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BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Busy Season 2016: Topline Survey Results

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Top trends, metrics, benchmarks, and lessons learned.

By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines

For most CPAs, this year’s Busy Season may have been a marked improvement from last year’s, but that doesn’t mean savvy practitioners aren’t already learning new lessons and honing operations for next year. Indeed, CPA Trendlines research consistently shows that the biggest single factor determining Busy Season outcomes for CPAs is how they spend their so-called off-season. Many CPAs, understandably, want to forget about their last Busy Season, enjoy the rest of the year, and work on other projects. But those CPAs who seriously study the people, processes and outcomes of their last Busy Season, and start applying the lessons early, consistently report year-over-year advances in client rolls, fee income, and profitability. And 2016, although considerably better for most professionals than 2015, still has many lessons to teach.

Click here for the full report, including the Bonus 37-Item Checklist for Planning a Better Season (PDF 18 pages)

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Tax Filing Season 2016 Ends on Positive Notes

Chart of IRS statistics for week ending April 22, 2016.
[Click for larger image]
Pros handled 58 percent of e-filings.

By CPA Trendlines

After weeks of falling statistics, the 2016 filing season closed on positives in every category but one – the profession’s market share slipped another percentage point this year.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: Most Tax Season Filing Stats Down | Tax Pros Preparing 58 Percent of E-Filings | Tax Filing Trends Remain Steady | Refunds Top $200 Billion Mark | Tax Filings, Processing Remain Slower | Pros Lose Ground in E-Filing | Tax Questions Up, Filings Down

There were 136.53 million individual income tax returns filed by April 22, with the April 18 deadline falling within that week. The total returns received were up 1.7 percent from 2015. Total returns processed numbered 129.46 million, up 0.9 percent. That puts the processing rate to date at 94.8 percent.

E-filing receipts totaled 122.55 million, up 2.6 percent. Tax professionals prepared 70.86 million, up 0.5 percent, and 51.68 million were self-prepared, up 5.7 percent.

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Most Tax Season Filing Stats Down

Chart of IRS filing statistics for week ending April 15, 2016
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Pros still favored over self-preparation among e-filers.

By CPA Trendlines

With only days left in the 2016 tax filing season, virtually every statistic remained down from last season.

MORE ON FILINGS: Tax Pros Preparing 58 Percent of E-Filings | Tax Filing Trends Remain Steady | Refunds Top $200 Billion Mark | Tax Filings, Processing Remain Slower | Pros Lose Ground in E-Filing | Tax Questions Up, Filings Down

As of April 15, the IRS had received 124.62 million individual income tax returns, down 5.8 percent. It had processed 119.92 million, down 4.9 percent. The processing rate for 2016 stands at 96.2 percent.
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Firms in the Cloud Fly Higher

Businessman relaxing in clouds in skyIt allows you to focus on more important aspects.

…and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me…

– William Shakespeare, The Tempest

By CPA Trendlines

Ah, the cloud…whatever it is, wherever it is…apparently those fluffy isles in the foggy blue yonder are where small businesses, including accounting firms, can make a little more moolah.

MORE ON THE CLOUD: Private Clouds on the Rise | The Cloud Isn’t Risky. You Are. | Report: Cloud Users Earn More Than Naysayers | 10 Radical Steps into the Cloud | Radical Tenet #1: Embrace the Cloud | Cloud Computing Can Cost Less | TECH SURVEY: Email Moves to the Cloud | Moving to the Cloud? Do These 6 Things First

Small American companies, defined as those with fewer than 50 employees, lead the world in usage of the cloud. For the first time, more than half – 51 percent – employ at least one software package that functions offsite, and another 29 percent use three or more cloud-based programs. That’s more than in France, Germany and Belgium. The only country coming close is the U.K., where 47 percent of surveyed companies are involved in cloud-based technology.
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Tax Pros Preparing 58 Percent of E-Filings

Chart of IRS data for week ending April 8.
[Click for larger view.]
More than 97 percent of individual filed returns have been processed.

By CPA Trendlines

The tax season is groaning to a close and that is reflected in the slowing of most 2016 filing season statistics.

MORE ON INDIVIDUAL FILINGS: Tax Filing Trends Remain Steady | Refunds Top $200 Billion Mark | Tax Filings, Processing Remain Slower | Pros Lose Ground in E-Filing | Tax Questions Up, Filings Down

The IRS had received 107.45 million individual income tax returns as of April 8, down 3 percent from the same period last year. It had processed 104.53 million returns, down 3.2 percent.
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