Tax Season Stress: Up 4 Points
How are you feeling?
As if tax season wasn’t enough, this week you need to watch your NCAA bracket!
Join this week’s survey and check back next week for the results.
The most severe stress levels for the week ended March 18, 2007, rose slightly to 29% of respondents, up 4 points in the week.
Performance evened out this week, with only 28% percent reporting operations were running “worse” than last year, down from 43% the week before. Meanwhile, the number reporting “about the same” as the year-ago wek rose 11 points to 37%, and the number reporting “better” operations gained 3 points, to 35%
SELECTED VERBATIM COMMENTS
What’s causing the stress?
• Overbearing clients-plus filling out my NCAA bracket sheet
• Clients review their finished tax return and think of something else to add…..
• New clients, additional issues for old clients
• People calling and dropping by!
• Deadlines
• Our personnel.
• Clients behind schedule, firm staffing issues.
• March 15th deadline at the same time people are bringing their 1040′s.
• Deadlines and not enough quality staff.
• Lack of staff
• work and deadlines
• Too much to do and putting out fires that weren’t even on the radar screen.
• my job
• March 15th deadline
• Too much work, people not getting me the things I need, balancing work/life.
• Ill-prepared client and poor engagement planning
• Corporate deadlines. Personal returns piling up.
• Too many clients all needing things done right now!
• Volume of work
• Not enough time/ deadlines
• Slower production slower client turn out
• partners needing k-1s, inadequate staffing levels
• March 15th due date
• Desire to complete as many corporate returns as possible and to choose the best ones to extend
• A lot of work
• Too many non-CPA items on the To Do List
• Missing tax information
• Deadlines and phone calls
• Corporate deadline Thursday and too many returns in house to finish on time.
• Busy, busy–audits as well as taxes
• under-staffing
• corporate procrastination!!
• not enough time to do what has to be done
• taxes
• boss, changing systems, interruptions
• clients late with info. ancillary services taking time
• Interruptions.
• Family issues: Father in nursing home
• My three year old was hospitalized (she’s fine now) and things were going great up until that point. I’m getting back on my feet and people are being pretty understanding. I can’t change the fact that I will have more extensions though. it’s bad enough having a hospitalized child let alone time of year.
• 2005 extra-extended taxes (I’m in New Orleans) on top of regular 2006 crunch
• A!!@#$% clients
• Normal busy season deadlines. Not much stress
• clients whose expectations I have not correctly set
• Meeting deadlines.
• long hours
• deadlines — not enough experienced staff
• work load
• Not having enough time to do the best job.
• Equipment Failures
• cash-flow issues
• Children taking too much time out of my day with all their activities, 1099s being late and clients waiting longer for “Corrected 1099s”.
• corrected 1099′s
• work deadlines, family visiting over the weekend, and spring fever
• 1. Clients who call you 15 times between February 15 and April 15, when 14 of those calls should have been made during the tax year. 2. 1040 clients sending their information later and later every year. 3. Brokerage firms that don’t provide gain/loss statements or mutual fund companies that don’t provide both FIFO cost basis information along with Average Cost Basis. 4. The staff member that asks every year, the differences between simple and complex trusts.
• Corporate deadline, people problems
• Lack of rest and exercise.
• Corporate deadlines, workload piling up.
• New staff and loss of experienced colleague due to death.
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