You May Owe Taxes on Those Unemployment Benefits
2020 say a lot of people filling for unemployment thanks to the pandemic. Many received unemployment benefits with additional money handed out by the government. Now it's time to do your taxes and it looks like you'll need to pay taxes on all these benefits.
According to a report from FOX 44 News, those unemployment checks are taxable income and you'll need to pay taxes on it. To the tune of about 10%.
If you received unemployment benefits in 2020 you'll need to file a 1099-G form.
Feliz Garcia, a tax professional with Happy RGV, says “The form 1099-G will have that breakdown, how much you received in unemployment benefits, and if any federal withholding occurred. For an individual that maybe received $25,000 in unemployment benefits, what do those taxes looked like based on those benefits? I’m going to say a minimum of $2,500.”
For a lot of people that collected those benefits, this may come as a surprise. Jackson Hewitt revealed in a recent survey that 39 percent of people who got unemployment benefits had no idea that the money they received was taxable.
According to Garcia, the IRS has flexible installment agreements available for those who can't pay all the money at once.
“I would recommend that the tax preparer even set up an installment agreement, because if you don’t set up an installment agreement then that’s when the IRS gets a little nervous. They don’t know that your committed to paying off the balance, so then that’s when you start receiving some of those nasty letters.” Says Garcia
Currently the IRS has not announced when they will be accepting individual tax returns although they have started accepting returns for businesses.
So this may come as a surprise to you right now but at least you know what to expect from here.