How COVID-19 Stimulus Payments will Affect Your 2020 Tax Return

Many taxpayers who received stimulus payments in 2020 wonder how it will be treated when the time comes to file their 2020 tax returns, whether they got the correct amount, or why they did not get it in the first place.

Economic Impact Payments or stimulus payments received in 2020 and early 2021 are not taxable income. Keep notices 1444-B you received regarding your stimulus payments with your 2020 tax records, you will need to provide them to your tax preparer. If you did not keep (or have lost) the notices, you will need to request an Account Transcript for 2020 either online through your IRS “Get Transcripts” account or via phone for mail delivery. It may take several weeks to get transcripts in the mail nowadays, however, your tax preparer can help you obtain transcripts much faster.

Anyone who did not receive stimulus payment(s) or their payment was not the correct amount due to reduced income in 2020, a change in marital filing status, or a change in the number of dependents – including those who are not normally required to file a federal tax return – will need to claim it as a recovery rebate credit on their 2020 federal income tax return. Remember, if you can be claimed as a dependent on someone’s return, you are not eligible for stimulus checks or rebate credit, even if you were not claimed as a dependent.

You may be eligible for a recovery rebate credit if you did not receive a second stimulus payment, and you and your spouse file jointly and only one spouse has a valid SSN. Such couples with a non-immigrant status spouse who has an ITIN or no tax ID, were not eligible for the first round of stimulus payments.

You do not need to complete information about the recovery rebate credit on your 2020 federal tax return if you received the maximum amount of benefits as follows:

$1,200 plus $500 for each qualifying child you had in 2020 for the first round and $600 for you and $600 for each qualifying child for the second round, or
$2,400 for joint filers in 2020 plus $500 for each qualifying child you had in 2020 for the first round and $1,200 plus $600 for each qualifying child for the second round.

If you received a stimulus payment greater than the recovery rebate credit calculated on the 2020 return (due to increased income in 2020, for example), in most cases you still get to keep the original payment. The excess does not need to be repaid to the IRS. Exceptions include death of the taxpayer or a spouse before receipt of the payment, and nonresident alien status in 2020.

If you did not receive stimulus payments and instead claim recovery rebate credit on your 2020 tax return, and owe money to the IRS, this credit will first offset your 2020 tax liability, and the remainder, if any, will be applied to your prior tax debt. You will not receive a refund, even though economic impact payments were protected from garnishment and federal and state offset programs.

If you are not sure how to calculate a recovery rebate credit, find a professional tax preparer to help you out.

Irina Bobrova is an Enrolled Agent who represents taxpayers before the IRS to resolve their IRS problems.

January 29, 2021January 20, 2021

CORAL SPRINGS COMMISSION

We remain optimistic that with the mass distribution of the COVID 19 vaccines, the end of this unprecedented pandemic is in sight.City staff continue to work with the Florida Department of Health and Florida Department of Emergency Management to ensure COVID-19 testing remains readily available for residents, which is crucial to preventing the spread of the virus. Perhaps most importantly, providing access to COVID-19 vaccination sites remains one of greatest priorities. Sign up for our text message option to receive real-time information about vaccination sites by texting the keyword CORALSPRINGS (one word) to 888-777.

February is Black History Month, and we are proud to celebrate the achievements and contributions of Black Americans in our city. We look forward to highlighting local black leaders in our city nominated by our community. For more details visit www.coralsprings.org/bhm.

This month and every day since February 14, 2018, we continue to remember and honor the 17 students and staff who died at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. We also remember all of those who were injured and forever touched by the violence experienced that day.

Three years does not ease the heartache resulting from such loss we will never forget and continue to provide meaningful ways to commemorate and honor the memories of: Alyssa Alhadeff, Scott Beigel, Martin Duque, Nicholas Dworet, Aaron Feis, Jaime Guttenberg, Christopher Hixon, Luke Hoyer, Cara Loughran, Gina Montalto, Joaquin Oliver, Alaina Petty, Meadow Pollack, Helena Ramsay, Alex Schachter, Carmen Schentrup, and Peter Wang.

For residents and community members who continue to struggle with mental health, especially in the wake of such loss, there are many resources available. Please call 2-1-1 for suicide intervention, those at risk can also text “FL” to 741-741 to immediately speak with a counselor. For additional information – we offer resources on our website at coralsprings.org/mentalhealth.

Since that tragic day, our city remains committed to ensuring the safety of our students and faculty. Our Police Department has demonstrated their commitment to ensuring school safety by implementing new technology connected directly into our Real Time Crime Center (RTCC). Using advanced software, security systems are integrated directly into the RTCC, improving response times and saving critical seconds during emergency situations – when time matters the most.

On February 19, residents will be able to celebrate all the reasons we love to call Coral Springs home at our Virtual State of the City.

For more details about this event, please visit https://www.coralsprings.org/living/events

We encourage you to remain vigilant to prevent the spread of COVID-19, continue to wear a facial covering, remain socially distanced, and follow good personal hygiene.

January 1, 2021December 29, 2020

MSD victim’s dad counseled by President-elect Biden

Two dates are at the center of Fred Guttenberg’s recently released Find the Helpers — Sept. 11, 2001 and Feb. 14, 2018.

The small but affecting book recounts the lives and heart-rending deaths of Guttenberg’s brother, Michael, a first-responder at Ground Zero who as a result later died of pancreatic cancer, and his daughter, Jaime, a 14-year-old student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School who was among the 17 slain in the mass shooting in Parkland, Fla.

But for Guttenberg, another date promises hope: Jan. 20, 2021 — Inauguration Day, when Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th President of the United States.

Biden’s election and the transition away from four years of the presidency of Donald Trump promise more than wishful thinking for Guttenberg. The 54 year-old Broward man has spoken often with Biden, who is notable among the “helpers” at the heart of Guttenberg’s book.

“For me, the Vice President has been a helper,” Guttenberg writes in the book, released in September by Mango Publishing. “He has given me the advice that I needed to go forward from the worst moment in my life, often speaking to me about mission and purpose. That advice has formed my life and my advocacy since.”

In the aftermath of the MSD shooting, Guttenberg and his wife, Jennifer, started the nonprofit Orange Ribbons for Jaime to advocate for gun safety. Guttenberg has been ubiquitous and vocal in his activism.

He has testified in U.S. Senate hearings and been invited to speak at the Democratic National Convention this past summer as well as speaking his piece at nationally televised town halls, marches and vigils, occasionally clashing publicly with Washington political figures, like Florida’s Republican senator Marco Rubio, who back de- regulating gun ownership.

Invited to attend Trump’s last State of the Union address this past February, Guttenberg was escorted out of the House chamber after standing shouting at the president, who had taken time to express his support for continued liberalized Second Amendment rights.

Biden “has an understanding of what Americans go through,” Guttenberg said in a recent interview.

Biden’s plan to address gun violence is detailed and, as Guttenberg notes, backed by a majority of Americans. Among the proposals are repealing a law that protects gun manufacturers from legal liability, banning the sale of assault rifles and high-capacity magazines paired with nationwide buy-backs, closing loopholes in background checks before gun purchases, and allowing states to implement “red flag” laws.

Biden also wants to enact legislation to support survivors of gun violence and their communities.

“He plans to treat gun violence like the public health emergency it is,” Guttenberg said. “His commitment is real.”

Guttenberg says in Find the Helpers that his life’s goal is “to break the gun lobby,” and to help elect lawmakers who support gun safety and defeat those who don’t. How his aims will dovetail with Biden’s plans, Guttenberg doesn’t yet know, but his voice is hopeful and resounding with the inspiration that suffuses his book.

“I can’t say what my role will be, but I intend to have a role,” he said.

Find the Helpers: What 9/11 and Parkland Taught Me About Recovery, Purpose, and Hope

by Fred Guttenberg

Forward by Bradley Whitford

Mango Publishing, Sept. 22, 2020

Hardcover, 198 pages (18,000 copies currently in print)

Available at Amazon (hardcover and Kindle), Target.com, Barnes & Noble
and Indiebound.org.

List price: $19.95

Notable reviews by U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Alyssa Milano, Debra Messing, former Congressman David Jolly, and Glenn Kirschner, legal analyst and former U.S. Army prosecutor.

Find the Helpers was named among the Best Political Books of 2020 by MarieClaire.com and has been noted in newspapers across the country, including the Virginian-Pilot, Twin Cities Pioneer-Press and Columbus Dispatch, in addition to the South Florida Sun Sentinel and Miami Herald.

‘Jaime’s Law’ to be re-introduced to Florida legislature

Florida Phoenix

Legislation has been filed for next year’s session of the Florida Legislature that would close a loophole that can allow people barred from owning firearms because of criminal histories to nevertheless purchase ammunition without a background check.

The proposal (HB 25) is similar to a bill that failed during last year’s session. It’s called “Jaime’s Law,” after Jaime Guttenberg, aged 14, one of the 17 people killed in the 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

“As a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, nothing is more important to me than preventing another tragedy like what our community experienced from ever happening again,” bill sponsor Dan Daley, a Democrat from Coral Springs, said in written statement.

“Jaime’s Law is a huge step in the right direction towards ensuring that weapons and ammunition stay out of dangerous hands. It’s also common sense and does not restrict the rights of legal gun owners,” he said.

Bartenders are required to card people who order beers, he noted. “Why isn’t a vendor required by law to ensure that someone seeking to purchase ammunition is legally allowed to do so?”

Daley filed similar legislation last year, as did Sen. Lauren Book, also a Broward Democrat, but it failed.

Existing law requires licensed gun dealers to run background checks on buyers and to refuse purchasers who have felony convictions, histories of domestic violence, or mental illness. But the law doesn’t apply to ammo sales.

Daley’s bill would require that purchase records for law-abiding people remain confidential. It cites an existing ban on any gun registration lists. The Legislature when passing that ban declared such a list “an instrument that can be used as a means to profile innocent citizens and to harass and abuse American citizens based solely on their choice to own firearms and exercise their Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms as guaranteed under the United States Constitution.”

Following the Parkland shootings, the 2018 Legislature voted to let
some school personnel carry guns on campus and the next year to allow teachers to carry under some circumstances.

Gun reform advocate Fred Guttenberg, Jaime’s father, has endorsed the proposal.

“With approximately 400 million weapons already on the streets, we must make it harder for those who intend to kill to do so,” he said.

“Prohibited purchasers of weapons are also prohibited from buying ammunition, but there is no mechanism in place to keep that ammunition out of their hands. We must close this ammunition loophole and this bill is a step in the right direction to do it. Jaime’s Law will help save lives immediately.”

Visit www.floridaphoenix.com for more news on state politics.

December 9, 2020December 2, 2020

Congressman Ted Deutch (D-FL, 22nd District)

Dear Friends!

This year, our community has faced tremendous challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has taken the lives of loved ones far too soon and placed millions of families into economic hardship. Many celebrations, traditions, and even daily activities have been put on hold as we isolated ourselves to keep each other safe from harm. As we all hope to return to a sense of normalcy, we must continue to follow social distancing guidelines as we try to heal from the pandemic. Although this year has been difficult for us all, our community has shown incredible strength. Throughout the past few months, we have seen heroes emerge to keep us safe, healthy, and thriving. But our work is not over. As public health experts warn of a COVID-19 resurgence, we must all continue to do our part to keep each other safe. In Congress, I will keep fighting to get Floridians the help they need to get back on their feet.

One in twenty seniors in the U.S. is a target of fraud schemes, costing them at least $36.5 billion per year. Yet, the National Adult Protective Services Association has found that only 1 in 44 seniors actually report that they are victims of a fraud scheme. Recently the House passed my bill, the Seniors Fraud Prevention Act, that would help protect seniors and their families from becoming the victims of fraudulent schemes designed to steal their assets. I was proud to work with Rep. Buchanan, Rep. Peter Welch, Senator Klobuchar, and Senator Collins to introduce this legislation that would create an office within the Federal Trade Commission charged with tracking scams, educating and alerting seniors to new scams, and establishing a more effective complaint system to ensure reports of fraud are quickly addressed by the appropriate law enforcement agency.

Recently, I joined Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Rep. Kathy Castor to release a climate report prepared by the House Oversight Committee outlining the health benefits for the state of Florida if the United States meets the goals of the Paris Agreement. The report outlines that in Florida alone, meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement could prevent 101,000 deaths and 40,000 emergency room visits and hospitalizations for cardiovascular and respiratory disease over the next 50 years. The state would avoid more than 23 million lost workdays. Collectively, avoiding these health issues would save Florida over $750 billion. I wish you and your family a safe and happy new year and encourage you to visit CDC.gov for current social distancing guidelines. As always, please feel free to reach out to our office if we can be of assistance.