HJ PICOU III TAX & ACCOUNTING SERVICE

03/12/2025

Good morning!
We have our directions from IRS regarding the Disaster Relief Act that was signed into law.
We can go back and amend the tax return for the year in which your Ida claim was completed with FEMA or your Insurance.

WHAT THAT MEANS FOR YOU . . .
If you didn't have enough expenses to use on your tax return, we should be able to use them now.
Also, if you DID use your expenses, we should be able to refigure your deductions without the old limitations and see if it would get you a larger refund.

WHAT YOU NEED TO DO . . .
Please get your insurance paperwork with the final payments, estimates, and deductible and call to set up an appointment so that we can see if amending your tax return will get you a larger refund.

THERE IS A TIME LIMIT . . .
As of right now, IRS has not extended the three year deadline for amending the 2021 tax return, so we MUST FILE THE AMENDMENT BY APRIL 15TH OF THIS YEAR.

Please call the office with any questions you have.

02/18/2025

Good morning!

We have had a few inquiries about the Disaster Relief Act of 2020 that was recently passed in December of 2024.

Yes, it does appear to include Ida expenses.

No, there is NOT a flat credit for simply living in the disaster area.

There must be actual expenses NOT covered by insurance or FEMA payments. However, it does appear to give us a drastically different amount with very little limits to how much we can deduct. Unlike, previously filed returns that had AGI limitations.

Unfortunately, at this time IRS has not given us ANY guidelines as to how to proceed forward with the new law. As soon as we have the IRS regulations in hand, we will be posting online any information we can and reaching out to those of you who might be able to refile.

01/17/2024

The first day to file your return with IRS is January 29th.

We are open and accepting drop-offs in case you have already received your W2s.

01/15/2024

Hello Clients and Friends!
We have good news!

We are currently taking NEW CLIENTS!

We will be in the office full time as of Monday the 22nd and we are in the office part time as of now. Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about this year's tax return and we look forward to seeing all of you soon!

01/26/2023

Well, e-filing began this past Monday for the 2023 filing season. We are open, call for an appointment or drop off your papers in our front door steel drop box. Be sure to include your Questionaire we mailed to you earlier this month. Be Safe!

Pam, Tanya and Harry

03/10/2022

To all of our clients:

I'm sorry for the delay in posting this year, but as some of you already know, we had a small family emergency.

Mr. Picou had to have open heart surgery in February.
He is fine. Doing great and in the office at least part time now.

We want to take this opportunity to thank all of you who sent Dad well wishes, prayers, and cards. We also want to thank you for your patience when your returns were delayed a day or two because we were at the hospital with Dad.

We all want to assure you that we have no plans of closing at this time. We fully expect to continue to provide you with honest and exceptional tax service for many years to come.

However, at this time we will no longer be accepting new clients with Corporate or Partnership returns that need to be prepared. We cannot continue to give our current clients the quality of service they deserve if we continue to grow in that field.

We will, however, be accepting new clients with personal returns who have a referral from a existing client. Understand that this year, we have a waiting list and that there might be a delay in getting to them.

Dad, Mom, and I want to thank Nicole and Laycie (our family that stepped up for us this tax season). We truly could not have done it without you and we are so blessed to have you. Also, to all of you who have helped us professionally and personally, we thank you from the bottom of our heart. This year would not have been possible without you.

And to our clients - THANK YOU.
This year has reminded us why we got into this business in the first place and why we love it so much - because of you.

Tanya (Picou) DeSoto

01/11/2022

E-filing begins January 24, so our office will open on the 17th to begin filing returns. Look for our letter and questionnaire soon for directions for the 2022 filing season.

10/19/2021

To all of our clients:

Hey guys!
This is Tanya. A lot of y'all have reached out to us because of the tarps on the building. Thank you so much for your concern! We are okay and while the building is in need of repairs, we do plan on opening ON TIME.

Dad and I have also had multiple emails and calls on things like the unemployment adjustment from IRS, the Advanced Child Tax Credit, and if there will be another stimulus or a tax relief bill for Ida. Here's what we know.

Unemployment Adjustment Payments
IRS was supposed to automatically adjust your unemployment and send it to you in a refund in the same way you received your refund this year. (If you didn't receive a refund or got a deposit into an account that is no longer open, they were mailing you a check.) For those who were suppose to get checks, please check with the post office or online at the IRS website under you account.
As far as the State of Louisiana giving you what they now owe you from their adjustment, they will NOT be sending it automatically. While we have no direction from them at this time on how they want us to handle it, we are pretty sure that we will have to amend the return and send it to them. We are planning to amend our client's state returns at no charge when you come in this year. We have a few years to amend with the State, so with us currently being out of the office, waiting until next tax year will not keep you from receiving you refund.

Advanced Child Tax Credit
Yes, I know that IRS has missed payments. Yes, IRS knows that they have missed payments. No, they have not told us how they are handling it. All we can advise is at this point, if you are receiving payments, keep track of what you received so that we can put the correct amount on next year's return. We knew there was a chance that this program would have glitches. Just keep checking your status with your account at the IRS website.

Another Stimulus Payment or Tax Relief For Ida
As of today (October 19) they have NOT passed anything giving more stimulus or Ida Tax Relief. Are they discussing it? Yes.
Are there things we can write off for Ida without a Tax Relief Bill? Yes.
This is going to be another hard tax year for us down here.
We will put up an instructional video on what we need to better complete your return when we get closer to tax season starting. At this point, we ask that you keep EVERYTHING. Every receipt, every bill, every insurance claim, and MOST IMPORTANTLY every FEMA PAYMENT.

To say that this has been hard is an understatement, but we know our clients and y'all know us, we are going to get through this and we will be here to help any way we can.

Stay safe!!
The Picou Family and Staff

10/13/2021

Friendly reminder to write checks or keep receipts for any donations to CHARITBILE organizations during this difficult time!

: expanded tax benefits help individuals, businesses give to charity during 2021; deductions up to $600 available for cash donations by non-itemizers. https://go.usa.gov/xMKNE

08/30/2021

To all of our family, friends, and clients, we hope and pray y'all are safe. We know that in this difficult time, your safety and the immediate safety of your family is most important, but please keep all receipts from evacuating and from repairs. We will be here to guide you through this unprecedented event when the storm clears. Know that Mom and Dad and our employees and families are safe and we will keep up to date on all IRS regulations as it pertains to the storm and what we can claim on your returns. Hang in there guys! We will get through this!

07/20/2021

For those who kept getting an error while trying to unenroll, but didn't receive payments OR for those who choose to only unenroll on ONE spouse and get half payments, this just went up on IRS website. (Now, mind you, I had to log into my personal account to get this message, but it is there.)
So don't freak out, you are still getting half payments, just a month late.

06/30/2021

Portal open at IRS to update Bank information for your Advanced Child Tax Credit Payments