What Incredable Re=-Appearing Blog

Hi. I have been floored by a flu that might be lime disease With a little luck I will be functional again in a couple of days. This has just been a roller coaster of a sickness and is now headed toward 2 weeks. Seeing the doctor tomorrow. More later.

The Incredible Re-Appearing Blog

You may have noticed that the blog has been a bit erratic over the last few weeks. I was concentrating on my clients rather than you and then got hit by my annual post tax season cold the made my head even fuzzier than normal. Who knows what the blog might have said if I wrote it this last week. But I’m baaaaaaaaaack!

How about a few comments on the tax season.

It turned out to be a delayed rush this year. Many more of my clients showed up at the end of our deadline (March 15th) this year than last year. In case you are wondering, we need our clients tax information by March 15th to get the return completed by April 15th. What seemed to be happening was that no one wanted to open up their investment or retirement statements (I haven’t opened my since September) and then extended the practice to their " Important Tax Documents". Suddenly, with our deadline looming, people started opening envelopes and getting their information to us.

This was coupled with a new software program that had a learning curve that went straight up. It wasn’t until about March 15th that we felt comfortable with the program and this created a double whammy as March changed into April. Hectic would be a mild way to phrase it. Ah but I’m a loyal Red Sox fan. Wait until next year.

My conversations with my clients changed slightly during the course of the 3-½ months. In January and February it was hard to avoid doom and gloom. No one was spending any money, planning vacations or buying cars. Thus we have to bail out GM. March saw a slight positive movement. Some of my small business clients saw an increase in sales, admittedly from dismal numbers. My unemployed clients started to say that they could at least get their resumes out to people and maybe even connect up with a real person rather than the stone wall they were running into before. Are we out of the wood, no but it seems like the uphill climb is starting to get a bit easier.

The only good news that I can glean is that most of my clients are getting refunds rather than making payments this year. Of course this is because they lost money in the stock market in 2008 when then made big gains in 2007.

So I’m back at the keyboard and looking forward to an easier pace of work and blogging until January 1, 2010.

Where's My Refund?

You filed your return, set up the direct deposit and are watching your checking account for the arrival of your tax refund, but it has not arrived. What should you do? With the help of the Internet, it is easier than ever to find out what happened to your refund.
Here is a link to take you to the IRS Web site to find out what happened to your refund:

https://sa2.www4.irs.gov/irfof/lang/en/irfofgetstatus.jsp

You will need your social security number, filing status, and the amount of your refund. The IRS will quickly give you a status. If your refund has been waylaid somewhere, they will give you a phone number to call to find out what is happening.

Massachusetts has a similar program that requires you to register and set up a user name and password. The link for this service is:

https://wfb.dor.state.ma.us/WEBFILE/wsi/