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.
Tax Pro E-Filing Off 2.7% from Last Year’s Pace
Average refunds down 1%.
By Beth Bellor
Wanna Change the Tax World?
Should the April 15th IRS extensions go automatic and paperless? The IRS needs your feedback.
By Eva Rosenberg, EA
TaxMama
Vote YES or NO
to add your voice to the discussion
Join the Survey. Get the Results.
The Biggest Reason Fraudsters Run Rings around the IRS
IRS chases the wrong returns, delaying refunds, wasting resources.
By CPA Trendlines
Let’s have a pity party! You’re invited.
Let’s pity the Internal Revenue Service for having to identify fraudulent tax returns and taxpayer identities.
MORE: The Big Free-File Flop | The Demise of Schedule A? | Refunds Still Up, but Only by 0.7% | Survey: Busy Season Goes Sour | Tax Refunds Up 1.7% | Lessons Learned: How the Federal Shutdown Hit Busy Season 2019 | Tax Refund Fury Roils Busy Season | Taxpayer Advocate Slams Congress over Funding
Let’s pity the taxpayer whose tax return gets flagged as fraudulent—or her stolen identity that doesn’t.
And let’s pity the tax preparer stuck between the legitimate taxpayer and the fumbling, under-funded, well-intentioned bureaucracy of the IRS. READ MORE →
Tax Professionals File 38 Million Returns
More than DIY’ers, but still behind last year’s pace.
By Beth Bellor
1.6 Million Tax Clients Gone Missing?
Opening days show accountants filed only 40% of IRS intake. Blame the shutdown.
By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines
The IRS might have rushed into action as soon as the government shutdown ended, but it still is feeling the effects as all filing statistics remain on the downside two weeks in.
MORE: BUSY SEASON: Accountants Worry for U.S. Economy | Tax Shops Bulk Up for Big Busy Season | BUSY SEASON: The Busiest Ever? | Survey: Tax Season Launches with a Whimper | 16 Big Questions for Tax Season | SURVEY: Tax Accountants Alarmed by TCJA & Shutdown
As of the week ending Feb. 8 – the latest data available – the Internal Revenue Service had received 28.8 million returns, down 6.9 percent from the same week in 2018. It had processed 27 million returns, down 10.2 percent, for a processing rate of 93.8 percent.
Tax Pro E-Filing Market Share Drops to 57%
Self-preparers make gains of their own, but there are still new clients to be had.
By Beth Bellor
Tax Pros E-File 63 Million Returns through April 13
Average refunds remain positive even as totals are in the red.
By Beth Bellor
DIYers Outpace Pros in E-Filing Growth Rate
Refunds remained down in number and total amount.
By Beth Bellor
CPA Trendlines
With 11 days left in the busy season, the pros were struggling to keep their share of e-filings.
MORE ON TAX SEASON: Pros Filing 55% of E-Returns | Percentages Don’t Tell Whole IRS Filing Story | Tax Pros Keep Edge in E-Filings | David Bergstein on Tax Season | 10-Step Sec. 199A Deduction Checklist for Tax Practitioners | Tax Accountants Fill the Breach of a Failing IRS
As of April 6, the latest data available, the IRS had received 103.8 million individual income tax returns, up 0.1 percent from the same period the previous year. It had processed 101.1 million of them, also up 0.1 percent.
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