TAX SEASON

Tax Season Opens with Refunds Up 85%

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data tableNearly two-thirds of returns have been self-prepared.

By Beth Bellor

The latest tax season is off to a roar, with refunds up 85 percent and processing up 29 percent above last year at this time.

MORE ON TAX SEASON: MORE: Marchternity: Just Say ‘No’ | Marchternity: The Solution Is Community | Why the IRS Is Still Doing Data Entry By Hand | News on IRS Is Maybe Sort of a Little Bit Good | Why We All Hate the Tax Code | How Bullish Are You This Tax Season? | Accountants’ Top Problems for Tax Season 2023 | Tax Season 2023: Better or Worse?

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As of Feb. 3, the end of the first week of collections, the IRS had received 19 million individual income tax returns, up 13.5 percent from the same week in 2022. It had processed 16.8 million returns, up 29.1 percent.
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When Returns Should Be Submitted for Review

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Three times it’s appropriate.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Review Tax Returns: The Field-Tested Update

The workflow of returns submitted to reviewers needs to be managed, otherwise the reviewer could become overloaded with incomplete or partially completed returns waiting on additional information. This adds nonproductive work to the reviewer that can best be delegated to the preparer, who is actually delegating it to the reviewer, i.e., upward delegation, which makes no sense, or have it assigned to an administrative person for follow-up. For efficiency I suggest that the preparer is the best person to follow up and maintain control of the incomplete return.

MORE: 10 Errors That ‘Smart’ Scanners Make | Three Ways to Improve Tax Returns | Don’t Use Eyes, Use Brain | Three Types of Tax Return Reviews | Tax Review Procedures Are Your Quality Control | Seven Types of Tax Return Reviews | How to Turn Tax Returns into New Business
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The firm mindset must be to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of the reviewer. (I keep repeating this. This must be a top goal if you want to get the best that the reviewers can offer to you.)
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10 Errors That ‘Smart’ Scanners Make

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Man staring at computer screen in shockDon’t have one? Ask another firm for a demo.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Review Tax Returns: The Field-Tested Update

For those who haven’t tried them yet, smart scanners are a fabulous tool, which, if used correctly can save time and cost. The one thing they don’t do is check their work.

MORE: Three Ways to Improve Tax Returns | Tax Follow-Up Worksheets Can Mean More Revenue | Stop Tax Return Review Shortcuts | Routine Is Key to Reviewing Tax Returns | Seven Types of Tax Return Reviews
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However, smart scanners do not need lunch or dinner brought into the office, don’t take coffee or smoke breaks and you don’t have to listen to how their weekend was. But they do organize the digital work papers on your internal filing system. Nothing is perfect but many things are good enough and you just need to determine your tradeoffs.
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Marchternity: Just Say ‘No’

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Whether Marchternity continues depends entirely upon you.

More on Marchternity:
The Solution Is Community, by Liz Farr

By Seth Fineberg
At Large

After nearly three years of what many tax pros consider one of the longest tax seasons on record –- a.k.a. ‘Marchternity’ –- one would think this season would be different.

MORE FINEBERG: What Bogs Down Accountants | Your Classic Business Model Won’t Allow Growth

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To be sure, plenty of tax practitioners in late 2022 did indeed call the end of Marchternity and look forward to some sense of normalcy, as much of what caused the extended tax season in the first place appears to have subsided. So, do tax pros expect this season to be different?

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Don’t Let Clients Dictate Tax Workflow

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https://cpatrendlines.com/2014/02/02/marcus-metrics/Ask the right questions and stick to your processes.

By Frank Stitely
The Relentless CPA

Who makes the errors in your firm? Staff obviously, but that’s half of the answer. Clients are a major source of tax return errors. Clients cause errors in three ways:

  1. Errors of omission
  2. Errors of commission
  3. Errors in attitude

MORE: Make Fewer Mistakes, Increase Revenue and Capacity | How Small Firms Can Win the Talent Wars | Easy Ways to Avoid ‘Done But’ Tax Returns | Six Ways to Create a Millennial-Friendly Firm | Do You Know Your Turnaround Time?
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Every tax season, we finalize and deliver returns only to hear from the client, “I think I might have forgotten to tell you that we had a baby last year.” Does this happen to you? This is a client error of omission. Unintentionally, clients withhold important information.
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