CPA Trendlines

Survey Results: Financial Planning Outlook

IRS: AMT Filers Must Wait to Feb. 11

WASHINGTON (IRS) — The IRS expects to be able to begin processing returns for the vast majority of taxpayers in mid-January. However, as many as 13.5 million taxpayers using five forms related to the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) legislation will have to wait to file tax returns until the IRS completes the reprogramming of its systems for the new law.

The IRS has targeted Feb. 11, as the potential starting date for taxpayers to begin submitting the five AMT-related returns affected by the legislation. The February date allows the IRS enough time to update and test its systems to accommodate the AMT changes without major disruptions to other operations related to the tax season. As the IRS has said previously, it will take approximately seven weeks after the AMT patch was approved to update IRS processing systems completely.

Although as many as 13.5 million taxpayers will not be able to file their returns until Feb. 11, the effect of the delay may be lessened by the fact that under previous filing patterns only between 3 million to 4 million taxpayers file returns with the five affected forms during these early weeks in the filing season.
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Lead Gen, Customer Acquisition Still Drive B2B Marketing Objectives

But the mix is changing for 2008

by Hank Berkowitz

“Generating leads and closing sales are clearly emerging as top priorities for today’s B2B marketers,” said Rick Telberg, popular CPA Insider™ columnist and co-author of Beyond the Click: Matching Online Marketing Tactics to Sales Cycle, a new report from Bay Street Group Research and AICPA Custom Media Solutions.

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CPAs Plan Career Moves for 2008

Benefits packages emerge as key to CPA job changes. Which benefits matter most to CPAs? Join the study. Get the answers.

by Rick Telberg
On Careers

If you’re like most CPAs, one of your New Year’s resolutions may be to start looking for a new job.

A whopping 75 percent of CPAs apparently have some interest in moving on to a different job, according to the responses so far to my latest survey. Of course more money is always the concern, but many CPAs seem as interested in the workplace benefits at the next stop.

“Most of us consider the benefits package to be just as important as the salary,” said one senior corporate executive who’s participating in the Bay Street Group/CPA Trendlines study on accountants’ job and benefits preferences. “I would not accept a job if the critical benefits were not offered.”
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No Holiday Cheer on Staffing Issues

What keeps you awake at night? Find out what other CPAs have to say. Take the survey; join the discussion.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

This news may seem like coal in your Christmas stocking: the holidays are bringing few glad tidings in some of the profession’s biggest challenges.

According to a new AICPA survey, the most critical concern for the majority of firms with multiple professionals remains: finding qualified staff.

Whether it is a firm with only a handful of professionals or a few dozen, finding qualified staff (at all levels) is the chief concern that keeps firms awake at night, according to the 2007 AICPA Private Company Practice Section’s (PCPS) Top Management of an Accounting Practice Issues Survey.
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Survey: $205 average for itemized return

The 2007 biennial National Society of Accountants survey of nearly 8,000 qualified tax preparers showed that average tax preparation fee for an itemized Form 1040 with Schedule A and a state tax return increased less than 2 percent during the past two years — rising from $201 to $205.

Rates for other services also remained relatively flat — the average cost to prepare a Form 1040 and state return without itemized deductions is only $115, up from $110 two years ago.
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Niches to Riches: CPAs Get Focused

Practitioners find success in specialties. What are the top niches? Join the study; get the answers.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

CPA firms, especially local ones, have long sought survival in niches where they could make the best use of limited resources. So we’re taking a little peek into a few of the corners where accountants have set up camp. We’ve issued a survey asking what services you’re offering and what you’ve been doing to strengthen your special capabilities.

So far, the types of services seem to be breaking out more or less where you might expect. About two-thirds of the CPAs responding are offering individual and business tax services, and almost as many cater to small businesses. Some six in ten are into traditional accounting and bookkeeping. Only about one in five is into auditing. And about a quarter of you are offering payroll services.
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