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by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research
the coronavirus sure did hit quick. it seems like it’s been here since forever, but it didn’t really strike until halfway through the busy season. there were ominous clouds on the horizon in january, but early respondents to the 2020 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer were generally expressing optimism.
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then things went downhill fast. but despite the pressures of the tax season, cpas have been equally fast at adjusting to the new world. they really had little choice. they could innovate. they could close up shop. or they could get really, really sick.
innovation seems to be the most popular choice.
mindful of distancing
robert jones, of rc jones & associates, a multiservice firm not far from kansas city, mo., has been innovating on several fronts, from the cloud to office layout.
“non-essential staff is working from home,” he reports. “we’re fortunate to have planned for cloud processing and it was a fairly seamless process. maintaining productivity levels is now the challenge but can be fixed with adjustments in compensation models. getting essential staff into the office with adjusting the footprint of the space to be mindful of distancing turned out to be more difficult than i thought it would be but we’re managing.”
in colorado springs, backman business group’s stephen backman has been grappling with the same problems everyone else has.
“much longer from start to finish,” he says in frustration. “we email tax organizer, receive email with incomplete information, start tax prep, email questions, wait for answers, client only reads part of email sends incomplete answers, send another email for balance of answers. email tax returns, get questions, answer questions, wait for e-file authorization forms, wait for payment.”
another tax preparer, who prefers to remain anonymous, is experiencing a similar but less frenzied slowdown. “business has slowed as there is no urgent rush,” she tells us. “clients are concerned about their jobs more than their taxes. they have a lot of questions and i am reaching out to people letting them know that i am still available.”
sidetracked with questions
reaching out and answering questions has taken on more importance in today’s tax world. in a time of uncertainty, information is a valuable (though hard-to-sell) product. unfortunately, for reasons unknown, irs has been less than helpful, according to a tax preparer named dave (no last name, please).
“only four in our office,” dave reports. “we stay in our offices most of the time. not much face-to-face with each other. no face-to-face with clients. sidetracked with questions about cares and several clients returns being rejected by irs due to a return already being filed in their ssn# and no one to help at irs and no paper returns being processed either.”
no face-to-face. that’s the order of the day. digital data are being sent through portals. documents are delivered curbside. everybody’s got their head in the cloud.
the postponed filing deadline has relieved some of the pressure from the rush. everybody still has to file, of course, so revenues should, theoretically, be more or less level with last year’s. but they’re going to dribble in rather than gush.
“this is going to stretch out our revenue flow,” one guardedly optimistic preparer writes. “we are hoping, in the end, we still arrive at the same place we thought we would be. unless we are able to entice new business in the door, i am not confident we will be positive over last year.”
this is no time for 20/20 hindsight. comparisons with last year are, at this point, quite meaningless. this year is utterly unlike any other. just staying alive and getting by counts as success.
and next year? will the inventions born of necessity result in greater efficiency? will today’s clients still be going concerns? will new businesses, and new kinds of business, spring up? will congress mess with the tax code again?
don’t answer that. don’t even think about it. just stay alive and get by.