We hope you are all doing well during this extremely unusual time in our lives.  But life goes on and we would like to win “Best of Portsmouth” again this year.  We have won for the last 12 years and would hate to see that change.

Would you be willing to vote for us?  We’d greatly appreciate it!

Click on www.virginiamedia.com/bestof

At some point in this process, you may be required to log in.

Click on “Portsmouth”.

Click on “Services & Education”.

Go down to near the bottom to “Heritage Income Tax Service”.

Click on “Vote” to the right of Heritage Income Tax Service.

While you’re on the site, you may wish to vote for others.

A million THANKS for voting for us!

SECOND IMPORTANT CHANGE!!

How the Coronavirus will temporarily affect the way we work with our clients.

Like most businesses all across America, we at Heritage are taking great precautions to protect both our clients and our staff.  We made some important changes on March 19^th, however, after Governor Northam’s announcement Monday, we feel we must make additional changes effective Wednesday, April 1^st.

Here’s how these new changes will work:

First new change: Once you have dropped off your return and we have completed work, we will call you and discuss alternative ways to get your return back to you.  Some of the options we will discuss are as follows:

1. For those of you who are computer savvy, the best alternative is to exchange documents using our secure portal. If you wish to use our secure portal, there are instructions at the end of this letter. We will discuss this option further when we call.
2. We can mail the return to you using priority mail. There is an added cost to this, however, you will save on car expense and the need to get out of the house.  Most importantly, you will lower your exposure to the virus.  The U. S. Postal Service charges a flat fee of $7.75 for this service.
3. Finally, since the deadline has been moved to July 15^th, if you have no balance due, we can simply hold on to your return until all of this blows over and you can come pick it up in the normal way. We will discuss the pros and cons of that option when we call you.

Second new change:  We are changing our hours.  Since you can drop your paperwork through our mail slot 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and since we will not be making any physical contact with you when you drop off nor when your return is complete, we are going to begin our normal “off season” hours immediately.  That way we can work extremely long days or extremely short days based on whatever the workload requires.  Believe me, we will be here far more than our published hours.

Our “off season” hours which will begin Thursday, April 1^st, are as follows:

Sunday – Closed

Monday – 9 AM – 1PM

Tuesday – 9 AM – 1PM

Wednesday – 9 AM – 1PM

Thursday – 9 AM – 1PM

Friday – Closed

Saturday – Closed

As we said in the previous letter, as a result of this change, we will waive the $18 fee increase that we described in our letter we sent in January. That was scheduled to take place on April 1^st, but will be waived for this year only.

We will greatly miss the opportunity to visit with you as we have done in the past and look forward to doing that once this historic virus situation has passed.  In the meanwhile, we hope you will understand why we feel the need to do this and will work with us as we implement this new policy.

THANKS! Len Boush, Michelle Dail, Frank Gerbus

HOW TO USE THE SECURE PORTAL – IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS:

1. You will receive a separate e-mail from [email protected] that allows you to create your own password to access your files from our secure portal.
2. Please note and remember the username and password.
3. Both the username and the password ARE case sensitive.
4. You only have 48 hours to create the password before that e-mail expires. If that happens, please give us a call and we will resend the e-mail.
5. PLEASE closely follow all of the instructions on that e-mail.
6. One very important thing to remember: You will create your own password, as mentioned in step #1 above, to access the secure portal.  You will use a different password that WE create to open any password protected documents.  The password WE create for opening documents will almost always be the first four (4) letters of first taxpayer’s last name followed by the last five (5) digits of the social security number of the taxpayer whose name appeared first on the tax return. For example, if the names on the return were George & Martha Washington and George’s Social security number was 123-45-6789, then your password would be wash56789. The password is all lower case with NO spaces.
7. Don’t hesitate to call us for assistance!

TO ACCESS YOUR FILES FROM OUR SECURE PORTAL,

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS

1. REMEMBER! The password you used to enter the portal is known only to you. If you have forgotten that password, please call us to ask us to send you instructions to reset your password.
2. To access the portal, go to HeritageTax.com/
3. Click on the box in the upper right hand corner that says “Secure Log-In”.
4. Enter your username and the password you created and click the Sign In button.
5. When the home page displays, notice the My Folder menu to the left.
6. Click on “Documents from Preparer”.
7. In the right column, your documents should appear. Click the Download link for a document.
8. Select to open or save the file. IMPORTANT! A password may have been assigned to one or more of your files that is DIFFERENT from your log-in password. In most cases, this password will be the first four (4) letters of first taxpayer’s last name followed by the last Five (5) digits of the social security number of the taxpayer whose name appeared first on the tax return. For example, if the name was George & Martha Washington and George’s Social security number was 123-45-6789, then your password would be wash56789. The password is all lower case with NO spaces.
9. You may need Adobe Reader to open the file. The program is already on most computers.  If you do not have this program, you can download it for free at http://get.adobe.com/reader/
10. If you select Save, follow the normal procedure you use when saving a file to your computer.

To submit a document to your preparer:

1. Follow instructions #1 – #5 above.
2. Click the Documents to Preparer link under the My Folder section.
3. In the right column, click the Upload
4. Click the Browse Files button to search for the file you would like to upload.
5. The file should display under the button. Click the Upload
6. The file will display in the right column. You have the opportunity at this time to rename or delete the file if necessary.
7. Your preparer will be automatically notified that a file is ready for downloading from you.
8. If you have any questions, please contact your tax preparer.

IRS Reports ‘Steep Upswing’ In Taxpayer Data Thefts From Tax Preparer Offices

We would greatly appreciate it if you would consider voting for us for Best of Portsmouth.  There are two ways to vote:

1.  Text CTKK to 21333, OR

2.  Vote online at http://bestof.hamptonroads.com/

Better yet, do both!

MANY THANKS!

We would greatly appreciate it if you would consider voting for us for Best of Portsmouth.  There are two ways to vote:

1. Text CNRZ TO 21333, OR
2. Vote online at http://bestof.hamptonroads.com/

Better yet, do both!

MANY THANKS!

HERITAGE INCOME TAX SERVICE INC

4303 PORTSMOUTH BLVD

PORTSMOUTH, VA 23701

(757) 488-7232

IRS Can Audit 6 Tax Years Not 3, So Be Careful

See this article from Forbes magazine – https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2017/02/09/irs-can-audit-6-tax-years-not-3-so-be-careful/#2e6101695994

Scammers are now sending out bills that look EXACTLY like an IRS bill in almost every respect.

NEVER pay any bill that you are not expecting or that you have not verified with us first.

Please call us if you have any questions whatsoever about the legitimacy of any bill from the IRS!  There is NO charge for this call.

I will also remind you that the IRS will NEVER call you unless it is prearranged.  So if someone calls you claiming to be from the IRS, it also is a scam.

PLEASE VOTE FOR US FOR THE BEST OF PORTSMOUTH

I would greatly appreciate it if you would vote for us for BEST OF PORTSMOUTH this year.  There are 2 ways to vote.  You can either:

1. Vote online at http://www.hamptonroads.com/bestof or
2. Text the code “CCXZ” to 21333

Better yet, please do both!

You can vote between March 8th and March 22nd

We will greatly appreciate your vote!

MANY THANKS!

Lennox C. (Len) Boush, EA

Heritage Income Tax Service, Inc.

IRS Warns Of Delayed Refunds, Long Waits For Taxpayers & Possible Shutdown

Kelly Phillips Erb, Contributor, Forbes.com

With a week to go before tax season opens, taxpayers were already bracing for a potentially “miserable” filing season. It turns out that it could live up to the hype.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Commissioner Koskinen has advised employees that the budget cuts will result in reduced services to taxpayers. In an email to employees sent earlier today, Commissioner Koskinen advised that “realistically we have no choice but to do less with less.”

What does that mean for taxpayers?

• Identity theft could increase. Despite the need for increased taxpayer protections against identity theft, the implementation of additional measures will be delayed. That’s bad news for taxpayers since, despite the efforts of IRS and other agencies to stem the tide of identity theft, scammers have grown more bold. TIGTA reported that

• telephone scammers, posing as IRS representatives, managed to steal more than $5 million from taxpayers last year. And as quickly as the scams are picked up, theychange. IRS-Criminal Investigation has responded to what has been termed an “epidemic” of identity theft by ramping up investigations – but with wholesale cuts to IRS, expect those investigations to dip, too.
• Refund delays. It turns out that satirical piece on tax refunds making the rounds might have had some merit after all. According to the Commissioner, taxpayers who file paper tax returns may have to wait an extra week or longer to see their refund. In the email, the Commissioner didn’t specifically address whether delays would affect refunds for taxpayers who e-file, though a few weeks again he refused to say that refunds would not be delayed.
• Lags in correspondence. Those of us in the field have already become familiar with those letters from IRS that begin “We need more time…” It looks like those are about to kick up even more. With fewer employees on staff, IRS expects “lengthy delays” to answer correspondence.
• Fewer resolutions. Those taxpayers who have legitimate gripes but can’t find a resolution will be out of luck. The Commissioner says that the Taxpayer Advocate Service, normally the next step when cases aren’t resolved through normal channels, won’t be able to obtain a new case management system to oversee taxpayer hardship cases.
• Unanswered calls. Predictions weren’t terrific for answered call rates before. Now, the Commissioner is warning of “an even lower level of telephone service.” Specifically, he notes the “real possibility that fewer than half of taxpayers trying to call us will actually reach us.” Those calls that are answered, he says, “will face extended wait times that are unacceptable to all of us.”
• Shutdowns. Although the Commissioner wavered on saying yes to furloughs last month, temporary shutdowns look to be the case after all. The Commissioner indicated that the agency is planning for at least one shutdown this fiscal year; he suggested there might be two furlough days. There was no word on when those dates might be other than later in the fiscal year (read: not during tax season).
• Fewer Audit Closures. The silver lining – if you can call it that – is that the reduction in staffing means
• fewer taxpayer audits will be closed in 2015 (no word on how that will affect selection of new matters). Collections case closures will also be reduced. That might be good news for those under the audit gun but not so great for the Treasury. Commissioner Koskinen estimates that the government will, as a result, lose at least $2 billion in revenue.

Quite frankly, none of this information is earth-shattering. I think many of us – tax professionals and taxpayers alike – have been hoping for the best but bracing for the worst this tax season. It looks like we’re getting the latter.

Tax season is still slated to open on January 20, 2015 (those pesky rumors suggesting the date has been pushed out further are just that: rumors). For the latest word on the 2015 tax season, keep checking back.

We wanted to express our thanks to the many of you who voted for us for Best of Portsmouth 2014.

For the last thirteen (13) consecutive years, our clients have voted Heritage Income Tax Service, Inc. as either the Gold winner or the Silver Winner in the “tax service” category for “Best of Portsmouth”.  For the last seven (7) consecutive years, they voted us the Gold Winner, #1 in Portsmouth!

Thanks to all our wonderful clients! We owe it all to you!

Len Boush, Debbie Boush, Michelle Dail, Joan Hughes