NEW SURVEY FINDINGS: Tech Investments, Better Economy, More Complex Returns Buoy Busy Season Outlook
Four in five expect the same or better than last year’s busy season.
by Rick Telberg
As Busy Season 2012 gets into full gear, tax and accounting professionals are holding steadfast to their confidence that this year’s results could show a marked improvement over last year’s, according to current readings of the profession by CPA Trendlines.
With January 2012 just beginning, 55% of accountants expect 2012 to be overall “somewhat” or “much” better than 2011, which is relatively unchanged from readings in November and December. To be sure, 26% expect no change from last year, and 19% are bracing for “worse.”
In other findings from the CPA Trendlines busy season barometer and related reports:
- Accountants Expecting a Better Busy Season in 2012
- For 2012, CPAs Look to Technology to Build Stronger Firms, More Balanced Lives
- Billables Look Good for Busy Season
- Busy Season Prices Heading Up 4.1%
- Tax Season Outlook: Watch those Extenders
- Will a Jobs Plan Wreck Your Tax Season?
- Video Roundtable: Tax Season 2012 Outlook
- Soloists Set to Step Up Marketing for Tax Season
- Accounting Industry Goes Hiring; Wages Gain, Too
The CPA Trendlines survey, now in its seventh year, tracks real time busy season results. Participants get an early peek at the results. Click here to join the survey, get the results.
Accountants’ attitudes seem to be buoyed by declining concern about the general economic situation and new investments in technology and workflow solutions.
On the other hand, accountants’ concerns about finding and retaining qualified help seems to be increasing. Some 44% of accountants term “staffing issues” a “chief concern,” up from 33% in December.
And tax work never seems to get easier. “More foreclosures, short sales, changes to schedule D, C and E will add to the headaches of last year regarding various small business tax credits, registered domestic partner federal filing requirement changes, says Kim Fusch in Half Moon Bay, CA. Her solution: She’s happily selling her practice.
Still, more accountants are responding like Maurice Trauring, a soloist in the New York metro area, who expects a “much better” season than last year. His reasons: “more complicated situations coming up.”
“Normal people do returns themselves,” Trauring says. “But special situation like overseas workers or multiple states command higher prices.”
Whitlock
On the other hand, Brian Whitlock at Blackman Kallick, a regional firm in Chicago, is bracing for a season “much worse” than last year. “Brokerage firms will issue 1099′s late,” he says. “They have already gotten filing extensions of time to meet the new basis reporting requirements. Additional extensions are expected. This will delay 1040 processing and gum up the works. April will be horrible.” Whitlock says it will take “more work to accomplish the same task.”
“We will be picking up and putting down returns because all the information necessary to complete the return will not be available,” Whitlock adds. “And it will come in both late and sporadically.”
Williams-Reyes
But more accountants might agree with Janet L. Williams-Reyes, a wealth management specialist at WR Financial in Honolulu, HI, who sees improvements since last year in “both the economy and my internal systems.”
Tax practitioners are also getting a break this year, ironically perhaps, from political gridlock in Washington, D.C. With Congress gridlocked, few are expecting the kind of last-minute changes that gum up the works for software vendors.
Craig Petz
Predicting a “much better” season, Craig Petz at Petz Enterprises in Tracy, CA, says, despite mandatory e-filing, “tax software is going out on-time with surprisingly few issues. Clients are motivated to get going earlier than usual. And, the overall volume of business is expected to increase substantially over last year.”
And practitioners can expect some cost increases because of stabilizing business conditions. At the Wisconsin Institute of CPAs, President and CEO Dennis Tomorsky says, “We expect to raise prices for a variety of services because we expect there is a greater ability to pay on the part of customers as a result of economic improvement, and because an historical review of our prices indicates we have not kept pace with inflation or our own increasing costs of doing business.”
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http://www.TomBlairEA.com
I would tend to agree with the author with this reservation: The “less learned” actually believe they can “do it yourself (DIY)” and do it right while also “saving money.” I expect a record number of taxpayers will DIY this tax season because they will rely upon the software instead of personal research of the tax forms and instructions. With fewer folks gainfully employed and more turning to over-the-counter and so-called “free software” I honestly don’t believe more taxpayers will turn to tax professionals this tax season until they later get those dreaded CP2000 forms after October 15th 2012.
I’ve already polled 100 of my own taxpayers and when I asked them for referrals 7 out of 10 told me “my brother (sister, mom, dad, kids, friends, etc.) says he/they are DIY this tax season and just hoping for the best. This is, I admit, not what you call by any definition a “scientific survey” but with taxpayers’ money so tight these days it doesn’t surprise me that parting with a few bucks to pay someone to handle tax chores for 2011 is not as popular as in the past.
Call me a “contrarian” but I don’t think “business as usual” is a reasonable expectation this season…people drawing unemployment commonly don’t need and typically cannot afford a tax pro like those who get full year wages, gains and losses on investments, etc. I may be wrong, but I wouldn’t bet on it.