a tax season worse than 2021?

you’re not alone. most tax practitioners report a tougher season than last year’s.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

so, how’s your busy season going? is everything fine and dandy?

or are you among the 47 percent of tax practitioners who are doing somewhat worse (34 percent) or much worse (13 percent) than last year?

more: six fixable problems at the irs   |  irs under covid: heroes or goats?   |  irs loves e-filing. so why the barriers?  |  two big (and obvious) ways irs could work with practitioners   |  eight ways to charm a client | plug small leaks before they become big floods | you’re only as good as your last screw-up | four issues with ‘quick’ tax questions | when to pick up the phone this tax season | these five procedures will simplify your tax season | 11 steps to better client tax instructions
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on one hand, that’s less than half of everyone. on the other, you’d think nothing could be worse than last year.

but according to the 2022 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer, somehow it’s happening.

the gripes, however, are less than unanimous. according to early results from the nationwide survey, 21 percent of respondents report that this year is at least somewhat better, and a lucky five percent say this year’s much better.

 

“this is severe stress”

among those of the “much worse” persuasion is david garber, e.a. and founder of 7^th floor taxes. he summed up a lot of woes:

“the irs has a backlog of 6 to 8 million unopened and unanswered taxpayer communications and letters.  irs employees are fleeing the sinking ship by the boatload and are opting for early retirement.  more experienced people are leaving, so junior and less experienced employees are struggling to fill the gaps.  morale has sunk to new lows, affecting productivity. the irs computers have been programmed to send out ‘tax due’ letters based on the computer’s analysis of the taxpayer’s return, without a human reviewing it and stopping it if unwarranted.  plus all of the new tax laws and regs that human beings cannot figure out.  problems??  this is severe stress.”

garber would find a lot of agreement among practitioners, 80 percent of whom identify irs operations as their main problem. nothing else comes close.

this is how serious the problem is: 55 percent of respondents say they are seeing an increase in number of clients, and 69 percent are raking in more revenue than last year, yet only a minority say this busy season is better than last year’s.

 

the bullish are bearish

many are also bullish on economic outlook, with 38 percent foreseeing improvement for their firm and fewer than half that expecting a downturn. but they are radically opposite in their forecast for the nation, a worrisome 66 percent fearing a downturn in the nation’s economy.

and that was before the havoc in ukraine.

erik r. nelson, a cpa in butte, mont., sees the low unemployment and inflation coming together with a crash.

“inflation will have a large impact later in the second quarter,” nelson says.  “employees will over-demand on raises and benefits and many small- to mid-size businesses will not be able to compete.  so we will see the dissolution of those businesses and many startups with one to three people making less than in their previous job and therefore less spending.”

data is still flowing in and the world is changing by the hour. could things be better? what are your chief beefs?

how’s your firm doing? click here to take part in the survey and get early results.

 

 

posted on march 6, 2022