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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

The IRS Free-File Flop

Percentage of Free File Users by Income Demographics

Fix it, or lose it.

By CPA Trendlines

Can you believe that 70 percent of all U.S. taxpayers could be using Free File, yet only 2.5 percent actually are? Did we mention “free?”

MORE BUSY SEASON: Protect Your Clients’ Assets  |  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   |  When Clients Cash Out: Four Smart Financial Moves   |  Lessons Learned: How the Federal Shutdown Hit Busy Season 2019   |  The IRS Mess: Taxpayer’s Roadmap is a Plumber’s Nightmare  |  Fixing the IRS: Tax Professionals Speak Out   |  Tax Refund Fury Roils Busy Season

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The reasons are mostly a mystery, but we found five major problems and seven ways to improve the program. If all else fails, even it’s backers agree: Give up.

READ MORE →

BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

The Demise of Schedule A?

Join the survey. Get the results.

“If you charge by the form, Schedule A’s are almost obsolete.”

By CPA Trendlines Research

With the countdown clock running down toward April 15, many tax professionals’ early-season optimism is turning into frustration and anger, according to the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer.

The latest readings from the tracking poll show:

  • Only half as many professionals now predict “significant increases” in the number of clients, and who now expect a “significant decrease” has almost doubled.
  • The number of practitioners forecasting revenue gains has been cut in half.
  • The number expecting better profits than last year has been cut by a third.

What’s happening?

READ MORE →

BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Survey: Busy Season Goes Sour

February confidence melts under the harsh realities of March.

February’s 36% positive ratings slide to only 30% in March, as negative ratings climb from 32% in February to 49% in March, even as the number expecting the same results as last year declined from 32% to 21% from one month to the next.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Join the survey. Get the results.

Remember those heady, sunny, optimistic days of January? Despite the government shutdown, CPAs and tax practitioners—more than a third of them, anyway—foresaw a productive and profitable busy season. They saw a swelling clientele and revenues to follow suit.

MORE on BUSY SEASON: Tax Refunds Up 1.7%|   Lessons Learned: How the Federal Shutdown Hit Busy Season 2019 | Lessons Learned: How the Federal Shutdown Hit Busy Season 2019 | Refunds Rebound, Up 1.3% from Last Year | Tax Refund Fury Roils Busy Season | Tax Pro eFiling Drops 12.5% after Shutdown

But then, apparently, something happened. The tides turned. The season soured. Suddenly, as February turns to March, the responses to the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer readings are tipping into pessimism. Join the survey. Get the results. READ MORE →

ABOUT US

CPA Trendlines Joins Thought Leader Symposium #CPATLS

CPA Trendlines CEO Rick Telberg joins 30 of the of the profession’s most influential.

Follow on twitter with #CPATLS.

@adp @AllanDKoltin @atgrissom @bftcpa @bqesoftware @Clayton_Oates @cpa_trendlines @CPAAccelerator @DarrenRoot @dcieslak @donnyitk @DougSleeter @evenanerd @glafollette @intuit @IntuitPatti @JeanCaragher @jimboomer @JimBourke @JoeyHavensCPA @KaceeBOP @LeslieShiner @lgboomer @markkoziel @michellegolden @RomanCITP @ronaldbaker @RPJohnston @tomhood @sandrawiley @JenLeeWilson @gcrosley @MentorPlus @gperrycpa @imobannon

Via CPA Practice Advisor

Nearly 30 of the most influential thought leaders in the accounting profession, including CPA Trendlines CEO Rick Telberg,  are gathering in Indianapolis March 11-13 for CPA Practice Advisor‘s 11th annual Thought Leader Symposium.

The annual event includes round table discussions of technology and practice management trends and issues that accounting firms and professionals face today, as well as accounting, tax and business issues they and their clients will need to prepare for in the future.

In addition to Telberg, CPA TTrendlines authors and expert contributors expected to attend include: READ MORE →

BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Lessons Learned: How the Federal Shutdown Hit Busy Season 2019

Broken system. Broken trust. Broken tax season.

Selected IRS Inventories and Levels of Service Pre-Shutdown and Post-Shutdown

By CPA Trendlines

The government shutdown of 2018-19 was a traumatic experience that CPAs and tax preparers will remember, with a shudder, for years to come.

MORE on BUSY SEASON: The IRS Mess: Taxpayer’s Roadmap is a Plumber’s Nightmare |  Fixing the IRS: Tax Professionals Speak Out |  Refunds Rebound, Up 1.3% from Last Year  | Tax Refund Fury Roils Busy Season |  IRS in Crisis: Tax Professionals Bear the Brunt  |  The Tax Season Funnies: Worst Video Game Ever  |  Taxpayer Advocate Slams Congress over Funding  |  1.6 Million Tax Clients Gone Missing?  |  BUSY SEASON: Fear, Hope & Frustration  |  Alternative Minimum Tax: What’s It Like Today? |  Clients’ Top Worry: Going Broke  |  The Latest Rules on Charitable Donations |

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It was the longest shutdown in history, and it hit precisely at crunch time for the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act and just as tax season was getting underway.

Look at some of the stats from the Taxpayer Advocate Service for service just before and just after (not during) the shutdown: READ MORE →