E-Filing Pace Quickens Toward Finish
Average refund remains down.
By Beth Bellor
IRS
Why Shouldn’t All Tax Practitioners Need Licenses?
Does a 90% error rate alarm anyone?
By CPA Trendlines Research
America needs tax preparers. Without them … well, it’s hard to imagine how people would calculate any more than the most rudimentary returns.
MORE: Data Divers Profile Taxpayer Filing Styles | Who’d Like a Friend in the IRS? | Wanna Change The Tax World? | The Big Free-File Flop | Survey: Busy Season Goes Sour | Lessons Learned: How the Federal Shutdown Hit Busy Season 2019 | Taxpayer Advocate Slams Congress over Funding
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The funding of the government would fall to a fraction of what is needed to sustain the nation. Tax preparers are an essential link between the government and those who fund it.
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2 Ways the EITC Error Rate Is High
And 6 contributing factors.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Earned Income Tax Credit is considered one of the most efficient federal programs for sustaining people with inadequate income. Part of the EITC’s efficiency results from the lack of an intermediary checking the qualifications of those who receive it.
MORE: Who’d Like a Friend in the IRS? | Hello, IRS? Anybody Home? | Tax Season 2019 Serves Up a Taste of the Future | The Demise of Schedule A? | Tax Refund Fury Roils Busy Season
The tax return itself is the application for EITC. There is no other process, no pre-return vetting, no social workers. The closest thing to an intermediary is the tax preparer who makes sure the correct income is reported and the correct forms filled out.
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Refund Amounts Remain Lower than 2018
Tax pros handling 54.3% of e-filings, down 2 points from year ago.
By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines Research
The pace of 2019 remains behind that of 2018 on most counts as the tax season stumbles to a close.
MORE: Who’d Like a Friend in the IRS? | Hello, IRS? Anybody Home? | Tax Pro E-Filing Off 2.7% from Last Year’s Pace | Tax Professionals File 38 Million Returns | Refunds Still Up, but Only by 0.7%
The IRS had received 92.9 million individual income tax returns as of the week ending March 29, the last data available, down 1.4 percent from the same period last year. It had processed 90.3 million returns, down 2 percent.
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Is the IRS about to Get Beefed Up?
Trump proposes 5% boost to the IRS budget, reversing years of cutbacks and declines.
BUSY SEASON BAROMETER
TODAY’S BONUS QUESTION: What are firms learning from Tax Season 2019, that they’ll apply in 2020?
Join the Survey. Get the Results.
By CPA Trendlines Research
After many years of increasing austerity—and some would say crippling austerity—the IRS may have bottomed out. Despite broad cuts proposed in the overall 2020 federal budget, President Trump has included an additional $362 million—a five percent increase—for the agency that gathers the funds that keep the United States in business.
MORE BUSY SEASON: Tax Season Funnies: April Fool Is When? | Wanna Change the Tax World? | How the IRS Hides Its Legal Decisions | Tax Season 2019 Serves Up a Taste of the Future | The Biggest Reason Fraudsters Run Rings around the IRS | The IRS Free-File Flop | Protect Your Clients’ Assets | The Demise of Schedule A? | Tammy’s Tale of Tax Season Tardiness | How Effective Project Management Makes Your Life Easier | Survey: Busy Season Goes Sour | When Clients Cash Out: Four Smart Financial Moves
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If Congress approves the budget as proposed (and that’s bound to be an exciting story), the IRS can begin—just begin—to recover some of what has lost over the last decade or so.