:26:23] seasons and we say two seasons you guys you might you guys might be like we're only on 24 so our seasons around 10 or 12

[00:26:29] episodes right we do it a quarter out of time so there's four quarters in the year so we will get you'll get four

[00:26:35] seasons a year from us and then we were still getting organized around this show and so we're only two

[00:26:42] seasons in yeah so look at that we didn't even start this show until late last year then if that's right yeah that's about right

[00:26:49] it was last year it was last year yeah so yeah yeah then again folks we want to keep delivering a great product for you all

[00:26:59] and and on that note we ready for the tax reminder yes sir all right as you guys know April 15th is coming up

[00:27:08] this time the file your taxes or apply for an extension is a little nugget that I don't know if everyone knows you

[00:27:15] you can apply for an extension that push you out to I think it's October right yeah gives you more time

[00:27:20] if you're not ready go and file that extension one of the things I wanted to share about this

[00:27:25] reminder is that some folks think that they don't have to file because they haven't been working right they

[00:27:31] feel like oh I didn't get a w2 so I don't have to file and that's not sure if you're an American citizen

[00:27:37] in the US you should be filing even if you're not getting any income because you never know what type of

[00:27:44] credits you could be qualifying for you can actually just get money if you file and you fall in there I don't

[00:27:50] know what they are so don't oh my gosh Brian say we're going to get money we don't have to work I don't

[00:27:55] know but that is the truth right you don't know what you're qualifying for you still have to file

[00:28:02] and federal at the federal level it's free so if you're not working then you may have you may be free I

[00:28:09] definitely wanted to that was another point that I wanted to cover is like turbo tax they actually

[00:28:14] forced them to change their advertising this past year because it was a little misleading right

[00:28:22] they would always say oh file for free and file for free and blah blah blah but only 30% of the country

[00:28:29] can file for free or rather 30% of w2 employees could actually file for free so they made them change their

[00:28:35] advertising to reflect that so be careful you may not be able to file for free because usually the state

[00:28:42] charges you something again you should file regardless you don't you never know what you qualify

[00:28:49] for if you are not ready go ahead and file for an extension and just be mindful that only 30%

[00:28:57] of the country and folks that can file are eligible to file for free I think that was it as far as

[00:29:05] yeah and my greatest statement of all right to avoid is legal to evade is illegal right

[00:29:15] rest in peace bill manning shout out the great CPA we had at one point and yeah so that's it for me

[00:29:23] I won't be long I have a couple of different things just some tips really Ryan gave you the

[00:29:29] more technical pieces of it so I'm just going to give you some tips and stuff about some things

[00:29:34] that you may consider right when you when you when it comes to filing your taxes right and shout

[00:29:39] out to you Ryan for wanting to do the reminder yeah and the show stuff and you know so the first thing

[00:29:45] I didn't include here yet that there is there are there is a fee if you don't file for an extension

[00:29:52] with IRS or so file and you file late there's a fee yes so for every month that you file late

[00:30:02] you'll have to pay an additional 5% failure to file penalty on the total amount that you owe if you owe taxes

[00:30:10] so that's a caveat if you owe taxes if you all okay wait so if there's no there's no penalty

[00:30:17] if you get money back no according to not from what they're saying it's important to know yeah

[00:30:25] if you owe taxes yes you have to pay that 5% yeah for every month and there's a caveat here to say

[00:30:33] yes it's important it says it's important to note that a month doesn't mean 30 days to the IRS

[00:30:41] do you know what it means since filing your return even one day late means you'll still be hit

[00:30:48] with the full 5% penalty so if I go to file on 416 and I didn't apply for an extension

[00:30:55] and I end up on they're going to add 5% to what I oh unbelievable that's something to consider

[00:31:04] so you want to make sure you take care yourself either file for an extension or file by the file on time for real

[00:31:12] yeah exactly the other things that I have is overall a third of Americans say that they do their own taxes

[00:31:20] while 56% say that someone else prepares their taxes for them so that tells me that the majority of us

[00:31:28] don't either don't want to go through the hassle of doing it because there's too much

[00:31:33] and we use some other software like turbo tax just walk us through or we pay some IDR

[00:31:38] HNR block to do it for us okay yes my stuff you tell me what I get back or whatever

[00:31:44] so and I would suggest the more complex your situation is the more likely it is that you need help

[00:31:50] because you're going to miss something you miss something

[00:31:53] and these tax professionals are trying to help you maximize your return

[00:31:59] right that's the point of this stuff or mitigate your liability meaning decrease the amount that you have to pay

[00:32:07] yes right they either get get they're trying to get the most back from you or depending on how you file

[00:32:14] and how you finances it they're trying to just keep you paying the least amount as possible

[00:32:20] because they want to avoid stuff legally legally you want to write off the right things if you are business owners out there

[00:32:28] and you want to write off the right things if you itemize as a non-business or you want to itemize the right things

[00:32:33] the more complex your situation is the more likely it is that you need help with it

[00:32:38] another another tip is that you can go directly to the IRS and file your taxes on the IRS site

[00:32:46] so you don't have to go to HNR block you don't have to go there you can directly to the IRS file

[00:32:51] even in IRS I'm not a fan of HNR block at all I went there one year and had to tell them what to do

[00:32:56] yeah I'm not a fan of them because they're not a fan of you

[00:32:59] you might you might have had a green person who was a little green

[00:33:04] well that's the warning that I'm going to give these places they often hire people that just have very little experience exposure

[00:33:13] and they're just helping yeah they just help people along and then they're not tax experts

[00:33:18] they're just like yeah push that button they're asked question they just going down a survey of questionnaires or sorts

[00:33:25] yeah I'm serious so be careful with that

[00:33:28] yes so there's another tip that I wanted to share and be mindful everybody's situation

[00:33:34] tax situation money situation is different so some of this may apply to you

[00:33:40] what that I'm saying it's some of it may not so it had a little tip in here on this article

[00:33:46] that I read about said whether married folks should file jointly or file separately

[00:33:52] and they said you're almost always better off filing married filing jointly

[00:33:57] yeah as many tax benefits aren't available if you file separate returns now again

[00:34:03] your situation might be different when you have to do it that way where you have to

[00:34:08] you might marry you have to file that single or whatever but you may miss out on a couple of different

[00:34:14] tax benefits by doing that so that's something to think about

[00:34:18] and then the last thing I had even though Brian had a little little sugar grid with HRR block here

[00:34:24] paying a tax professional may be wise when if you have a lot of different

[00:34:29] are different money sources if you had investment losses if you had received an inheritance

[00:34:36] are you settled in a state something like that right it might be more beneficial for you

[00:34:41] instead of you trying to figure all that stuff on your own to have somebody else do it

[00:34:45] whether that's a tax professional a CPA your your own family accountant whatever it may be

[00:34:50] somebody who knows what they're doing it may be better for you to do that and go see

[00:34:55] tax professional advice versus you trying to figure out and trying to take

[00:34:59] and tie everything because you couldn't miss something or you could do something wrong

[00:35:03] yeah and that's in like finding the right tax professional

[00:35:06] and when you go to pick somebody do your research look at the reviews

[00:35:11] so if you had a good experience with the one H&R block so don't assume that every

[00:35:18] H&R block is the same don't assume that every next one of the place is the same either

[00:35:24] do your research see what the ratings are what the reviews are on the place

[00:35:29] that you're considering to go to and see if they if they are five star but they only have two

[00:35:35] reviews I get a little there's like the options you know that yeah that's the

[00:35:40] family member on there yeah exactly but if they have a thousand reviews and they're

[00:35:45] like 4.2 oh okay that's pretty good 4.2 out of five okay that's not bad

[00:35:52] that I may consider them so you want to really do your research when you go

[00:35:56] with the tax preparing and because I've heard horror stories when you find

[00:36:01] somebody and they shut up they set up a fake shop you get all your information

[00:36:06] and you get it you're supposed to get a refund and then you go back to that shop

[00:36:11] and they're gone yeah they pop up they do a lot of pop ups for tax time yeah

[00:36:16] you got to make yeah you just like you said I think what you said is do your research

[00:36:20] make sure they're reputable ask right questions go ahead and google

[00:36:24] what are the right questions to ask these folks how long have they been doing it

[00:36:27] and really try to vet them very well because again some of these places

[00:36:32] just hire people for the season to help go question ears and that's not what

[00:36:37] you want you want ideally a CPA they're a little bit more expensive but they know

[00:36:42] what they're doing their tax professionals by trade by certification so be mindful

[00:36:49] out be careful out there folks it's tax a lot of scams happened during this time

[00:36:53] right so you want to be mindful of that be careful the pop up like Walter said

[00:36:58] you you may get a text from somebody saying oh you know you take this you may get an

[00:37:04] email saying hit your refunds available and so just be careful because these

[00:37:08] scammers going to the stats what that we had on I think it was this show

[00:37:13] we might have been might have done an on both shows that cybercrime is isn't

[00:37:17] going to increase to 10.5 trillion what next year I'm sure we've said it here

[00:37:22] to yeah we talked about all the time but so on that I think thanks for bringing

[00:37:27] out a capital one just put out a good email to me it's five tips to protect

[00:37:32] yourself it says capital one or any other financial institution will never ask

[00:37:37] you to make payments for correcting fraud activity right never send number

[00:37:43] two never send any money to anyone who claims your account is compromised

[00:37:48] or who threatens to cut off your services instead call the company directly

[00:37:53] to discuss payment methods a utility company will never request a payment via

[00:37:58] Zell be number three be suspicious of people who be suspicious of people you

[00:38:04] don't know contacting you via the phone or text asking you for payment these

[00:38:10] scams aim to create a false sense of urgency and hopes you'll send funds

[00:38:14] before verifying who you are and who you're talking to make sure you're sending

[00:38:19] payments to reputable companies and contacts you validated from a trusted source

[00:38:24] number four report any suspicious activity immediately by calling the phone

[00:38:29] number on the back of your credit card or debit card or by visiting our

[00:38:34] report fraud page so capital one has a report fraud page

[00:38:39] and number five check out capital one and Khan Academy's free financial

[00:38:45] literacy course to learn more about red flags so watch out for more ways to

[00:38:50] protect yourself from new scams and this is all true we have inside sources

[00:38:54] for folks that are what is it cyber security experts the number one

[00:39:00] preventative measure is education is understanding what to do

[00:39:05] and I'll leave you with this did you see the beekeeper yet no you told me

[00:39:11] got to see it you have to see it you go ahead and rent it is worth it and it

[00:39:16] be applicable to this show watch the beekeeper folks this stuff is real the

[00:39:20] great amazing for this short as in it it's Jason state Jason

[00:39:25] states gives you the action flick for sure but there's a learning piece in

[00:39:30] the first 20 minutes if you don't like all the action and stuff like that watch

[00:39:34] the first 20 minutes I promise you're going to want to see the rest of the

[00:39:37] movie because you want to you're going to want to see these people pay for

[00:39:40] what they did they it's basically about scammers and how they do this

[00:39:44] and Felicia Richard was a victim in this movie of the scam and I'm telling

[00:39:50] you they it's an eye opener and you need to check it out and some oh my

[00:39:55] gosh be terrified to go through this but yeah I think that's it oh no

[00:40:01] what we got a safe talk we got a safe talk and we got to close out the show

[00:40:05] sir yes er so our safe talk segment of today's show is our taxes legal

[00:40:13] we always hear these conspiracy theorists and these folks on TikTok and social

[00:40:19] media and gosh I've read books and this is for years and years many people

[00:40:23] with all levels of credibility talk about our taxes legal and I honestly don't

[00:40:29] know the answer to it but what I do know and we shoot we've even talked about

[00:40:34] like the what taxes do and attack I do know that there is a case for

[00:40:42] it going to the right things right now it does it get abused do folks

[00:40:49] are mishandling and misappropriating in the government levels yeah probably

[00:40:53] probably do we need an overhaul do we need oversight do we need

[00:40:57] transparency at the very yes yes so there is a purpose to it right you can't

[00:41:06] run a group of people without those people contributing to the cause right

[00:41:12] where you go to church the church fund and the building fund right this is real

[00:41:17] right if you like your church if you like these organizations that you go

[00:41:20] do for free how do you think they stay afloat as donations it's taxes

[00:41:26] right our roads are paved our our lights our water works are these things all

[00:41:33] happened because there's government funds flowing so we have to be and I'm not

[00:41:38] saying just blindly oh yeah no it's the right thing to do we got to know I'm

[00:41:43] neither left nor right I'm just trying to I'm just an American trying to balance

[00:41:47] it all out what about you that's what you think the question is simple and

[00:41:53] you're saying that the same yeah yeah yes right our taxes legal from a

[00:41:58] constitutional standpoint from a law standpoint yes the 16th of amendment says

[00:42:03] that is legal oh really that yeah that Congress should have so this is what it

[00:42:07] says since the 4th amendment provides that Congress shall have the power

[00:42:12] to lay and collect taxes on income from whatever source derived oh wow

[00:42:18] so it is legal but to your point while it's legal is it being overseen properly

[00:42:28] properly all these funds being used and allocated correctly by the people who are

[00:42:33] supposed to be collecting it and using it for the people right because you're

[00:42:38] supposed to be paying government workers with it you're supposed to be improving

[00:42:44] infrastructure with it you so to pay our post workers all these different

[00:42:49] type of things that we're supposed to do the military and all this other stuff

[00:42:53] the things we're supposed to do with the tax money so security for people's

[00:42:58] retirement all these different things that we're supposed to be doing that is

[00:43:04] legal but I think the oversight of it is egregious because we as Americans

[00:43:12] should be able to see and I could be wrong if you're listening to this your

[00:43:16] a tax pro or whatever you're listening to this and you know some stuff come on

[00:43:20] the show let us know yeah for real especially if there's something out there

[00:43:23] so Americans can go see whether taxes dollars are going to and how their

[00:43:27] tax dollars are being used the thing about like like I wish I had a stat for

[00:43:32] how much is collected in taxes every year from Americans oh I would have

[00:43:37] to look at them because I would like to see okay if we are doing that then why

[00:43:44] are things the way they are it to of course it doesn't want to give you the big

[00:43:49] number right away it says the average American family pays about $20,000 in

[00:43:53] taxes every year that's billions of dollars yeah yeah of course it's not going to be

[00:44:00] a easy number to find that's all think about that so you said that's 20,000

[00:44:05] so it says there's 84 let's basically 84 million families families yeah I

[00:44:12] don't even know how to do that there's too many zeros for me yeah so you

[00:44:17] have to do a calculator on 20 so that's probably like 16 and 16 billion

[00:44:22] dollars if I'm doing if I'm doing the zeros right I don't know cost 20,000 84

[00:44:28] million times 16 trillion maybe I don't know yeah it might be 16 trillion more

[00:44:33] zeros than I could comprehend folks sorry yeah plenty of money plenty of

[00:44:40] money I can always edit this out so I'm using a I'm using a Google

[00:44:43] calculator you go for 84 million that's eight 84 million times 20,000 yeah just

[00:44:55] like it's a just a million something oh good a billion yeah it's literally

[00:45:04] yes yes one point six eight something wow yeah so think about that if

[00:45:11] we're paying that much in taxes are we seeing the results of those things

[00:45:17] being done are we seeing it's remarkable right it's yes and no it's yes

[00:45:23] and no it goes into politics really hard so I don't want to go too far there but yeah

[00:45:28] yeah it's so apparently its legal folks was won't confirmed so limit is it

[00:45:34] managed properly you know doubt is it managed properly is another wild the

[00:45:40] different question yeah good stuff man good stuff I did a good show I love I

[00:45:46] can't wait to chop this show up yeah man so tune in to next episode we're

[00:45:52] gonna have our season three preview and we're gonna share our employee origin

[00:45:57] stories we're gonna see we're gonna share how we started out as employees are first jobs

[00:46:02] what that experience was like yeah yeah that's a good one has shoot I started

[00:46:08] working young that's that'll be even a good even debate what is your first job

[00:46:13] because I delivered papers as a kid right I did the whole the paper delivery I

[00:46:17] used to shovel driveways with my boy Brian he's another Brian shout out to be

[00:46:21] but yeah all those things what is your first job really right so that's

[00:46:25] interesting yeah I folks yeah I folks we love you

[00:46:29] peace peace before we sign off here are a couple quick thanks don't forget to

[00:46:36] follow it's about payroll all LinkedIn and this about your paycheck on

[00:46:40] Facebook and TikTok thank you for being a part of our payroll community

[00:46:45] and thank you for being a part of this journey with us until next time keep

[00:46:49] learning keep growing and most importantly keep going