Taking control of your financial health starts with education.
Tax season is here again. e-Filing your return is convenient, secure, and allows your payment to process or refund to be deposited quicker than when filing by mail. Instructions for finding your SESLOC account information for withdrawal or deposit are below, as well as information on how to set up a custom alert to notify you when the IRS processes it.
First, let’s clear up a common misconception about credit scores. It’s often thought that you have just one singular score, or one for each of the three credit bureaus. The truth is that you actually have many credit scores. This is due to a number of factors:
The Criminal Investigation (CI) unit is a special criminal division of the IRS. The CI is tasked with investigating and uncovering tax-related crimes and prosecuting these cases. Each year the CI provides the IRS an annual report detailing the work of the CI and highlighting their successes and enforcements related to tax and financial crimes.
Saving money can often be a challenge—especially during times of financial uncertainty. As humans, we’re wired to take care of our needs now, and worry about later… well, later.
During our recent webinar presentation, Money Management in Turbulent Times, we asked our attendees to collaborate and share their top tips for cutting costs. Cutting costs is an important strategy for stretching your budget so you can pay your debt down faster or hit your savings goals quicker.
There are many misconceptions about how marginal tax brackets work and how they impact your federal tax return. This is what you need to know:For the 2020 tax year (to be filed by in 2021), the IRS set marginal rates of 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35% and 37%. Your tax rate depends on your filing status (single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, or head of household) as well as your taxable income.
The IRS has announced that the federal income tax filing season for tax year 2020 returns begins on Friday, February 12, 2021. Although tax seasons frequently begin in late January, the additional time will allow the IRS to update its programming and test its system to take into account any changes made by the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2021 (CAA 2021), signed into law on December 27, 2020. Last-minute changes to tax law have already been included in IRS tax forms and instructions.
In today’s world it is more important than ever to focus on the things that we can control to better safeguard our financial future. It’s easy to get complacent, lulled into a false sense of security, when there are many other more urgent things to think about.
Sweetheart scams, also known as romance scams, are becoming increasingly common as people seek out connections online. The FTC reports that Americans lost over $209 million to sweetheart scams in 2019 — which is 40% more than reported the previous year.
This is a good time to check in with your loan servicer to ensure you’re on a payment plan that fits your situation. Our partners at GreenPath recommend you do this soon; when loan payments resume, the government will be activating 30 million borrowers at one time, and you may find it difficult to reach your loan servicer.
We’re introducing a new way to save to help you develop healthier saving habits in a fun, unique way. With a Save to Win 12-month share certificate, every time you make a deposit of just $25 (up to 10 entries per month), you’ll be automatically entered in a monthly and quarterly prize drawing for a chance to win up to $5,000. Terms, conditions, eligibility and restrictions apply.
Now you can chat with a SESLOC Member Services Representative online on mobile or desktop. Whether you have a question about your account, products, services, you can get a response in real-time.
SESLOC is now scanning personal information cards (ID) if you do no have one already on file or when you have a new ID upon expiration. We have implemented this security measure for your protection as we work towards eliminating the need to provide a verbal password when visiting a branch. It will also speed up transactions, saving time while at the branch.
In alignment with the people-first philosophy of credit unions, SESLOC offers higher rates of return on savings accounts, lower rates on loans and lower fees than other financial institutions. With 53,000 members strong, we’re truly making a difference on the Central Coast. On October 17 we had special treats and gifts to celebrate members.
Do you know long you should hold onto your tax records? The IRS generally recommends three years. Then what?