Is Business Too Good for Your Own Good?

Business is good, but CPAs say the workload never eases up.

by Rick Telberg

CPA across all areas of the profession this summer are confirming the best hopes and worst fears that the profession felt when the year was beginning. Yes, business is up across all sectors and should continue to improve, especially for public practice firms, but there are not enough people to handle the work.

Our readings are showing that two-thirds of CPAs in all sectors of the accounting profession are enjoying better business than last year. Asked to look 12 months into the future, roughly the same number expect their business conditions to be even better, although members in public practice are slightly more optimistic than members in business and industry.

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More Tax Clients Choose Do-It-Yourself Method

But professionals aren’t sorry to see them go.

The number of taxpayers who are preparing their returns themselves is surging 9.9% over a year ago, according to new data obtained by CPA Trendlines. Meanwhile, the number of returns filed by professionals is advancing only 1.4%. READ MORE →

CPA CFOs See Slight Spending Increases Ahead

But no new hiring.

via AICPA

The outlook for the U.S. economy improved in the fourth quarter, but broad pessimism about the progress of a recovery persists, according to the fourth quarter AICPA Economic Outlook Survey, which polls chief financial officers, controllers and certified public accountants in executive and senior management accounting roles.

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CFOs Increasingly Fearful about Economic Outlook

Source: Deloitte via cpatrendlines.com

Corporate hiring plans go from dreary to dismal.

Worried by economic crises and gridlocked political systems, about 53% of CFOs surveyed by Deloitte say they are losing faith in the economic outlook, a dramatic change from 32% in the previous quarter.

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Will a Jobs Plan Wreck Your Tax Season?

Get the briefing paper on the “American Jobs Act.” With hopes of stimulating national job growth in the near future, President Obama is urging Congress to pass a $447 billion jobs package. But many tax practitioners just want to know: … Continued

Accounting and Bookkeeping Remains Bright Spot in Generally Weak Economy

Sixth month of year-over-year gains.

Accounting and bookkeeping services – ALL EMPLOYEES, THOUSANDS

by Rick Telberg

Employment in the accounting and bookkeeping sector slipped by a statistically insignificant 800 jobs in August, to 922,400 people. That was barely a change from June’s 923,200-jobs level, and it represents the third straight month of declines. But it also represents the sixth month of year-over-year gains.

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REBUTTAL: Google Searches for Accountants Is Rising, Not Falling

Hoisted from comments, in response to “Who’s Searching for Accountants?

by Div Bhansali
AccountantsWorld

Div Bhansali
Div Bhansali

The number of Google searches for accountants hasn’t dropped by over 50% since 2004. In fact, it’s grown pretty substantially.

Google Trends doesn’t chart absolute growth or decline in a search term – it charts how popular that term is RELATIVE to searches as a whole. This is from Google’s own help document (http://www.google.com/intl/en/trends/about.html#1):

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