03/16/2020
Sechrest & Bloom, LLC - Working from the office and home

As we all try to cope with extraordinary circumstances, we hope that you and your families are not experiencing too much hardship and dislocation and that things will improve sooner rather than later. We're sure you've already received a basketful of messages from various businesses telling you of their contingency plans, so we hope you have the patience for one more.

We will be keeping our office door locked for the immediate future.  We have a mail slot in our door and if you need to drop off materials to us, you can do so through this mail slot. However, we prefer to receive material from you electronically.  We have the ability for you to get us any information we need for preparing tax returns (or any other matters) via on-line portal systems.  We have the ability to deliver tax returns to you securely via eSignature, via our on-line portal system, and/or through the mail.  We're not sure how much time we'll be in the office, so if you do drop materials off for us in the mail slot, we're not sure how timely it will be received by us.  Delivering materials to us electronically is the safest route for them to be addressed on a timely basis.   
 
Like many professional services firms, our staff will for the most part be working remotely or at our office behind a locked door for at least the next few weeks. This will help protect their health and also contribute to our collective efforts to slow the transmission of the coronavirus. We've invested heavily in technology. We have a cloud-based file storage system and tax preparation system with industry standard data security; all client documents are scanned and digitized; we have access to extensive on-line tax research; and of course we have teleconferencing and videoconferencing capabilities. Work that is already underway will continue, and we stand ready to assist you on any new matters requiring attention. 
 
There is speculation that the Aprili 15th tax filing deadline will be extended.  This hasn't been formally confirmed, but it seems likely to occur.  For now we're working under the assumption that the April 15th deadline is still in place.  Regarding the March 15th deadline for corporate filers, the IRS and US Treasury announced they will be generous in determining reasonable cause abatement of any penalties for taxpayers and preparers who are unable to file in a timely manner.  
 
Please do not hesitate to contact us. If you call the office and no one is there, please e-mail us and we'll respond as soon as we can. If meetings are needed, we'll suggest using a phone or video conference, whichever you're more comfortable with. 

Please stay well and thank you for having us be your CPA.

 

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