TAX SEASON

Make It ‘Productive Season’

By

Don’t be busy. Be productive.

By Seth Fineberg
At Large

At this time of year, most accountants are considered to be mired in an annual waterboarding-like ritual known as “busy season.” While the moniker has long stirred ire, one way to rally against its implication is to take a good look at what being “busy” means. Moreover, why not make it more productive?

MORE FINEBERG: It’s Time to Do the Uncomfortable | Jeremy Sulzmann: Can Intuit Mend Fences with Accountants at QB Connect? | Meet Basis, the New AI Bookkeeper on the Block | Is This When Accountants Start Taking Freshbooks Seriously? |You’re Doing Email Wrong | Careful … You May Be Advising! | When Live Events Fail | Getting Real: Accounting Tech Decisions You Need to Make Today | Accounting Tech Doesn’t Have to Be Daunting |Who’s in Control? You? Or Your Clients?

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

Perspective is everything. And while I’ve noticed more accounting professionals making concerted efforts to have more of a life/work balance, it is apparent that much of the work that contributes to being “busy” could evolve into productivity.

READ MORE →

Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals

By

Overcome the ChatGPT AI learning curve. 

By Sandi Leyva and ChatGPT

In the fast-paced world of tax preparation and accounting, the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT can be a game-changer. However, the learning curve associated with these technologies can be a bit daunting, especially for technology immigrants in the Gen X, Boomer, and Silent generations (versus natives born after 1985).

Check out our courses on ChatGPT,
offered as a deep discount bundle or separately.
Webinar Schedule:
MORE ChaptGPT here

If you’re hesitant or short on time, here’s how to get started:

READ MORE →

Try This Clean Slate Exercise

By

Clean slate with three pieces of colored chalk

Spend a few minutes today to check your course.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

We all get caught up with what we do. Sometimes so much that we lose sight of what we are doing and the purpose.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: Offer Your Tax Clients Other Services | Can Your Tax Reviewers Answer These 10 Questions? | The Top 12 Mistakes in Tax Return Preparation | Six Types of Person: Which Are You? | Answer These Two Questions First | Help Your Tax Clients, Help Yourself | What’s Your Value to Your Tax Clients? | Are You Excited About Tax Season?
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Also, work happens. Many of us start out with lofty plans that go astray as the practice develops. Many things cause it – clients we get, availability or lack of availability of the right staff, how we choose to learn or not learn new things, and even where we locate.
READ MORE →

Refunds Up as Tax Pros Tackle 41.5% of E-filings

By

* Total refunds issued represent returns received and processed in 2024 – the current year only. The number of direct deposit refunds represents returns received in the current and prior year but processed in 2024.

Also: The IRS realizes a footnote is in order and we are shocked.

By Beth Bellor

Average tax refunds are on the rise, so the weekly filing data has one uptick besides the amount of traffic to the IRS website – an increase that perhaps isn’t a positive.

MORE: Tax Pros Handle 37.7% of E-filings | Tax Pros File 33% of Early Returns
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

The Internal Revenue Service had received 34.7 million returns, down 5.7 percent from the same period one year ago, as of the week ending Feb. 16, the latest data available. Lower numbers are no surprise, of course, because there had been only 19 days in the 2024 filing season, which opened Jan. 29, compared to the 26 days there had been in the 2023 season, which opened Jan. 23.
READ MORE →

FTC Nails TurboTax for ‘Free Filing’ Scam

By

shocked couple looking at laptop while sitting on couch

What does ‘free’ mean? It shouldn’t be up for debate.

By CPA Trendlines Research

American taxpayers are all victims of a tax scam.

Yes, all of them.

MORE: If Only the IRS’s Tax Pro Were Useful | Tax Pros File 33% of Early Returns | The Nightmare of Non-credentialed Tax Preparers | Must the IRS Be a Dark Hole? | IRS Plays Whac-A-Mole with the Phones | VCs Plunk $60 Million into AI-Powered ‘Autonomous’ Tax Prep
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

And the New York Times points an accusatory finger straight at TurboTax.

A Tax Season Villain

In a 15-minute video article by John Harris and Binyamin Appelbaum, the Times says there’s a tax villain, and it’s neither the tax rate nor the Internal Revenue Service.
READ MORE →

Offer Your Tax Clients Other Services

By

Woman and man shaking hands across a desk

Here are 40 they should know about, plus a checklist for considering additional client services.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

The following listing can give you ideas of additional services clients might need.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: Can Your Tax Reviewers Answer These 10 Questions? | The Top 12 Mistakes in Tax Return Preparation | Six Types of Person: Which Are You? | Answer These Two Questions First | Help Your Tax Clients, Help Yourself | What’s Your Value to Your Tax Clients? | Are You Excited About Tax Season?
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

This list is not complete, but it is a good start for you to start thinking about what types of additional services you can offer to your clients!

  1. Estate planning
  2. Inheritance advice and guidance
  3. Succession planning
  4. Personal financial planning

READ MORE →

Higher Fees to Start: Ten Ways to Make Your Tax Season Better

By

woman smiling as she uses calculators and views charts on computer screens

Does your firm look “closed for business”?

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice

  1. Increase your fees 3-5 percent at a minimum – to offset your increased costs.

MORE: Nine Tips for a Healthier Tax Season | Every Accounting Firm Needs Quality Control | No One Listens to You? Change How You Talk | 47 Types of Business Valuation to Provide | Thirteen Things to Consider Before You Sell Your Practice
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

  1. Deliver your bill with the return.
  2. Call clients before return is sent to explain and give a heads up for unexpected results.

READ MORE →

Tax Pros Handle 37.7% of E-filings

By

data table

Paper still used by 2.2 percent of filers.

By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research

Tax season moves slowly forward, and tax professionals slowly gain ground

MORE: Tax Pros File 33% of Early Returns | If Only the IRS’s Tax Pro Were Useful | The Nightmare of Non-credentialed Tax Preparers | Must the IRS Be a Dark Hole? | IRS Plays Whac-A-Mole with the Phones | Tax Pros Are Expanding and Earning More
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

As of the week ending Feb. 9 – the latest for which data are available – the IRS had received 25.6 million individual income tax returns, down 11.4 percent from the same period a year ago. It had processed 25.4 million returns, down 4.4 percent.

READ MORE →