OUTLOOK & ANALYSIS

Tax Practitioners Say Happy Days Are Here … Again

By

bar chart
Seventy percent report as good or better year than last year.

 

For most, anyway.

By CPA Trendlines Research

The first results of the 2024 Busy Season Barometer: Emerging Issues, Opportunities, and Trends are in, and so far, halfway into the tax season, accountants and tax practitioners are reporting another pretty good year.

That’s two in a row!

MORE: The IRS Is Coming! Get Your Clients into Compliance | End Tax Season Meetings with Clients … Seriously | Brandon Hall: Firms Try to Make Too Much on Tax Prep | Eight Steps to Getting Started with AI: A Guide for Tax Professionals | The Nightmare of Non-credentialed Tax Preparers | Tax Pros Are Expanding and Earning More
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Last year, 58 percent of survey respondents said their year was much better or somewhat better than 2022, which, as you may recall, had been a rather rotten year.

So when only 32 percent of this year’s contributors say this season is better than 2023, it doesn’t mean fewer are having a good year. It means almost a third are reporting a year better than a good year.
READ MORE →

Tax & Accounting Profession Keeps Growing

By

line chart
Overall profession employment

 

More workers, with some making quite a bit more money.

By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research

Winter doldrums didn’t seem to affect the tax and accounting profession, which saw several sectors hit new hiring highs in February.

Elsewhere in the nation, total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 275,000 in February, nudging the unemployment rate up to 3.9 percent. Professional and business services saw little change for the month.

MORE: Accounting Hiring Hits Another High | Staff Wages Hit Record High | Despite Staffing Crunch, Firms Freeze Pay Raises | Tax & Accounting Firms Grow for 9th Straight Month | Tax & Accounting Profession Grows, but Wages Don’t | Tax and Accounting Pay Advancing at 5.9% Pace | Accounting Jobs Up 4% for Year
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Overall accounting profession employment at a record 1,163,600 was up 1,000 or 0.1 percent for the month and 29,600 or 2.6 percent for the year. Employees averaged 35.9 hours per week, down 6 minutes or 0.3 percent for the month but up 6 minutes or 0.3 percent for the year. Their earnings hit a new high of $41.41, up 21 cents or 0.5 percent for the month and 34 cents or 0.8 percent for the year.
READ MORE →

Tax Pros Handle 46.4% of E-filing

By

data table

 

The happy news for taxpayers: refunds are up.

By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research

The tax deadline, as most Americans define it, is drawing closer, and the country’s tax pros are gaining about 2 percentage points a week in market share of tax filings. Go, accountants!

MORE: Tax Refunds, Tax Pro Market Share Trending Up | Refunds Up as Tax Pros Tackle 41.5% of E-filings | 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 54 million individual income tax returns, down 1.7 percent, as of March 1, the latest data available. It had processed 53.2 million returns, down 2 percent from one year ago. The 2024 season has been seven days shorter than the 2023 season because of a later start date.
READ MORE →

CPAs Needed to Help Small Biz Adopt AI

By

bar chart
Which areas of your business would you expect to be the most and the least affected by artificial intelligence?

 

Privacy, intellectual property concern many survey respondents.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Small businesses are getting more comfortable with artificial intelligence, according to a survey-based report from FreshBooks.

“Small business owners are less convinced that AI is coming for their jobs and/or the jobs of their employees,” the report says, “with two-thirds disagreeing that AI will replace them.”

MORE: Revenue Growth Is Top Priority for Small Firms | Survey Shows Challenges, Priorities Shifting | Survey Shows That Tech Remains the Great Divide | Is the CPA Business Model the Clog in the Pipeline? | Can Big Data Spot Financial Fraud? | Will Unclogging the Accounting Pro Pipeline Kill Mobility? | Accountants Bullish on Income | 42% of Accountants Turn Away Work Over Staff Shortages | Accountants Hopeful, Concerned and Confused about AI
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

Still, in a bit of a contradiction, 44 percent of owners say they expect to hire fewer people in the future thanks to expected AI capabilities. And the larger the business, the more likely they will use AI to reduce payroll.
READ MORE →

Revenue Growth Is Top Priority for Small Firms

By

bar charts

Cost reduction? That’s on the list, too.

By CPA Trendlines Research

As in years past, CPA firms of all sizes are putting revenue growth at the top of their priority lists.

The rest of their priority lists tells how they plan to get there.

MORE: Survey Shows Challenges, Priorities Shifting | Survey Shows That Tech Remains the Great Divide | Will Unclogging the Accounting Pro Pipeline Kill Mobility? | Accountants Bullish on Income | SURVEY: Which Niche’s the Best Niche? | Ethics on Sustainability Puzzle Some Accountants | Accountants Hopeful, Concerned and Confused about AI
GoProCPA.comExclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.

According to the Wolters Kluwer 2024 Accounting Industry Report, 61 percent of responding firms – 90 percent of which are small firms – are primarily aiming at higher revenues and profits. That’s 11 percentage points above secondary goals.
READ MORE →