David M. Hage, CPA

David M. Hage, CPA Providing tax, accounting and payroll services for over 30 years. We have clients all over Michigan, across the U.S. and in 7 countries.

We have competitive rates and believe we provide quality personal service. Locations in Brighton Township/Howell

05/27/2026

Good morning and welcome to summer...finally. A couple interesting things regarding the reason I am still here this year instead of enjoying some time off...and these actually are kind of interesting. First, a letter on the State of Michigan website regarding their computer problems:

https://www.michigan.gov/taxes/iit/tax-guidance/tax-year-info/ty2025/message-to-taxpayers

Second, included in this are two more links which may (probably not) be useful to you. One deals with problem tracking and the other discusses their plan to include a callback option so that you can leave a request for an agent to call you back instead of waiting on hold and eventually getting disconnected. If I understand it correctly, the call back period is three days and experience tells me it will result in no immediate solution. If you have the time, however, here is a proper channel to vent your frustration and possibly getting your situation on file for faster resolution. I would recommend that you read the letter and explore the links and I wanted to pass the information on to those affected.

When reading the letter in the above link I was a little concerned by a couple things. One is their hope to have this all resolved by next year (?!) and the second was a strong impression that Michigan is not 100% sure which taxpayers are affected. As time permits I am going to try to access your accounts on e-services and see if there is a way to open a dispute of these notices. Possibly expediting a solution. I will keep you updated, but do read the letter and let me know if you see something there I do not. Take care and enjoy the fine day!

05/20/2026

Apparently my post on the 17th did not actually post. Seems to be happening more often while they improve the Internet monopoly that we are all excessively reliant upon. Here is a synopsis of what I had to say. This week another round of Michigan notices has gone out...so I guess they are well over the 27,000 number now. These letters are ABSOLUTELY NOT a result of something we did. Your tax returns are correct. Little known fact...it is a very rare year when we have even one tax return come back with an error on it. A system of review that often delays a return more than some would like makes an error here really unlikely. I am getting 2-3 contacts a day regarding these Michigan notices and checks. Follow the protocol and first send me the notice or a copy of the check. Do not cash the check. I will send you a form letter with instructions. I think it important that Michigan get a few phone calls from disgruntled taxpayers to motivate them to get this mess cleared up. I look into every blessed one of these notices when I have them in hand to make sure they are wrong before I send the form letter. Verify with your bank that you made your payments and they cleared and tell me you did so when you send the message. I will post here when I have more info but you will likely know before I do as corrected notices will come to you and not me. Send me the corrected notices! Most of all...and I mean this sincerely...AFTER you have sent me the notice and verified the payments cleared...put it away and let me worry about it. Have a nice summer and do not let these crazy government computers worry you. It is all going to be OK. Take care.

05/01/2026

Greetings! A brief note this AM about something in the news. It relates to my prior post:

"In the news today...State of Michigan has announced that 27,000 taxpayers have received erroneous letters saying their personal income tax returns were wrong. This mostly revolved around estimated tax payments not being recorded but other problems have occurred and a lot of refund checks were wrongly sent out as well.

Michigan requests that you do NOTHING. They will correct the matter on their end and issue a letter with the right information. They also state that you should not cash a refund check that is incorrect. Send the checks back with a brief note that it is incorrect or just hold them pending the revised letter and then send them back."

A few people here have been affected by this and I council patience as these things have traditionally worked out just fine in the long run. The other most common question this year..."why is it so frigging cold"...I cannot answer. Put on a coat and go out and enjoy the lilacs that are blooming all over. One of the nicest scents in nature. Those of you in warmer climates...enjoy. Take care and I will talk to you soon.

04/25/2026

Good morning! A week and a half later and I am still not ready to say "goodbye and have a great summer". We are still working here. I will get right to the point about one of the reasons and it may affect some who read these posts. I have had a couple of clients get notices from Michigan adjusting their tax returns. These adjustments are for the total amount paid in estimated tax payments on Form MI 1040-ES. In short, these payments are made by people whose withholding taxes for Michigan are not sufficient to cover tax on investments or self employment or who do not want to bother with withholding on retirement income. The notice claims that the credits on the tax return are lower than what MI shows in their records. The amount is always the total estimated payments sent in. In all cases the client can show me where the payments cleared the bank. The worry is if they used a third party website to remit payments or did they mail a check and MI did not get it. We are looking into this and will let you know if there is a problem other than governmental incompetence...which is epidemic. If you get such a notice, pull your bank records and then contact me. There is nothing wrong with your tax return! We will help you with information on how to respond and what documents to provide. Still working...more later. Thanks and hope these nicer days are as big a relief to you as they are to us!

04/14/2026

Good evening! The office will be closed tomorrow until 1 PM after which we will reopen and begin scheduling pickups. Voice mail left while we are out will not get a response unless it contains information that we need to finish a return. Thank you in advance for using some restraint.

04/07/2026

Good evening from a stranger! I have not had much time to post here this year and have also had trouble coming up with topics. Not a lot of questions this year, which are generally the source of my comments.

In past years I have been encouraging you to keep providing your itemized deduction details. Many of you still itemize and for others it can be a source of information that we can use to test for property tax credit availability and other things. I mention this because in 2026 there will once again be an "above the line" charitable contribution available. As much as $2000 for married taxpayers, $1000 for single. Combine this with a directed contribution from you IRS (if qualified) and you have effectively gone around the large standard deduction, which you will still get, and taken a big charitable deduction. On the same note, an HSA is probably one of the best vehicles for those with high deductible health insurance. It allows you to deduct every penny of your medical expenses. EVEN IF...you are not one for making annual contributions, you can still have an HSA with a little money sitting in it and when you come up against a medical bill, like a dental crown, for example, you can pay the HSA and then pay the dentist out of the HSA and deduct the crown on your taxes. The only flaw in the HSA is where they designated Medicare as a disqualifier. This takes the HSA away from those taxpayers that could benefit the most from the accounts.

I have come to understand that we will have some new reporting forms next year to accommodate the overtime and auto interest deductions. Ford already issues a nice summary for taxes but this is the only one I have seen. Tips are already on the W-2 but OT is a real headache. I will leave it at that. Along with the senior deductions designed to help offset taxable SS, these are really helpful for working class and senior taxpayers...which was the plan.

Well, how did I do? Give me a thumbs up if any of this was useful! My last request would be that maybe....if we all tried to think about Spring...it might actually arrive and stay for a day or two before summer arrives. Have a great rest of your week and start stockpiling those charity receipts for next year!

03/17/2026

Greetings from the front! Have not had a lot of time to post. Was very caught up before we had two power outages, three phone outages and a couple of colds. It seems like, six years later, it is now OK to walk into someones office with a raging virus. Actually...it is not. Don't do it. Seriously...I will throw you out.

A few words about the OBBB...there are a few components that are popping up with regularity so I thought I might list them in order of popularity.

The first is the senior deduction. $6000 for anyone who reached 65 by the end of 2025. Comes with an income limitation. Not exactly the promised tax free social security that was hoped for, but it does go a long way to helping lower income seniors while keeping the ones with higher income contribution to the cause. Tax free social security is a very difficult topic due to the number of people retiring with very large SSA checks coming monthly on top of pensions, investment income, etc. while others are trying to get by on $25K and very little else. The little guy needs a break, the other guy not so much. The senior deduction sort of helps with this...sort of.

Second would be a tie between tips and overtime exclusions. There is a $12,500 per person limit on OT and $25K on tips which would make tips the clear winner of this tie...but I see an equal number of these. I have actually had a server in here that made the $25K tip exclusion and the refund was pretty nice. Both come with income limits. Both have their pros and cons.

Third is the Trump accounts, although the real benefit goes to those who had a baby in 2025 and can get the $1000 seed money. These still work for long term for older children...just no $1000. Personally I think they would be more popular with a different name...maybe. You say $1000 and everyone takes a step to the right.

The American made car interest deduction is kind of a dud. The two clients who tried to run this by me did not meet the restrictions. Has not generated a lot of interest as compared to the others.

That's all I have tonight. If you wanted to be seen...it was great to see you this year! Everyone else, it is great to hear from you. Someone have a good thought about maybe some Spring weather so I can work with my window open!? Take care.

02/24/2026

Good morning! Glitchy phones all weekend so if you had trouble getting through, that is why. On the subject of technology that is not all it should be, I need to address emails again. Some of you ONLY communicate this way. Probably because CB radios would be an improvement over cell phones. Some of you send me your paperwork this way and we have already outlined special rules about this and it has been working really well...until you start adding docs you forgot and do not update content list...then things can go astray, but overall the process is going well. This year there are a couple of new issues. First, some people are telling me they sent me emails...I don't have them. Other people are telling me they do not have emails that I sent. In both cases spam folders were checked...no email. A large number of people are asking me questions and then never acknowledge the answer. Given the prior two statements...how do I know they even got the answer? I am working on a solution to this new issue...stay tuned. The final problem with emails continues to be the time spent. Yesterday I never touched a tax return until 9 PM. I was in here before 9 AM. The ENTIRE DAY was spent dealing with email issues. I can do this from time to time as long as you, the client, keep in mind how busy we are and how frustrating all this can be sometimes. I am well aware that as the season goes on, even getting into May, that some of my email responses might be reflecting that frustration more and more. Some people, no matter how long I have known them or how much I have tried to do good by them over the years, will take this wrong and maybe head down a negative path. It can be very sad, but it is never irreversable. I guess the take away from all of the above is to try to be considerate and we will do the same. Try to keep in mind what is going on here, even in the months after tax season when we are trying hard to catch up on other things. That's it. I hope to talk about tax things next time. Useful tax things. There are actually such things.

Annual rant over...some of these sunny days have been really pretty if a bit cold. You can actually feel Spring in the air! Have a good rest of your week! DMH

02/13/2026

Good morning! A question about the new OBBB deductions for tips and OT. If you do a search, AI will tell you that the tip deduction in Michigan starts in 2026 It will also tell you incorrectly that the OT deduction is retroactive to the beginning of 2025. A review of every GENUINE source of information I have, including the Michigan Treasury website, states that BOTH deductions are effective starting in 2026. You can still take a federal deduction in 2025. Do not rely on AI for information. AI is just another version of a search engine. If AI is going to do research for you by pulling through websites of dubious value and expressing an opinion, then AI should quote the websites and stop pretending to be "genuine intelligence". Then you can compare the sources and use your "genuine intelligence" to determine if the artificial is correct...or not. This is the second time in one week that I have seen incorrect tax info in an AI response. Use caution.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and that the weather continues (slowly) to move toward Spring! Take care and please remember to let me know you were here. :)

02/09/2026

Good afternoon! I am going to reverse myself a bit on the whole direct deposit thing. For some reason, the more I thought about it the more it irritated me. So...I still support direct deposit, but if you are willing to ignore the notice and wait for a check I am going to stand behind your right to do so.

On another topic, this $12K senior deduction is a bit of a problem. First...it is only three years. Second...a lot of you may not have to file tax returns because of it. I have already had some complaints from people who still want to file a tax return every year. The people who would fall into this category do not get charged a lot for tax prep, so this is not a self serving commentary. If you want to file a tax return then all you have to do is have some withholding from social security or a pension. Then we will file and get it all back for you. A savings plan of sorts. Then you will still be "in the loop" if the law is repealed in three years. But if you want a better reason, just remember all those incentive checks that came out a few years back. You had be someone who filed a tax return to get those I believe and it was a good amount of money over a couple of years. Food for thought.

Have a great night. They tell me its going to be Spring like tomorrow!

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