BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN) – It’s the final week before the federal tax filing deadline and “The Tax Lady” Esther Gulyas has one major bit of advice to anyone who hasn’t done their taxes:
“Get it done, now,” Gulyas said.
Between weather problems and concern on the national news about taxes, Gulyas said they’ve been extremely busy down the home stretch for tax season. 2019 marks the first year for tax filing under the new federal tax code and Gulyas said people had no idea what to expect.
“People are very apprehensive (this year),” Gulyas said. “They come in thinking they’re going to owe a lot of money. About a third of the people I’m doing are doing very well, especially if they have children under the age of 17. About a third of the people aren’t happy. And about 40 percent of people are neutral.”
“I kind of put my fingers in my desk because (truckers) can’t take those expenses,” she said. “They might have written off $30,000 in expenses because they were out of town for 300 days. This year, they can’t take it. Right from the get-go, I say we can take it out of the state but not out the federal, so you see someone who might have a swing of $4,000 to $5,000. That’s a big swing.”
Gulyas pulls no punches about the tax code, saying it negatively affects New Yorkers. Much of the reason is because of the SALT deduction, which caps at $10,000.
“Businesses (benefit),” she said. “People that are in business are doing the pass-through deduction. It’s remarkable. I had a doctor this year who got a pass-through deduction of $42,000. That’s a very happy situation for them. I’m glad for the doctor but I feel sorry for the truck driver.”
The worst of the stories this tax return season for EG Tax was a client who heavily invested in cryptocurrency by taking all the money out of his pension plan and bought $250,000 of cryptocurrency and lost it all.
“His liability was like, very, very large, $90,000 to $100,000,” Gulyas said while saying it broke her heart to deal with that client. She said she helped him figure out how to pay that liability.
If you don’t pay your taxes and decide to file an extension, Gulyas said the money is due on April 15 regardless and you don’t have 90 percent of your ultimate liability, you’re going to be penalized anyway.
“Don’t kid yourself,” she said. “There’s a failure to file penalty which is 5 percent a month. Failure to pay is only .5.”