Into the revenue service RIS tax news avoid the rush president state marks peak time period for calls use IRS online tools in February to avoid delays get tax help Avoid the rush. Yes. I know IRS much like my last office assistant You just want my money, but don't want to have to actually talk to me I do quite appreciate the online tools though by which I assume you mean like a website and Just so you know I happen to have a very nice WordPress website myself over here that you guys Might want to take a look at at some point if you want And I certainly wouldn't want to call in and disturb all those new people who you were gonna hire with all that money You got from the inflation reduction act so that you could use them to answer phones That which would somehow reduce like inflation or something plus I don't want to have to call in because I'm sure you have many women over 35 years old answering phones over there and According to Don Lemons logic they're way past their prime to be answering phones This is all talk about age makes me uncomfortable. I think that I think it's a wrong road to go down She says people you know politicians are something and not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn't in her prime Sorry when a woman is considered to be in her prime in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s That's not according to me for what?  It'll say 20s 30s and 40s I don't know 40s. Oh, I got it. I agree with that. So I think she has to be careful about Are you suggesting mr.  It says 20s 30s and 40s any case Honestly, if you really want to increase productivity at the IRS maybe try Don's advice and fire every woman over 30 years old Replacing them with men over 80 years old and that'll fix it or Maybe Don's logic is generated from a very narrow perspective Resulting in some ridiculous conclusions when taking a reality into consideration I'm just saying Nikki Haley should be careful about saying that politicians are not in their prime And what they need to be in their prime when they serve because she wouldn't be in a prime according to Hello, you'll go or whatever it is for example if Hillary Clinton ran for president I guarantee will hear Don say at some point something like yeah, you know, although she's 972 outpacing the age of even Methuselah the lines on her face outnumbering the rings on the largest sequoia tree in the world No worries because like women live longer than men, you know I mean, honestly So sometimes I get the feeling the deck is stacked over here. I swear What ever do you mean? I are 20 23-28 February 16 2023 Washington with the nation entering a peak period for filing taxes the internal revenue service Urges taxpayers to use online tools to get answers to quickly and avoid phone delays During a traditional peak period for irs phone lines around president's day So obviously the irs has been having issues with calling in and long hold times and all the rest of that So presidents day weekend when many people prepare their taxes historically marks a peak period for the irs phone lines during the two-week February period following president's day the irs recommends turning first to the self-help tools available online on irs.gov to avoid delays So it's probably good advice because obviously if you do try to call in the irs website on just the standard 800 number it can't take some time to get through and oftentimes Especially considering the fact that they've hired all these new individuals or there's we're supposed to hire a bunch of new People possibly putting them on the phone lines They might not have a whole lot of experience in terms of how to deal with people In any case at this point in time because it has been not much time since the for them to be training So you might be better off even if you were to get a hold of someone to basically find the answer if you can on the irs website So quote the irs continues to see improvements this tax season compared to previous years including better phone service and quotes that irs acting commissioner Doug O'Donald quote we were always always see a Significant surge in phone traffic around president's day with the calendar Advancing millions of people turn their attention to taxes during this period to avoid potential delays We encourage people to check irs.gov. That's irs.gov irs.gov the irs website first Which can provide much the same information Instantly to taxpayers and quote so easy to use and available anytime the irs website can help taxpayers File and pay taxes and find information about their accounts determine eligibility for tax credits and get answers to tax questions There's links to all that here and while we're talking about websites I do have my own WordPress website that links to like a think-a-fic website and we have stuff like that too We got like articles and stuff and you can like learn stuff and we've got courses and everything so Check it out man. Check it out and when it comes to when it comes time to file taxpayers are encouraged to e-file and choose direct deposit There's a link to that here to get their refunds as quickly as possible. So they want to make sure everything is nice and automated We don't want to have you know that we don't want to have all those new that money They spent on the inflation reduction act that went to the irs Supposedly to hire a bunch of people supposedly to get on the phone lines We don't want to you know overstress them or anything because maybe they didn't maybe they just spent the money on cocktails instead and it's you know So whatever so available irs tools to help taxpayers through tax filing season the irs recommends trying the following self-help Resources available to taxpayers 24-7 for a smooth and easy tax filing experience You got irs.gov offers a variety of online tools to help taxpayers answer common tax questions For example taxpayers can search the interactive tax assistance tax topics and frequently asked questions to find answers So there's links to all that my blog has like topics that we talk about too So that's another place you can you can go there and look at look at my blog instead of the irs blog So you got the earned income tax assistant. That's the e itc There's a link to that here allows taxpayers to check eligibility for this valuable credit Taxpayers can also calculate how much e itc earned income tax credits. They may get and find answers to e itc questions I are as online account gives taxpayers secure access to personal personal tax information Including balance payments tax records with previous years adjusted gross income information My website on the think-of-think website You can have your own account there too and you can like have your own You know, you could sort your own courses and content stuff on that one too So you might want to check that out just out just you know as a parallel to what we're talking about So the irs offers basic information in several languages to help taxpayers get the information They need to file a federal tax return and pay any tax owed so we have You know language, you know, you can like Google you can Google translate now Languages so so you could check that out on my website too So I are as free file. There's a link to that here provides eligible taxpayers who want to prepare their own returns free tax preparation and the volunteer So the free file we actually have links to our website too that also talks about like third party Like businesses that offer software that might have a free option to it Which is kind of like what the irs is like website their little blog does that too here So you can go there and then basically they tell you about these other great businesses that actually provide You know services and whatnot The the third party tax software and so you then you can link to their website and get the actual stuff That that provided by the You know the evil capitalistic market people that actually made the software and whatnot So and then you've got the volunteer income tax assistance the vita or tax counseling for the elderly the tce Program so you've got links to those offer free tax help for Certified volunteers have thousands of sites across the country that is actually an in-person thing something that's a step Beyond a blog a website right you can actually help they might help you to actually do your taxes So if you know if you want to do go in person and look at one of these volunteer services and people Volunteer in their time for that that could be a good resource that wears my refund tool There's a link to that here on irs.gov and they've got an irs to go app even So they've got their like little blog thing here, but they also have an app That's how you know when when like companies are super cool. I don't even have an app I'm not even there yet because like so whatever So that allows taxpayers to check the status of their refund within 24 hours after the irs accepts their e-file tax return Where's my refund updates once every 24 hours usually overnight so taxpayers don't need to check more than once a day So if you're checking the where's my refund every like hour or something Then I you know we have to point out you've got a problem. You shouldn't be doing that You've got like a tick or something. It's probably causing you stress panic You got you know, you got to let it go let it go once or twice a day once or twice a day more than that Then then you know relax just relax Tax law prevents the irs from issuing refunds for include the e itc And or additional child tax credit before february 15th So if you have those two credits because of the fact Those are going to be the credits most likely for fraudsters to try to frauditate on to try to fraudulate on Then uh, they have to so that's going to delay your refund a bit Because they need to try to get some more time to catch those people possibly which they probably won't They'll just give them money and say whatever biden don't care. Yeah, that's it Ah, is it a little bit more money? Whatever just throw money at stuff stuff will be good But no not to worry Where's my refund should provide an update refund status for most early filers by february 18th and the e itc acctc related refunds should be available in taxpayers bank accounts or on debit cards by february 28th If they choose direct deposit and there are no other issues with their tax returns So if you notice that there was a lot of ifs a lot of ifs In that sentence you would be correct a lot of qualifications a lot of ifs kind of kind of formulations So so you don't might you might not want to like depend on That date for sure you don't want to be like spending the money before you get the money because it's quite because of all those ifs and qualifiers So the tax withholding estimator there's a link to that here It can help taxpayers determine the right amount of tax to have withheld from a paycheck So you can go there to kind of help you to estimate what your tax Withholdings should be it's kind of late to do that now for 2022 But it's something you might want to do for 2023 taxpayers should submit a new form w4 to their employer if an adjustment is needed So usually You try to file your 2022 tax return at this point in time, right? And then you're going to determine based on that help you to determine if You you need to adjust your withholdings In other words, if you owed a lot of taxes or you had a big refund Then that could be an indication that you would want to adjust your withholdings But because the tax code is changing so often in people's income situations are changing quite rapidly You might also simply want to go to an estimator tool Which you could use tax software to do or the tax withholding estimator is getting better as being basically tax software To kind of calculate what your withholdings should be for 2023 So then you can make your adjustments and then fill out the w4 which is telling the employer what they need to do So the irs service guide there's a link to that here and the let us help you page on irs.gov Can help taxpayers find additional ways to get help for those who need to talk to someone the irs We need to talk I need to talk to someone the irs has hired an additional 5000 customer service representatives See, I knew they were they're supposed to do that to help staff Uh, it's toll-free customer service lines. So the irs taxpayer assistance centers now I just want to point out where it says for those who need to talk That I think I mean, I know it doesn't really it's not really specific on this point But I think they mean talking about taxes, right if you just want to kind of shoot the breeze Probably not the where not the place to go But if you have tax information so irs taxpayer assistance center, that's the t acs are another resource individuals who need more than online tools or the irs toll-free customer service line to solve a tax matter Anyone who needs face-to-face service should make an appointment. There's a link to that here or check for special saturday hours There's a link to that here before visiting missing information Taxpayers should call employer for missing form w2. So if you don't have your w2s, you don't have your 1099s The irs is going to be saying hey, don't come to us Go to the employer to find that stuff now if you can't get it Then at some point in time these forms are given to the federal government So you might be able to get transcripts from the irs But you might not be able to get them yet for 2022. So you what you really want to do is go to the source And then figure it out if you have prior years, for example that you're trying to reconstruct You didn't do your taxes for 2021 or something or prior then Then you might be saying I don't want to go back to my employer because maybe they disappeared or they're closed Or they're crazy people and i'm trying to avoid them or something. I don't know Then then you might want to go and get your transcripts from the irs You might be able to do so by logging into your account on irs.gov But the first place to go typically would be The employer the people issuing the w2s and whoever issued say 1099s to get it from the source So uh, those who did not receive a form w2 wage and tax statement from one or more employers by january 31st Should contact uh issuer to inform them of the missing form Those who do not get a response from an issuer must still file on time And may need to use form 4852 substitute for form w2 wage and tax statement or Form 1099 r distributions from pension annuities retirement profit sharing plans ira's insurance contracts, etc There's links to all that stuff here for a copy of form 1099 or 1042 To report social security income visit the social security administration's website These forms can be downloaded through my social security account. It's fast and secure. They say they're they're saying that Okay, so there's links to all that stuff here. There'll be a link to this in the description


The Senate has approved all options for the conduct of party primaries and these include the direct, indirect and consensus primaries. This is against its earliest stand on direct primary only for choosing of candidates vying for electoral offices. The direct primary clause had earlier hindered the assent to the bill by President Mohamed Abu-Hari. At the resumption of its session, the Senate leader, Sen. Tayyaya Abubaka, Kevin North, raised the motion for a recommittal to the committee of the whole. Senator, to the cause that the President and Commander-in-Chief are sitting by, they would hold him of his assent to the Electoral Act No. 6, 2010 repeal and the Enegagement Bill 2031, which was passed by the National Assembly and forwarded to the President on the 18th of November, 2021. Senate knows that the rationale for withholding the assent borders on his observation on clause 84 of that bill. Desirous of the need to address the observation by Mr. President and Commander-in-Chief, a necessary amendment in accordance with order 87C of Senate Standing Orders 2020-22 as amended and in order to secure this very important plank, vital plank of our legislative agenda, and relying also on order 1B and order 5826 of the Senate Standing Order 2030-22 as amended. The Senate, according to the law, to rescind its decision on the effective clause and to recommit the Senate to the committee of the whole for reconsideration. On his part, the Senate President, Admiral Awan, assured that the amendment to the controversial clause was to allow Nigerians exercise their franchise without being hindered. What we have done today is to respond to the observations of Mr. President and the calls by our constituents and other stakeholders on the need for us to expedite action on addressing those observations made by Mr. President. And we have done that very, very patriotically. Today, as the bill stands, there is provision for all possible options for selection of candidates from the presidency to the council. The available options we have, one, the direct primaries, two, the indirect primaries, three, the consensus, candidature. What this means is political parties are now, once this becomes law, are now challenged to ensure that they choose what is appropriate, what is suitable for them when it comes to the processes of producing their candidates. I will urge that we should practice all these three so that we are able to do one of them. However, against the perception that the parliament was cowed into taking President Buhari's proposal, the House, through its spokesman Benjamin Carlo, insisted that the House acted to save democracy, noting that beside the controversial clause, there are so many other benefits as far as electoral reforms were concerned inherent in the bill. He explained further that, quote, we did not jettison direct primary, we only made it an option. Political parties are left with whichever options they prefer according to their realities. There are so many other benefits in the bill. Considered position that the political parties should be allowed to freely exercise right of choice in deciding which of one direct or two indirect primaries to adopt and the conduct of their primary election as their respective realities may permit. This was specifically the letter that came from Mr. President, asking us to return what we used to have which was primarily should be conducted direct through direct or because of this specific mention of a specific clause, the House ruled in order 12, rule 20, 21, 22, 23 says that when a bill is returned back to the House of Representatives, that by the President, because he withdrew his ass, we have the option of resigning our former decision and working on only this specific clause. So today, gentlemen of the press and fellow Nigerians, we worked on what Mr. President proposed and we accepted that it will be good for democracy at the moment to allow the electoral act be passed, the electoral act amendment bill to be passed into law by adjusting our former position and allowing the direct or indirect primaries to go through. 13 civil society groups have rejected the introduction of consensus as a mode for the nomination of candidates seeking election into public offices in the electoral act amendment bill. The groups faltered the action of the Senate in a statement jointly signed hours after the lawmakers modified the proposed amendment to the electoral act. They claimed the consensus mode is antithetical to democratic principles and will result in the subversion of popular will, adding that it violates the rights of aspirants to equal participation in party primaries while limiting the choice of voters to candidates who did not emerge from democratic primary elections. Yaga Africa International Press Center, Center for Citizens with Disabilities, the Albino Foundation, Clean Foundation are among the 13 groups rejecting the Senate's decision. We are now joined by public affairs analyst Mr. Shagun Shopiton. Good evening, Mr. Shopiton. Good evening, Mariam. Well thanks for joining us. What do you make of the U-turn by both chambers of the National Assembly on this matter? Sorry, I didn't hear that. What do you make of the U-turn by the Senate on this? Both chambers? Oh yes. Well, I think on the one hand, I generally tend to like the idea of the direct primaries. I think that the intention of including that clause was to, if you like, deliver Nigeria and the Nigeria political space from the Godfatherism factor in our leadership selection process. We all know what happens during primaries when the when the truth is indirecting. So it's usually the highest bidder. It's usually a case of the highest bidder. A lot of money gets thrown around amongst the delegates at the conventions. The jamboree, it's very, very embarrassing. So on the face of it, the direct primaries would have been fantastic. However, there are problems. And I think that those problems are the things that the president identified and that has now made the Senate to reluctantly make this U-turn. So the first problem is, those political parties, very few of them have a verifiable voter register. If you don't have a voter register, then how do you conduct direct primaries? How can INEC supervise and actually ensure and guarantee that the outcome of those direct primaries is a reflection of the will of the entirety of the membership of that political party? So if we're to go by the way of direct primaries, the first thing would be for INEC to compare the political parties to clean up their voter register, their member register, if you like. And that process is going to take time, it's going to cost money, all of that. So on the face of it, I like the idea of direct primaries, but I don't think it's practicable at this moment. That's one. And secondly, I also think that because we're in a democracy, and democracy is about choice, sometimes it's anti-democratic to using legislation and fear to force certain provisions on the polity. And I think that this law was, this act was pending in that direction. If you ask me, I probably would have preferred that yes, even though it's a bit anti-democratic, let's enforce the direct primaries. And it would have been fantastic to see for a change, the Senate actually calling the bluff of the president and applying their power of veto. But we all knew that was never going to happen anyway. This Senate has never been known to stand up to the president for obvious reasons. So their U-turn didn't come as a surprise. We all saw it coming. In the overall, I think it's in the best interest of Nigeria that they did make their U-turn because the alternative would have been for us to somehow find ourselves in a controversy and then we lose all of the benefits that are contained in that act in its entirety. Okay, so what does this spell for political parties once the president gives this bill, the assent? Sorry, say that again. What does this spell for the political parties once the president ascends to the spell? Oh, well, so what this means for the political parties is that sadly, sadly, it's business as usual. It means that APC can now do a convention, refuse to even vote at all, whether direct or indirect, and claim that if by consensus adopted a particular candidate for presidency or for governorship of a particular state or for local government or whatever. So it's just business as usual in terms of how they select, you know, how they give the party ticket to candidates. It's business as usual. Yeah, the thing now is that we need to have it quickly passed by the president, right? Yeah. That's the quick passage of this bill into law by the president because even INEC is waiting for the bill to be signed before it can release its timetable. So this is crucial for the preparation for the next elections. You know, there's been a lot of conspiracy theories about why the president does not want to sign. People have expressed fears that this is just gamesmanship on the part of the president and his advisors and his party with the intention of pushing us to the point where he can now refuse to ascend based on that age-old argument of the Equals Treaty or the Equals Law that forbids a new law being passed I think six months before the next election. You know, so those fears are still there and I think that what we should see is let the Senate very quickly amend this bill like they've listed it now. So let's hope that they can get this done and over with in a matter of a week and push this thing back to the president so that the president can ascend and so that INEC can get to work to release their schedule program towards the 2023 elections and the other elections, let's not forget that there are some off-cycle elections that will come up later this year. So I think it's absolutely critical that the National Assembly gets this done and over with as quickly as possible, get it to the president's table if possible before the end of January. Today is the 19th of January, still possible so that the president can then you know sign. Once that happens then he has 30 days again so if you get it to him before the end of January then it's got till the end of February to sign and then you know we'll know where we are so if he refuses to sign again then we'll know that okay this guy is up to no good and then the public opinion and pressure can be put upon the National Assembly to veto him because I think that it's absolutely critical that the next set of elections and the 2023 general elections are not run under the old law. All right, finally before you go what do you make of this call by some civil rights groups against consensus candidacy? Well yeah I mean I agree with them you know the consensus candidacy thing is is anything but democracy you know it leaves room for how do you even determine what consensus is you know for me I think it's ridiculous that you want to run elections for 200 million people 200 million people right and then to physically sit down in the sitting room of one guy with maybe 10 people sitting around the table with him and then they decide who is going to who they are going to give a party ticket to and because they call the shots in that party they claim that it is consensus and nobody else can really stop them you know so it's not really good and I think that yes the civil society groups are right you know rejecting the inclusion of that consensus option but I don't think that the Senate is going to back down on that I think we're going to get that provision including the new act what we now need to do as members of civil society and as citizens is to put pressure on the political parties and say we do not want consensus candidacies you know and I know that people will say oh what does put pressure mean how do you even do that well there are ways there are ways you know public opinion is very very strong if you push it hard enough unfortunately a lot of times Nigerians the Nigerian society Nigerians the youth who are a huge number of people you know we don't exercise these powers consistently enough and with enough um um uh cohesion to to to to um to take full advantage of the power that we have all right if we do that then we can reject the consensus issue whether it's in the law or not all right thank you mr shango shabito for your time thank you for having