Friday, October 30, 2026 · Deadlines & Checklist
Friday checklist: what’s due next — and the one-hour of prep that covers most of it
Tax season doesn’t start in January. It starts with the deadlines stacked up between now and spring — and almost all of them get easier with about an hour of prep this weekend. Here’s what’s coming, in order:
- Monday, Nov. 2, 2026 — California Q3 sales and use tax return and payment (moved from Sat., Oct. 31).
- Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2026 — Fourth-quarter estimated tax for C corporations.
- Friday, Jan. 15, 2027 — Fourth-quarter 2026 estimated tax for individuals, including the self-employed. This is the last chance to top up 2026 payments before the return is filed.
- Monday, Feb. 1, 2027 — W-2s to employees and the Social Security Administration, and 1099-NECs to contractors and the IRS. The usual date is Jan. 31, but Jan. 31, 2027 is a Sunday, so the deadline moves to Monday.
- Monday, Mar. 15, 2027 — Partnership and S corporation returns (or extensions).
- Thursday, Apr. 15, 2027 — Individual and C corporation returns (or extensions), first-quarter 2027 estimates, and the last day for 2026 IRA and HSA contributions.
This weekend’s one-hour version: (1) Make your list of every contractor you paid $600 or more in 2026 and check you have a current W-9 for each — January is too late to chase tax ID numbers. (2) Confirm your employees’ mailing addresses are current, so W-2s land right the first time. (3) If you file California sales tax quarterly, finish the Q3 return — it’s due Monday. (4) Look at your year-to-date profit and ask whether your estimated payments still match it; if income jumped, Jan. 15 is your fix-it date.
Do those four things and January becomes paperwork instead of a scramble. And remember: Dec. 31 is the last day most moves can still change your 2026 tax bill, so book year-end planning before the calendar fills up.
Source: IRS filing-season deadline calendar for tax year 2026 (estimated tax, information return, and return due dates, with weekend shifts), summarized at aetaxadvisors.com; CDTFA for the Nov. 2 sales tax date.
General information only — not tax advice for your specific situation. Questions? Book an appointment through our Client Center.
Friday, October 30, 2026 · Tax News
2027 tax brackets: the numbers going around are projections — here’s what we actually know
You may have seen headlines with next year’s tax brackets. Before anyone plans around them, one label matters: as of today, those 2027 figures are projections — not official IRS numbers. The IRS publishes the official inflation adjustments in a revenue procedure, normally in late October or early November, and it had not done so yet when these estimates came out.
The best-known projection, from Bloomberg Tax, applies an estimated 3.2% inflation adjustment. On that estimate, the standard deduction for 2027 would be $16,600 for single filers and $33,200 for married couples filing jointly, up from the official 2026 amounts of $16,100 and $32,200. The top of the 12% bracket for joint filers would rise to $104,050, and the 37% top rate would start above $793,650 for joint filers. The seven rates themselves — 10% through 37% — are not changing; they were made permanent in 2025. Only the income lines where each rate starts and stops move with inflation.
So what should you do with projections? Use them for scenarios, not final decisions. They’re good enough to sketch a 2027 withholding check or to size roughly how much room you might have in a lower bracket for a Roth conversion or a year-end bonus. They’re not good enough to sign off on the final move — a projection even slightly off changes the answer, and the IRS number is only weeks away.
When the official 2027 figures land, we’ll post the confirmed numbers here and note anything that changed from the projections. Until then, treat every exact-looking 2027 bracket you see — including the ones in this post — as an estimate with a date on it.
Source: Bloomberg Tax 2027 projections as reported at thenewboston.com (projections, not IRS figures); official 2026 amounts per IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.
General information only — not tax advice for your specific situation. Questions? Book an appointment through our Client Center.
Thursday, October 29, 2026 · Sales Tax / QuickBooks
California Q3 sales tax is due Monday, Nov. 2 — finish it in QuickBooks this week
California’s third-quarter sales and use tax return (July–September) is normally due Oct. 31 — but Oct. 31 falls on a Saturday this year, so the CDTFA deadline moves to the next business day: Monday, November 2, 2026. That makes this week the week to finish, not start. Here’s the order we work through it in QuickBooks:
- Reconcile first. Bank and credit card accounts reconciled through Sept. 30, so the sales numbers sit on complete books.
- Compare sales totals. Run the sales and sales-tax reports for Q3 and compare them to your point-of-sale or invoicing totals. Differences found now are explanations; differences found Monday are problems.
- Sort taxable from nontaxable. Pull out resale sales (with certificates on file), sales to government, and out-of-state sales, and keep the records that prove each one — the return separates them, and so should your books.
- Check the districts. District tax follows where the goods are delivered, not just your store’s ZIP code. Verify delivery-city sales against the right district rates before you file.
- Credit your prepayments. If you’re a monthly-prepay filer, the prepayments you already made belong on the return so you don’t pay twice.
- File even if it’s zero. A return is required for the quarter even with no sales to report.
A reminder on timing: online payments on the due date must be completed before the cutoff — by 3 PM Pacific for EFT payments through CDTFA Online Services — so Monday morning is the real deadline, not Monday midnight. If TRH prepares your sales tax, your Q3 records should already be with us; if anything is still outstanding, this is the moment.
Source: CDTFA quarterly filing schedule and CDTFA notice that the Nov. 2, 2026 filing deadline applies to quarterly returns; weekend rule and payment cutoffs summarized at trykintsugi.com and due-date listing at taxjar.com.
General information only — not tax advice for your specific situation. Questions? Book an appointment through our Client Center.
Thursday, October 29, 2026 · Financial / Tax News
Social Security in 2027: benefits rise 3.6%, and the wage base rises to $192,300
The Social Security Administration announced its 2027 numbers on Oct. 14, and both sides of the program are moving up.
For beneficiaries: Benefits get a 3.6% cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) beginning in January 2027. Nearly 72 million Social Security beneficiaries will see the increase, and about 7.3 million SSI recipients see higher payments beginning Dec. 31, 2026. On average, retirement benefits rise about $75 a month, from $2,095 to $2,170. Workers younger than full retirement age can earn up to $25,560 in 2027 before benefits are reduced.
For workers and employers: The Social Security wage base — the most earnings subject to the 6.2% Social Security tax — rises from $184,500 in 2026 to $192,300 in 2027. At or above that cap, an employee and the employer each pay $11,922.60 in Social Security tax for 2027, up from $11,439 in 2026. The 1.45% Medicare tax is unchanged and still applies to every dollar of wages, with no cap. Self-employed workers pay the combined rate, so a higher wage base can mean a noticeably higher self-employment tax bill if earnings pass the old cap.
For beneficiaries, one practical note: Your December benefit notice will show your new 2027 amount, and the SSA posts those notices in online my Social Security accounts in late November — before the paper notices arrive. If you don’t have an online account yet, creating one is also the fastest way to spot earnings-record errors and keep someone else from opening an account in your name.
What to do with this: Nothing is due today. But January payrolls will run on the new wage base — TRH payroll clients, we update this for you automatically — and high earners and the self-employed should figure the higher cap into 2027 estimated payments rather than being surprised next spring.
Source: Social Security Administration announcement, Oct. 14, 2026 (2027 COLA and contribution/benefit base); summary: Journal of Accountancy, “Social Security wage base and COLA announced for 2027” — journalofaccountancy.com
General information only — not tax or financial advice for your specific situation. Questions? Book an appointment through our Client Center.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · Tax Tip
Protect your tax data: five habits for Cybersecurity Awareness Month
October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, and on Oct. 2 the IRS reminded taxpayers that simple habits can help protect personal, financial, and tax information from identity thieves and scammers (IR-2026-119). Tax data is a prime target — a stolen Social Security number can be used to file a fake return and claim someone else’s refund. These five steps take less than an hour, total:
- Use strong, unique passwords. A different password for every important account — banking, payroll, QuickBooks, email — and consider a password manager so you don’t have to reuse or write them down.
- Turn on multifactor authentication wherever it’s offered. That extra code makes a stolen password much less useful.
- Update your software and devices — computers, phones, apps, and browsers — and turn on automatic updates when you can. Updates patch the holes criminals walk through.
- Slow down on unexpected messages. The IRS does not start contact by email, text, or social media asking for personal or financial information. A message that creates urgency — “your account is locked,” “pay now” — is the scam’s favorite tool.
- Store and send tax records safely. Keep tax records stored securely, encrypt sensitive files when possible, and keep a secure backup. Never email documents with Social Security numbers — that’s why TRH clients send everything through our Verifyle site, which is encrypted and keeps your information safe.
Do these once and they protect you all year — including in January, when tax-related scams spike. If a message claiming to be from the IRS, your bank, or even from us looks off, call the number you already have for that sender before you click anything.
Source: IRS, IR-2026-119 (Oct. 2, 2026), “IRS reminder: Cybersecurity Awareness Month offers simple steps to protect tax data” — content.govdelivery.com
General information only — not tax advice for your specific situation. Questions? Book an appointment through our Client Center.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026 · Financial News
Fed meets Oct. 27–28: a pause is expected — December is the one to watch
The Federal Reserve meets Tuesday and Wednesday this week. After raising its benchmark rate in September to 3.75%–4.00% — its first increase since 2023 — the Fed is widely expected to hold rates steady at this meeting while it watches inflation and the job market. Most Fed officials have signaled another increase is likely before year-end, which puts the December meeting in focus for borrowers.
What this means for small businesses:
- Variable-rate loans, lines of credit, and business credit cards are priced off rates that move with the Fed — September’s hike already raised prime to 7.00%.
- If you’re planning a major purchase or refinancing, model it at today’s rates and a quarter-point higher, so a December move doesn’t break the plan.
- Money sitting in savings is still earning well — higher-for-longer cuts both ways.
We’ll update this post after Wednesday’s 2 PM Eastern announcement with what the Fed actually did.
General information only — not financial advice for your specific situation.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026 · Bookkeeping Tip
The 15-minute month-end habit that makes tax time easy
You don’t need a perfect system. You need one small habit: once a month, before you close the month in QuickBooks, run this 15-minute check —
- Is every bank and credit card account reconciled to its statement?
- Any transactions sitting in “Ask My Accountant” or uncategorized? Clear them while you still remember what they were.
- Any bills entered but not paid, or customer invoices open past 30 days? Note who owes you.
- Save the month’s Profit & Loss and Balance Sheet as PDFs.
Do that every month and year-end stops being a scramble — your tax return starts from clean, reconciled books instead of a shoebox. And if your “system” IS a shoebox, bring it on. We’ve seen it all, we don’t judge, and we kind of love a good shoebox.
TRH clients on weekly bookkeeping: we already do this for you every month — this is what you’re looking at in your monthly package.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026 · Tax News
Filing 1099s this January? The IRS system is changing — IRIS replaces FIRE
If your business files 1099s, W-2s, or other information returns, the IRS is moving those filings from its old FIRE system to a newer one called IRIS — the Information Returns Intake System. Businesses that have filed through FIRE need to get set up in IRIS before the January filing season, not during it.
The IRS is holding a free one-hour introduction — “IRIS 101” — on Wednesday, Oct. 28, 2026, 1:00–2:00 PM Eastern, aimed at payroll providers, tax professionals, and small businesses. It walks through the new features and how to transition from FIRE.
What to do now:
- Make your list of who you’ll owe a 1099 in January — and confirm you have a current W-9 for each of them.
- If TRH files your 1099s, send us that list early. January deadlines (Mon, Feb. 1, 2027 for W-2s and 1099-NEC — Jan. 31 falls on a Sunday) don’t move.
General information only — not tax advice for your specific situation. Questions about your filings? Book an appointment through our Client Center.
Monday, October 26, 2026 · Tax News
The 2026 standard deduction: official numbers for the return you’ll file in 2027
Welcome to TRH Updates! Our regular posts start tomorrow — but since it’s launch day, here’s a set of numbers worth having early: the official IRS standard deduction amounts for tax year 2026, the return you’ll file in early 2027. These are final IRS figures, not projections.
- Single: $16,100
- Married filing jointly (and surviving spouses): $32,200
- Head of household: $24,150
- Married filing separately: $16,100
65 or older, or blind? Add $2,050 per condition if you file single or head of household, or $1,650 per spouse, per condition, on a joint return. A couple where both spouses are 65 or older adds $3,300, for a $35,500 standard deduction.
New for seniors: there’s also a separate $6,000 deduction for each taxpayer 65 or older ($12,000 if both spouses qualify), and you can claim it whether you take the standard deduction or itemize. It phases out once income passes $75,000 single / $150,000 joint.
The standard deduction is the amount of income that simply isn’t taxed — about 9 in 10 filers take it. Itemizing only wins when your mortgage interest, state and local taxes, charitable gifts, and other Schedule A items add up to more than the amount above for your status. Not sure which way you land for 2026? That’s a December question, while there’s still time to act on the answer.
Source: IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32 (announced in IR-2025-103, Oct. 9, 2025).
General information only — not tax advice for your specific situation. Questions? Book an appointment through our Client Center.
