Here’s what you’re looking for: CPA Trendlines Research

CHARTS & GRAPHS

IRS Tops List of Busy Season Problems

Forget COVID. The underfunded, understaffed, underequipped, underappreciated, misunderstood IRS is the top problem.

By CPA Trendlines

It probably won’t surprise you that the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer identifies IRS operations as the biggest problem tax practitioners face today. In fact, we’ve never seen such widespread agreement among respondents—an astonishing 80 percent of them.

MORE in TAX: Shut Down the Tax Charlatans | Tax Pros Preparing 46 Percent of E-filings | Eight Quick, Easy Ways to Fix IRS Filing | For a Few: Why Busy Season 2022 Beats 2021 | A Tax Season Worse than 2021? | 16 Traits of the Best Tax Clients | Six Fixable Problems at the IRS | IRS under COVID: Heroes or Goats? | IRS Launches 2022 Season with “Strong Start” | Two Big (and Obvious) Ways IRS Could Work with Practitioners | Imagine a Fully Online IRS | The Real Cost of Interstate Sales Tax | IRS At Death’s Door? | Beyond Tax Prep: The Big Cha-Ching! | Crisis at the IRS | The IRS’s 10 Biggest Problems | Fear and Loathing for Tax Season ’22

GoProCPA.comPRO Members: Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

That consensus indicates that there really is a problem at the IRS. It’s underfunded, understaffed, underequipped, and, at this point, underappreciated and misunderstood.

The real problem is that the problem is creating problems. IRS staff can’t keep up with correspondence, yet the computers, even though working off an operating system that dates back to the Kennedy administration, keep churning out moot notices and undeserved penalties.

READ MORE →

OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Shut Down the Tax Charlatans

Why shouldn’t tax practitioners be regulated? Ask Congress.

By CPA Trendlines

What do lawyers, CPAs, truck drivers, and beauticians have that many tax preparers don’t?

Certification.

MORE in TAX: Imagine a Fully Online IRS | The Real Cost of Interstate Sales Tax | IRS At Death’s Door? | Beyond Tax Prep: The Big Cha-Ching! | Crisis at the IRS | The IRS’s 10 Biggest Problems | Fear and Loathing for Tax Season ’22 |  Padar Joins VC-Backed Tax Fintech for Banks |  COVID Chokes an Already Crippled IRS | Tax Regs for the Metaverse | 10 Steps to a Superior Tax Department | Accountants Critical of Competitor Price-Cutting |  Automate Busy Season with Apps You Already Use | Sales & Use Tax Costs Are Higher than Anyone Thought | Survey: Nobody Loves the Wayfair Decision | Busy Season Forecast: More Chaos  | A Woman Named Wanda Leaves an IRA Nightmare  | Are You Under-Pricing Your Client Accounting Services?  | Your Best Advice: Get Smart, Get Tech, Get Moving | Worries for Small Business Clients |

GoProCPA.comPRO Members: Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Or, to use other words, proven competence. The tax preparation industry is a mixed bag of highly skilled and credentialed professionals, less skilled newbies trying to learn the trade on the job, and charlatans skilled in not much more than ripping off the unsuspecting or, at best, doing a slapdash job. READ MORE →

CHARTS & GRAPHS

Tax Pros Preparing 46 Percent of E-filings

The crunch hasn’t hit IRS.gov yet.

By CPA Trendlines

Five weeks into tax filing season, refunds are well past the $100 billion mark and processing is clipping along merrily. Year-to-year comparisons remain challenging because of the difference in season dates: Feb. 12 to May 17, 2021, vs. Jan. 24 to April 18, 2022.

MORE: IRS Launches 2022 Season with “Strong Start”
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

As of March 4, the latest data available, the agency had received 54.7 million individual income tax returns, down 1.7 percent from the same week in 2021. It had processed 53.1 million returns, up 8.3 percent. We always look at how quickly the returns coming in are processed, and right now that rate is 96.9 percent.
READ MORE →

CHARTS & GRAPHS

The FinTech Flood: Accounting Will Never Be the Same

Venture capital and private equity are pouring billions into financial technology start-ups. And this business will never be the same.

Watch the video or listen to the podcast: Follow CPA Trendlines Podcasts on Apple Podcasts ,  or grab the RSS feed here.

With Rick Telberg
For CPA Trendlines

A tsunami of venture capital and private equity is flooding into new tech startups, enough to swamp the entire tax, accounting, bookkeeping, and payroll sector, according to a new study by CPA Trendlines.

MORE: How Private Equity Changes Everything | The FinTech Flood: Accounting Will Never Be the Same | The Disruptors: Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson |  The Disruptors: How to Scale with New Padgett COO Amanda Aguillard | Eat that Frog: Asking for a Prospect Meeting | Growing Revenue Through Client Service | Lease Accounting Is About to Get Very Real | Google Ads for New Tax Season Clients | Exclusive: Eisner CEO Charly Weinstein Explains the Private Equity Deal  | Flash Briefing: A “Call to Arms” after Private Equity Deal | Four Ways to Beat the Staffing Shortage, with Pasha Malik

GoProCPA.com Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Download the slide deck here.

Here, CPA Trendlines founder, publisher, and editor Rick Telberg delivers the keynote at the New York Finance & Accounting Show, explaining what it means for the future of the profession, including:

READ MORE →

CHARTS & GRAPHS

CPA ROI DOA: Why the Next-Gen Accountant Won’t Be a CPA

Extinction ahead: The next generation of would-be CPA could be one of the last.

It doesn’t add up: College students doing the math say the CPA exam is too tough (54%) and too time-consuming (54%). (ICPAS)

By CPA Trendlines

Is the CPA profession doomed to die out?

It’s too soon to say, but the signs aren’t good. The need for public accountants is bound to continue, but will there be accountants to fill that need? It’s already hard to find qualified, certified professionals, and a peek in the pipeline shows no improvement.

RELATED: Matt Wilkinson: Think Small to Think Big | How to Communicate Your Value  | Payroll Services Rocket with U.S. Economy | Internal Communication Can’t Be Overlooked | Top Issues: Talent, Time, and Transformation |  The Disruptors: Re-Inventing Accounting with Tyler Anderson |  Making Partner: The Essential Metrics |  Stop Complaining and Start Innovating |  Staff Retention for Remote Workers | 4 Top Communication Habits  | How to Measure Partner Potential  | Staffing Shortage Cripples Growth at 40% of Firms | Is It Time to Outsource?

More in RECRUITING  & TALENT MANAGEMENT

GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The AICPA has been warning us about this trend for several years. The AICPA Trends Report of 2019 saw bachelor’s, master’s and Ph.D. accounting enrollments down four percent, six percent and 23 percent from the already low levels of 2018. Meanwhile, the Illinois CPA society reports that less than half of all accounting graduates even bother sitting for the CPA exam.

READ MORE →