Law Office of Stephanie Oliver

05/02/2021

Educators:

Eligible K-12 educators can deduct up to $250 of unreimbursed expenses paid or incurred after March 12, 2020, for protective items to stop the spread of COVID-19 under the educator expense deduction.

An eligible educator includes an individual who is a K-12 instructor, counselor, principal, or aide in a school for at least 900 hours during a school year.

You can claim the deduction on Form 1040, Form 1040-SR, or Form 1040-NR (attach Schedule 1 on Form 1040).

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-drop/rp-21-15.pdf

15/10/2020

Notice released on October 14th - the 2019 FBAR filing deadline is extended from Oct 15th to Dec 31, 2020.

https://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/Notice.html

**UPDATE** A clarification was issued on Oct 15th stating that the filing extension spies only to taxpayers affected by specific natural disasters.

12/10/2020

US taxpayers who filed an extension for their 2019 tax return generally must file by Oct 15, 2020. Those living in areas affected by fires and hurricanes have extra time to file.

Oregon:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-provides-tax-relief-for-victims-of-oregon-wildfires-oct-15-deadline-other-dates-extended-to-jan-15

California:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/irs-announces-tax-relief-for-california-wildfire-victims

Links to relief by State:
https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/around-the-nation

US taxpayers with non-US financial accounts totalling $10,000+ on any day in 2019 must report such accounts by Oct 15th. The filing website was was down all weekend for maintenance (🙄) but is supposed to be back up today.

https://bsaefiling.fincen.treas.gov/NoRegFBARFiler.html

To file the FBAR as an individual, you must personally and/or jointly own a reportable foreign financial account that requires the filing of an FBAR (FinCEN Report 114) for the reportable year. There is no need to register to file the FBAR as an individual. If you are NOT filing the FBAR as an indiv...

18/09/2020

It only took 7 months of a pandemic and a summer lull in work for me to get my website put together and turn on my social media links for my solo law firm. TGIF!