Monthly Archives: January 2020

Don’t be the victim of a scammer

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The email started innocent enough.  The question from the CEO asked if the employee had a moment to “get a task done.” The sender asked the reader to purchase eight eBay gift cards valued at $200 each for a total of $1,600.  The employee was then asked to scratch off the silver lining and send a photo of the codes immediately.

The employee was new at the company and complied with the request, which, unfortunately, was from a scammer.  The cards were purchased before the employee realized it was a scam; fortunately, the codes were never sent to the spammer. 

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IRS opens 2019 tax filing season for individual filers on January 27

The Internal Revenue Service confirmed that the nation’s tax season will start for individual tax return filers on Monday, Jan. 27, 2020, when the tax agency will begin accepting and processing 2019 tax year returns. 

The deadline to file 2019 tax returns and pay any tax owed is Wednesday, April 15, 2020. More than 150 million individual tax returns for the 2019 tax year are expected to be filed, with the vast majority of those coming before the traditional April tax deadline.  

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2020 New Year’s Resolutions

If you’re like many of us, you probably made at least one New Year’s resolution recently.  According to TheQuint.com, the most common new year’s resolution is to get in shape, or at least, to make an effort to work out.  That’s probably why January is the top month for sales of exercise gear and clothing. 

Why is January 1st such a popular time for us to try and make changes in our lives?  A new year offers us a fresh start, and a way to put our past behaviors to rest.  In 1740, John Wesley, an English clergyman, held the first Covenant Renewal Service on New Year’s Eve.  The service was a time for thinking about past mistakes and resolving to do better in the coming year.

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