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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

What’s the Real Impact of IRS Audits?

Blue audit button on keyboardThree types, including one that some taxpayers don’t recognize as an audit.

By CPA Trendlines Research

According to Harper’s Magazine, more than half of all Americans would rather be mugged than audited by the IRS. And many Americans don’t see much of a difference between the two events.

MORE: Why Shouldn’t All Tax Practitioners Need Licenses? | Data Divers Profile Taxpayer Filing Styles | Salary Survey Shows Pay for Tax Professionals | Fixing the Tax System: Accountants Sound Off | 2 Ways the EITC Error Rate Is High
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And that’s a problem. Because fear and loathing are not conducive to voluntary compliance.
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OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Why Shouldn’t All Tax Practitioners Need Licenses?

Data chart

Does a 90% error rate alarm anyone?

By CPA Trendlines Research

America needs tax preparers. Without them … well, it’s hard to imagine how people would calculate any more than the most rudimentary returns.

MORE: Data Divers Profile Taxpayer Filing Styles | Who’d Like a Friend in the IRS? | Wanna Change The Tax World? | The Big Free-File Flop | Survey: Busy Season Goes Sour | Lessons Learned: How the Federal Shutdown Hit Busy Season 2019 | Taxpayer Advocate Slams Congress over Funding
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The funding of the government would fall to a fraction of what is needed to sustain the nation. Tax preparers are an essential link between the government and those who fund it.
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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Data Divers Profile Taxpayer Filing Styles

Understanding retail, software & online tax service users.

By CPA Trendlines

With options like retail walk-in tax prep, software services, or online filing, how do taxpayers decide? The data scientists at the consumer research agency Exponential.com dove into the data to uncover the factors that may make someone more (+%) or less (- %) likely to utilize one of three common filing methods. READ MORE →

BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Salary Survey Shows Pay for Tax Professionals

Senior tax accountant averages $99k. More: City-by-city details.

By CPA Trendlines

Tax professionals know just about every detail of their clients’ lives, but how much do tax professionals earn?

Korn Ferry, the executive recruiters, think they know. And they’re spilling the beans.

Using what they call the world’s largest such database, Korn Ferry pegs the U.S. national average of tax professional annual salaries at: READ MORE →

BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Fixing the Tax System: Accountants Sound Off

Survey: Overhauling taxes was suggested.

Join the survey. Get the results.

You can do something. Join thousands of other CPAs, Enrolled Agents, financial planners and other tax practitioners in contributing opinions and ideas to the Busy Season Barometer. Let your voice be heard. Join the Survey; Get the Results

By CPA Trendlines Research

Respondents to the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer seemed a little optimistic earlier this year, but as the season staggers into April, tax practitioners are having second thoughts. Suddenly, increasingly, the season looks bleak. Now more and more respondents foresee a downturn in revenue and profit. Fewer foresee a better year.

Cooper

MORE BUSY SEASON: Who’d Like a Friend in the IRS? | Hello, IRS? Anybody Home? | Is the IRS about to Get Beefed Up?   |  Tax Season Funnies: April Fool Is When?  |  Wanna Change the Tax World?   |  How the IRS Hides Its Legal Decisions  |  Tax Season 2019 Serves Up a Taste of the Future  |  The Biggest Reason Fraudsters Run Rings around the IRS  |  The IRS Free-File Flop  |  The Demise of Schedule A?  |   Tammy’s Tale of Tax Season Tardiness  |  How Effective Project Management Makes Your Life Easier  |  Survey: Busy Season Goes Sour  | The IRS Mess: Taxpayer’s Roadmap is a Plumber’s Nightmare

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Many blame the tax system in general and the IRS in particular. It all boils down to politics. Chris Cooper, a certified financial planner in San Diego, says.“Enact a flat tax or a VAT, and eliminate taxing income and investments. Then do away with the IRS.” READ MORE →