TAX SEASON

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
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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.

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If Only the IRS’s Tax Pro Were Useful

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Businessman sitting on cloud

The National Taxpayer Advocate has a long wish list.

By CPA Trendlines Research

If you are a CPA, tax preparer or Registered Agent – a tax pro, in other words – there is a slim possibility that you are registered with the Internal Revenue Service’s Tax Pro  program.

MORE: Can’t IRS Online Accounts Be More Useful? | ID Theft a Problem for IRS Even When It Doesn’t Exist | The Nightmare of Non-credentialed Tax Preparers | Taxpayer Assistance Centers: A Good Idea That Should Be Better | IRS Still Falling Short on Service | Must the IRS Be a Dark Hole? | 10 Tips to the IRS for Beefing Up Staff | Eight Ways the IRS Can Speed Up Processing Tax Returns | IRS Plays Whac-A-Mole with the Phones | Ten IRS Problems That Need Solutions | Treasury IG Sees Progress at IRS
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But even if you are registered, the odds are vanishingly small that you actually use it.

Why? Because it’s really of limited use.
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Can Your Tax Reviewers Answer These 10 Questions?

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Businessman looking up answers in a book

BONUS CHECKLIST: The answers!

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

The primary people who should review tax returns are trained tax department reviewers. However, often the bunching and compression of work shifts some of the review to higher level, non-tax personnel such as audit managers and partners who might not necessarily have the comprehensive training, background and experience to handle everything that might come up during the tax preparation process.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: 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?
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Additionally, in many firms, almost everyone on the staff prepares some returns. That lack of dedicated preparers with the trained skills places an added burden on the tax reviewers, making it important for them to have the range of experience needed to perform the review.

Following are 10 questions reviewers should be able to answer to qualify for their role.

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Can’t IRS Online Accounts Be More Useful?

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angry man wearing tie and glasses, punching fist through laptop screen

Taxpayers and pros alike are frustrated, exasperated, disappointed and angry.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Ever-improving internet commerce is one of the great developments of this first quarter of a century. The process and potential of dealing with products and services, including government services, has come a long way from the toddling brouhaha of the World Wide Web of the 1990s.

MORE: ID Theft a Problem for IRS Even When It Doesn’t Exist | The Nightmare of Non-credentialed Tax Preparers | Taxpayer Assistance Centers: A Good Idea That Should Be Better | IRS Still Falling Short on Service | Must the IRS Be a Dark Hole? | 10 Tips to the IRS for Beefing Up Staff | Eight Ways the IRS Can Speed Up Processing Tax Returns | IRS Plays Whac-A-Mole with the Phones | Ten IRS Problems That Need Solutions | Treasury IG Sees Progress at IRS
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The Internal Revenue Service still dreams of joining these early years of the 21st century. To get started, the Service has gone so far as to launch an Individual Online Account program. IOLAs allow taxpayers to

  • view basic information,
  • make payments,
  • enter into payment plans and
  • view and download certain notices.

All of which is very nice but soooo 1998.
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Nine Tips for a Healthier Tax Season

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woman and man walking and talking outside office building

How to be at your best through April 15th.

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

Tax season can be a marathon. Everyone has their own tips and tricks, habits and techniques for staying sane and healthy. Here are 10 of mine:

MORE: Every Accounting Firm Needs Quality Control | Three Ways to Start an Accounting Practice | Free Consultation? Not Always | Referral Fee? Forget It | How Much Is Your Tax Practice Worth? | Merge in Lower-Priced Work without Losing Out
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  1. Eat lunch out of your office.
  2. Go for a 15-minute walk in middle of afternoon instead of eating a snack.

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ID Theft a Problem for IRS Even When It Doesn’t Exist

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faceless hooded male person, low lighting and words "IDENTITY THEFT" repeated throughout

Either way it consumes scarce resources.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Tax return identity theft’s a bummer.

How big a bummer?

So big that even when there’s no theft, it’s a bummer.

MORE: The Nightmare of Non-credentialed Tax Preparers | Taxpayer Assistance Centers: A Good Idea That Should Be Better | IRS Still Falling Short on Service | Must the IRS Be a Dark Hole? | 10 Tips to the IRS for Beefing Up Staff | Eight Ways the IRS Can Speed Up Processing Tax Returns | IRS Plays Whac-A-Mole with the Phones | Ten IRS Problems That Need Solutions | Treasury IG Sees Progress at IRS | VCs Plunk $60 Million into AI-Powered ‘Autonomous’ Tax Prep
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It’s a bummer when it happens, not only because it happened but because the Internal Revenue Service can take up to 19 months to recognize the problem, do something about it and send the hapless taxpayer a refund not for this year’s return, not for last year’s return, but for the year before last.

And it’s a bummer when there’s no theft involved because when the IRS’s rickety technology flags a return as a possible ID theft, the return gets delayed for months and months of manual processing.
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The Nightmare of Non-credentialed Tax Preparers

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man in business suit and black ski mask flashing OK sign while sitting at desk with phone to ear

Six solutions offered.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Are you a sleazy, incompetent, unethical tax preparer?

If so, no problem! Not for you, anyway. Your clients might suffer, but as far as the Internal Revenue Service is concerned, you’re as qualified to prepare other people’s taxes as any CPA or Enrolled Agent.

MORE: Taxpayer Assistance Centers: A Good Idea That Should Be Better | IRS Still Falling Short on Service | Must the IRS Be a Dark Hole? | 10 Tips to the IRS for Beefing Up Staff | Eight Ways the IRS Can Speed Up Processing Tax Returns | IRS Plays Whac-A-Mole with the Phones | Ten IRS Problems That Need Solutions | Tax Pros Are Expanding and Earning More
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And that’s a problem.

A Wild West Environment

Tax preparers good and bad prepare over half of the country’s individual income tax returns. They play an essential role in tax administration, and they are a frontline defense in preventing fraud and error.
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