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Help Business Clients Lower Property Tax Assessments

profile of man shouting TAX and other, starred-out wordsSome property owners pay inaccurate property tax levels by as much as 20% to 30%.

By Josh Malancuk with JM Tax Advocates

With cash-starved states and municipalities looking under every nook and cranny for revenue, manufacturers with lots of fixed assets and personal property are generally taking it on the chin when it comes to their property tax assessments.

MORE: Six Kinds of Loan Covenants | 26 Ways to Wreck a Financial Projection | Three Ways to Run a Break-Even Analysis | Price Not Always the Top Consideration in a Sale | When an Owner Dies Without a Buy-Sell Agreement | Due Diligence Is in the Details
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Many of your business clients, especially manufacturers, sense their assessments are too high. But most don’t have the time, resources or expertise to challenge their assessment through the protest or appeal process before the deadline. And so, overpayments continue for another cycle and then again, and again and again. That’s what assessors count on. But you owe it to your clients to keep your assessors accountable through available appeals and to help them avoid overpaying taxes year after year.

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POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

IRS Embracing Stakeholders

Partnership, feedback sought.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The Internal Revenue Service recognizes that it cannot achieve effective tax administration alone, that it must include a broad ecosystem of stakeholders.

MORE: Coming Soon: New Ways to Pay the IRS | IRS to Speed up Issue Resolution | IRS Sets Milestones for Radically New Service | IRS Promises 12 Customer Service Initiatives | Should Tax Preparers Be Certified Competent?
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In other words, taxation takes a village.

The IRS’s new Strategic Operating Plan 2023-2031 delves into the breadth and variety of stakeholders.
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ADVISORY & CONSULTING

Accountants Raise Alarms on Small Business Outlook

The Avalara Accountants Confidence Report points to difficulties ahead for small businesses to access capital, increase profits, raise revenues, hire new employees, and control costs.

Looking ahead 12-18 months, accountants expect increasingly acute hardships, led by problems in accessing fresh capital, hiring, and managing labor costs. But new technology and automation could help cushion the pain for some.
https://cpa.click/smb23outlook
Click to download (PDF 19 pages)

Avalara, Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based tax compliance automation for businesses of all sizes, released a new survey of over 500 Main Street accountants representing more than 100,000 small businesses.

Survey responses revealed that looming economic headwinds could create challenges for small businesses in the next 12–18 months. The survey, conducted during the 2023 tax season, shows that accountants believe small businesses will face challenges in accessing fresh capital, increasing profits, managing payroll costs, weathering supply chain difficulties, and hiring new staff.

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The Avalara Accountants Confidence Report

The 2023 Avalara Accountants Confidence Report, produced in conjunction with CPA Trendlines, queried trusted advisors with clear insights into the financial health of small business clients. The report measures accountants’ attitudes and outlook on a variety of pressing issues, leading with sentiment on the health of small business clients, and providing a read on the national economy and the state of smaller accounting practices. Accountants were surveyed as they combed through business clients’ financials and prepared their tax returns.

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POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

Coming Soon: New Ways to Pay the IRS

Person using credit card to pay bill onlineImprovements will be made over four years.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Americans are used to paying for things online, over the phone, through bank transfers, with automatic renewals, with credit cards, digital wallets and checks in the mail, not to mention a variety of specialized banks, such as PayPal and Venmo, and even good ol’-fashioned cash.

MORE: IRS to Speed up Issue Resolution | IRS Sets Milestones for Radically New Service | IRS Promises 12 Customer Service Initiatives | Should Tax Preparers Be Certified Competent? | IRS: Let the Sun Shine In … and Out | IRS Has Big Plans for Its $80 Billion | Can’t IRS Tax Pro Accounts Do More? | Hello? IRS? Anybody Home? | Taxpayer Assistance Centers Need Upgrade | At the IRS, Short on Staff Means Short on Service
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To the frustration of millions of American taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service, until recently, has accepted payments only with 19th-century technology.
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POLITICS & GOVERNMENT

IRS to Speed up Issue Resolution

Woman looking at tablet at outdoor tableA triad of good intentions.

By CPA Trendlines Research

A lot of the backlog at the Internal Revenue Service is because of simple errors that compound their own complications. Arithmetic boo-boos too easily snowball into backlogs, bankruptcies and court cases.

MORE: IRS Sets Milestones for Radically New Service | IRS Promises 12 Customer Service Initiatives | Should Tax Preparers Be Certified Competent? | IRS: Let the Sun Shine In … and Out | IRS Has Big Plans for Its $80 Billion
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It might start off with a simple math error or misplaced deduction.
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