Lakeside Tax & Bookkeeping

07/14/2025

The Internal Revenue Service announced today tax relief for individuals and businesses in parts of Texas affected by severe storms, straight-line winds. and flooding that began on July 2, 2025. These taxpayers now have until Feb. 2, 2026, to file various federal individual and business tax returns and make tax payments.

12/19/2024

Your LTB team celebrating the holidays! From left, Emily, Staci, Kim, Susie, Donna (James' wife) and James. Wishing you a peaceful remainder of 2024 and a very happy new year in 2025!

09/06/2024

The IRS in February 2024 launched an initiative to pursue 125,000 high-income, high-wealth taxpayers who have not filed taxes since 2017. These are cases where IRS has received third party information—such as through Forms W-2 and 1099s—indicating these people received income between $400,000 and $1 million or more than $1 million, but failed to file a tax return. Prior to the Inflation Reduction Act, the IRS non-filer program ran sporadically since 2016 due to severe budget and staff limitations that did not allow these cases to be pursued. With new Inflation Reduction Act funding, the IRS now has the capacity to do this core tax administration work. In the first six months of this initiative, nearly 21,000 of these wealthy taxpayers have filed, leading to $172 million in taxes being paid.

08/29/2024

Most of our team celebrating Susie’s birthday! James wasn’t able to join us. Pictured from left is Staci, Kim, Emily & Susie. We had a great time in Dallas on what may have been our last 100 degree day of the year. We hope!!!

08/13/2024

As banks nationwide continue to see an increase in attempted fraud on customers, we want to make you aware of a specific scheme we believe targets businesses who initiated a loan through the Payroll Protection Program (PPP). By accessing publicly available information available on the SBA.gov website, fraudsters are able to access business account names, addresses, the number of employees, bank names and other details.

Criminals are placing calls to customers using caller ID information that appears to be from their bank or its fraud department – but is not. This is called spoofing. Through these spoofing attempts, very real scenarios are presented over the phone, making customers believe there is an issue with their account.

By using public information they have sourced on the PPP website, fraudsters are able to convince customers to provide token/one-time codes, transaction history and other identifying information, giving them online banking access and the ability to immediately remit funds to their accounts at other institutions.

If you're a PPP borrower, you may be the target of a fraud attempt. If you receive a call that appears to be from your bank asking for account specifics or codes, immediately hang up and report the incident directly to the bank.

07/23/2024

A little video about gift card scams...

The Internal Revenue Service's official YouTube channel features IRS videos to help America's taxpayers understand and meet their tax responsibilities and enforce the law with integrity and fairness to all. See also our ASL and Multilingual channels. The U.S. government does not promote or endorse a...

07/23/2024

Promoters and social media are marketing something they describe as the “Self Employment Tax Credit” as a way for self-employed people and gig workers to get big payments for the COVID-19 pandemic period. Similar to misleading marketing around the Employee Retention Credit, there is inaccurate information suggesting many people qualify for the tax credit and payments of up to $32,000 when they actually do not.

In reality, it’s a much more limited and technical credit called Credits for Sick Leave and Family Leave. Many people simply do not qualify for this credit, and the IRS is closely reviewing claims coming in under this provision so people filing claims do so at their own risk.

“This is another misleading social media claim that’s fooling well-meaning taxpayers into thinking they’re due a big payday,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. “People shouldn’t be misled by outlandish claims they see on social media. Before paying someone to file these claims, taxpayers should consult with a trusted tax professional to see if they meet the very limited eligibility scenarios.”

07/22/2024

Did you know that Enrolled Agents are THE tax experts? We have the unique position of being credentialed by the Department of the Treasury with unlimited practice rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS. Enrolled agent status is the highest credential the IRS awards. You're in good hands here!!

04/10/2024

Taxpayers who can't pay their tax bill by the April 15, 2024, deadline shouldn't panic – the IRS is here to help. There are several options to help taxpayers meet their obligations.

It's important for taxpayers to file their tax return or request an extension of time to file at IRS.gov/extension by the April 15, 2024, deadline – even if they can't pay their full tax bill. This will help them avoid a failure to file penalty.

This extension applies only to the filing deadline, not the payment deadline. Except for eligible victims of recent natural disasters who have until Oct. 15 to make various tax payments, taxpayers who can't pay the full amount of taxes they owe by April 15 should file and pay what they can. Making a payment, even a partial payment, will help limit penalty and interest charges.

Help for taxpayers who can’t pay in full
The IRS has options available to help those who owe a tax obligation and can't pay all or part of it. Those struggling to meet their tax obligation may consider these options to resolve their tax bill.

How to get an extension of time to file your tax return.

04/05/2024

FCC KICKS OFF ‘SPRING CLEANING’ ENFORCEMENT SERIES BY ORDERING VOICE SERVICE PROVIDER TO CEASE ROBOCALL CAMPAIGN PUSHING FAKE ‘NATIONAL TAX RELIEF PROGRAM’

The FCC’s Enforcement Bureau today issued a cease-and-desist letter against Veriwave Telco. The letter ordered Veriwave Telco to cease and desist its origination of an apparently illegal robocall campaign pertaining to a “National Tax Relief Program.” The Bureau also warned the company that failure to comply with the requirements outlined in the cease-and-desist letter may result in mandatory blocking by downstream providers of all traffic from Veriwave. In addition, the Bureau issued a “K4 Order,” notifying all U.S.-based voice service providers that they may be permitted to cease accepting traffic from Veriwave Telco.

This action kicks off a “Spring Cleaning” initiative from the Enforcement Bureau during which it plans to coordinate closely with other federal agencies to issue a series of robocall actions against entities harming consumers and eroding trust in the telecommunications infrastructure. The Bureau’s focus is on preventing the damage and distress resulting from active scams particularly widespread during the spring season. The perpetrators of illegal robocalls use the springtime calendar, with the tax filing deadline a notable feature, to initiate predatory activities seeking to maximize the harm to consumers.