The Busiest Day of Tax Season in Santa Maria
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Tuesday is the national deadline for filing your taxes.
This year has been a slow tax year.
Even though local tax preparers were busy on Monday, there is still a reported downward trend in tax filings.
Local tax preparers have been hard at work with full lobby waiting rooms and long online queues.
“In the Hispanic community, it's been a different year from previous years. In the beginning of the year, we started seeing a little bit of delays on their tax refunds, but that has changed. People are getting the refunds and everything, but, I think these changes are impacting more in our Hispanic community, you know, like for example here in Santa Maria,” says Jorge Jimenez at Semilla Finances.
Last month, the IRS had observed a 15% decrease on a national scale of pre-filed taxes compared to the same time last year, and the downward trend appears to be consistent.
“I could tell you that everybody that I'm working with is filing or wanting to file or worried about filing. Like I would say that people are slower on getting the information but wanting to file on time,” says Paul Miller, managing partner of Miller and Co.
One of the biggest concerns identified was taxes being paid on capital gains that have taken a hit in recent weeks.
“The market had the uncertainty. So we lost all that money about two weeks ago. And everybody who had this large capital gain. I have a—I think he's a doctor. He's got a $2 million capital gain, he said, ‘But I don't have it anymore.’ I said, ‘I can't help you,’” says Miller.
Experts agree getting something filed by the deadline, whether it’s a valid extension, partial payment, or completion, is better than waiting and risking penalties.
“Regardless of their immigration status, I highly recommend them to file their taxes because at the end of the day, we do owe money to the IRS and we have to pay that off,” says Jimenez.
The best piece of advice i’ve heard today when it comes to your personal taxes is to not worry about cuts to the IRS and simply get your taxes filed.
