Tax professional discusses effect of coronavirus on filing

Tax firms in the area have had an additional busy season with the deadline for filing taxes today,

With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the federal and state tax-filing deadline was moved from its normal date of April 15 to July 15. Katherine Little, a shareholder with T.E. Lott & Company said she agreed with the extension, but that it had led to many changes for her and her colleagues.

“With the April 15 deadline, we still had a lot of returns that went out, but we had a lot of people wait until July 15,” Little said. “We definitely didn’t get as much out April 15 as we typically do, but I think we caught up in May and June, but July 15 gave us a gracious amount of time to extend.”

Little spoke to the second busy season the July 15 deadline had created, and said that the summer months would have been downtime for the firm in a normal year.

“Basically, our tax seasons are the April 15 deadline and the October 15 deadline,” Little said. “Kind of what it did is it created an extra deadline on July 15, when we’re usually not this busy this time of year.”

She also said the pandemic had an effect on the payroll side, with tax credits and deferred payroll taxes. She also said the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to businesses had been a drastic change from the norm.

“It really changed our focus from preparing tax returns to helping our clients apply for PPP loans, just helping them with payroll reports needed, kind of guiding them in the right direction,” Little said.

Little also encouraged anyone needing extra time to file their taxes to file for an extension.

“I think a lot of people view extension as being kind of a dirty word, but it’s just going to give them some more time to file their taxes until October 15. “Really it’s not hard to pull the form to file that. You can make a payment with it if you owe, but if not, you can file the extension without a payment just to give you a little more time to file.”

She said the environment was very different from normal for those working in the tax field.

“When I send my tax return, I take a lot more time to make sure that I’ve captured all of my deductions, especially some charitable deductions, so with the extra time it really gives you a chance to go through your receipts and your bank statements to make sure you

The funds from the state will be combined with the $537,000 in the supervisors’ four-year road plans to complete the project. The traffic light is scheduled to be erected starting in between 60-90 days, while the work on Poorhouse Road is set to be completed next year.

“It’s a win-win situation for both District 5 and District 4,” Williams said. “I think it’s a win situation for Oktibbeha County as a whole, and for Mississippi State. This traffic will be able to travel to Hail State Boulevard, and I think it’s great opportunity for Oktibbeha County to have this project.”

Williams said the addition of the traffic light would hopefully lower the number of accidents occurring at the intersection. He said several constituents had expressed concerns about the crossing to him.

“We’ve had some real bad wrecks,” Williams said. “This stop light is going to keep some people from getting injured, and maybe keep some people from getting killed.”

Williams and Miller discussed the process of getting the additional money, as well as working with lobbyists and legislators in Jackson.

“It’s very important,” Miller said. “It’s a benefit to everybody in the community, but definitely to both districts when people can come together and allocate funds projects just go a lot easier and a lot smoother and benefit everybody.

She said the Poorhouse Road project was already ongoing, but that the new round of work would likely begin next year.

“We did some base repairs out here, but we knew that it was the next project for this area for this term, and when we got the quote it didn’t appear that we would have enough funds just out of the four-year road plan,” Miller said. “It’s around a half a million dollars that you get, and this road was over half a million dollars, so it’s going to take the allocation of the state funds and county funds to complete this project, and we think that it should be completed next year.”

Williams also spoke to the Blackjack Road project, which includes portions of the road in his district and in District 2. Work began on Blackjack earlier this year.

“That’s going to be a big help to ensure that project will be completed, Williams said.

District 2 Supervisor Orlando Trainer said the $500,000 would go a long way toward completing the Blackjack Road project, and would allow him to free up some of his road plan funds for other projects in his district.

“We’ve always been resilient, and I think we’re going to continue to be aggressive as it relates to our roads program,” Trainer said.