Just when we think we are organized and have a good system in place for tax season, a monkey wrench gets thrown into it and we are scrambling to figure out what to do. 

Two years ago, we had a whole new tax system to learn and a lot of explaining about dwindling refunds to attend to.  Last year was humming along smoothly when all of a sudden, we were breaking down the office and moving the computers to our houses.  I think a lot of you who had appointments around the time we moved home figured we’d be back in the office in a couple of weeks and didn’t send your paperwork to us electronically.  I guess it was good news for you that the season got extended.  For us, it was definitely not.  If 2020 has taught us anything at all, it is that everything can be done electronically.  Certainly if you can meet up with your friends, see a doctor, host multi-state, multi-country family dinners, sharing a little paperwork is not a big deal.  There are even some advantages to these electronic meetings.  No one has to drive home.  Darkness doesn’t stop a great discussion at book group.  You don’t have to clean the snow off your car to meet your son for dinner.  Your kitchen can become a Zumba studio so you don’t have to take your sweaty body out into the cold after class and if you mess up your moves, no one can see.  You get to see everyone in their home environment along with occasional visits from other family member and their pets. 

 This season, especially with the cases on the uptick, we are planning on completely virtual appointments.  Right now, we are still in the office but I am not sure if that will continue for all of tax season.  As we have for the last few years, we are requesting that you send your paperwork in at least a week in advance of your appointment.  Even if you don’t have access to a scanner, there are tools you can use on your phone which work pretty nicely.  One is called Genius Scan.  It’s a free app that can be downloaded easily.  You use the camera on your phone to take a picture of a document and the app converts it to a pdf.  It even tries to line it up nicely on the page.  Please examine the pictures or scans of your documents before you send them over.  We sometimes get illegible or hard to read documents that are useless.

 This year, we have fewer available appointments.  Last year was a nightmare trying to get people the necessary documents to file for stimulus checks, PPP and EIDL loans while also having a full tax schedule.  We are not booking any appointments in January so that we can help people file for loan forgiveness and also for the new round of PPP.  In addition, we have found, in the past, when we had appointments in January, often the information brought to the appointment was incomplete and we couldn’t finish the return or we filed it with the information we had and needed to amend it.

 The other reason we are booking fewer appointments is much more exciting.  My daughter Liz is due to deliver my first grandchild on February 28, 2021.  As a result, we left a lot of open appointments in the beginning of March.  I doubt, due to Covid, I will be able to see the baby until after she is released from the hospital. Still, I want to be able to the moment I can.  Once the baby is born, and we have a better handle on the Covid situation, I will be able to schedule more appointments around that time. 

 That being said, please don’t be alarmed if you are not able to get an appointment.  As nice as it is to catch up with you at tax time, this year we wouldn’t even be able to shake hands.  As long as your send your information to us, we should be able to process most returns without a face to face meeting.  If I can’t get to you, someone on the staff will call or email with any questions I have.  Since you are sending your returns electronically anyway, you can explain any special circumstances in an email.  If you absolutely can’t send your documents electronically, even if we have to close the office again, we can arrange a time for you to meet up with someone to get it.

 If we learned nothing else this year, we learned that electronics need to be embraced. 

 Last night was Christmas.  One of my friends works in a nursing home that once again has cases of Covid, so she didn’t want to meet with her daughter.  Another’s daughter is a nurse who had to work.  For whatever reason, there were a few of us that would have been spending the holiday alone.  Even though it’s not technically my holiday, I still usually see my family on Christmas for a Chinese dinner.  

 Figuring it wasn’t a traditional Christmas anyway, I ventured out in the afternoon to pick up some sushi.  The weather wasn’t too bad but as the sun went down, it got started to get chilly.  I was glad that my plan was to stay home. 

 A few minutes before our agreed upon time, I disconnected the laptop from its perch in the kitchen and set it on a snack table in my den. I logged onto messenger and started to invite friends.  Once their happy faces lit my screen, I snuggled into a blanket on my recliner.  After wishing each other happy holidays and catching up for a while, we all got out our cellphones and started an app called Psych, one of my family members introduced me to.  I started up a game called “The Truth Comes Out.” The app gave me a code for my game which I shared with my friends so they could join.  Once everyone logged in with their name, the game started asking very personal questions like, “If Eve were arrested tomorrow, it would be for?”  or “Beth’s superhero name would be?”  You type your answers into the phone and everyone votes on the best answer.  Of course, everyone tries to be funny, You get one point for each person who picks your answer and two if the person the question was about picks yours.  We had a ball.  What could have been a cold and lonely night turned into a laughfest.  Somehow it no longer felt like I was alone in my house on a holiday.  Someone  else found a murder mystery game we can play online for New Year’s Eve. Embrace electronics!

 Looking forward to virtually seeing you soon.