blame the clients.
by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
change and uncertainty are constants in the tax prep business, and this year’s busy season indicates no exception. this tended to be a good year, according to the annual 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer, with a majority of america’s cpas foreseeing a better than average busy season.
see more tax season 2018 coverage here
but 31 percent see themselves suffering a worse season. their definition of “worse,” however, swung between two opposites. mosty of it boiled down to clients – late, unprepared, annoying, questioning, fee-resisting clients.
too much work
for some, “worse” meant more engagements and consequently more work, more late nights, more headaches than aspirin can handle.
“we have a new and large client,” said a cpa whose nom de guerre is diane, who cringed into a “somewhat worse” season. “lots of additional returns to be filed. but, that’s a good thing.”
for some, however, “more work” didn’t necessarily mean more clients. it meant exasperation and the challenge of keeping up with change.
“damn double whammy of the tax cut and jobs act of 2017 and the budget act of 2018,” said the head of a small firm on long island, n.y., adding, “blowback about fees.”
not enough work
for others, “worse” meant not enough work, business dwindling for one reason or another.
“death of tax clients, and people doing their own with turbotax,” said a cpa named mary ann, reflecting a common complaint. and her complaint may be a warning for us all. if anything’s inevitable, it’s death, taxes, changes to tax law, and tax software for dummies.
others saw the headaches of complication coming down the tracks.
“we had a merger which caused us to change our software provider,” one respondent said on the verge of a “much worse year.” “this along with the lack of qualified staff have made things move much slower this year,”
jeanine buben-croy, of business consulting & taxation in westminster, colo., has been struggling with an overload of complications. “two big tax projects taking up most of my time and resulting in financial losses,” she says. “there just seems to be a lot of tax problems this season, as opposed to routine current tax preparation, that has not existed in past years.”
daniel allen, cpa, worries that the new season will be somewhat worse because of changes in the tax landscape. “although we increased our fees across the board almost twenty percent versus our normal five percent increase, we have been able to justify the increase as clients are anxious to learn more about the tax bill passed in december of 2017,” allen tells us. “although we have yet to do any significant tax planning during busy season, we have offered general observations to interested clients as to how the new tax code may affect them. many clients were under the impression the 2017 tax returns would be directly impacted by the new tax bill. we plan on significant tax planning revenue compared to most years after busy season due to us bringing certain items to clients’ attention regarding the tax code changes during busy season.”
among others who feel burdened by the need to do something besides calculate taxes is donna schmidt, sole proprietor of albuquerque’s double underscore, inc. she says, “having to explain the changes from 2017 to 2018 has been a real challenge – the stupidity of parts of the new tax law is almost unbelievable.”
despite the moans, really only ten percent suffered much worse year. at the same time, 17 percent sauntered into a much better year.