TAX

Tax Refunds, Tax Pro Market Share Trending Up

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data table

* Total refunds issued represents 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.

 

How long before more figures flip positive … or might they not?

By Beth Bellor

The 2024 filing season has been seven days shorter than 2023’s, but that’s making less difference as individual income tax returns keep dropping into the Internal Revenue Service inbox, just 3 percent off last year’s pace.

MORE: Tax Pros Handle 37.7% of E-filings | Tax Pros File 33% of Early Returns
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The IRS had received 44.6 million such returns as of Feb. 23, the last week for which data has been released. It had processed 44.1 million returns, down 3.6 percent.
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Make It ‘Productive Season’

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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?

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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.

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

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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:

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Try This Clean Slate Exercise

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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?
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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.
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Tax Chat: Eric Green Reveals The Tax Rep Guide to Tax Season

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Seth Fineberg
With Eric Green

Renowned tax attorney Eric L. Green delivers a roadmap for seizing tax resolution opportunities this tax season in the new video from last week’s first Tax Chat of the year, hosted by Seth Fineberg.

MORE TAX SEASON: FTC Nails TurboTax for ‘Free Filing’ Scam | | Offer Your Tax Clients Other Services |  Higher Fees to Start: Ten Ways to Make Your Tax Season Better | Tax Pros Handle 37.7% of E-filings | If Only the IRS’s Tax Pro Were Useful | Can Your Tax Reviewers Answer These 10 Questions? | Tax Pros File 33% of Early Returns | Can’t IRS Online Accounts Be More Useful?

In this live webinar, attendees – and now you – get the fundamentals for catching lucrative tax rep engagements without adding to busy season workloads. With live, real-time Q&A, everyone’s questions got answered.
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