has early tax season optimism peaked?

add your thoughts.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

tax practitioners were looking a bit optimistic last month, according to the early results coming in to the 2023 cpatrendlines busy season barometer.

more: marchternity: just say ‘no’ | marchternity: the solution is community | why the irs is still doing data entry by hand | news on irs is maybe sort of a little bit good | why we all hate the tax code | how bullish are you this tax season? | accountants’ top problems for tax season 2023 | tax season 2023: better or worse?
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but as the second wave of responses comes in, the early-bird optimism seems to be waning.

what’s happening?
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‘quick and dirty’ tax review

… in 17 steps.

by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns: the field-tested update

everything i suggest in my handbook is recommended and works well. each firm will use and adopt what they want and what fits into their practice.

more: when returns should be submitted for review | 10 errors that ‘smart’ scanners make | tax: the procedural checklists your firm needs | the best way to review a tax return | why you can’t skip checklists | how to turn tax returns into new business
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

many times, i am asked for a quick down and dirty suggested review method, so i put the following together. this should not be a substitute for reading the handbook and considering all my recommendations. reviewing is a process, not a thing to do.
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only 39% of tax returns filed by pros

data tablerefund amounts are down 14%.

by beth bellor
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the second week of tax season brought more double-digit increases over 2022’s pace for the same period.

more: tax season opens with refunds up 85%
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according to the latest data, the internal revenue service has received 28.8 million individual income tax returns, up 9.1 percent. it has processed 26.6 million returns, up 13.6 percent.

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tax season opens with refunds up 85%

data tablenearly two-thirds of returns have been self-prepared.

by beth bellor

the latest tax season is off to a roar, with refunds up 85 percent and processing up 29 percent above last year at this time.

more on tax season: more: marchternity: just say ‘no’ | marchternity: the solution is community | why the irs is still doing data entry by hand | news on irs is maybe sort of a little bit good | why we all hate the tax code | how bullish are you this tax season? | accountants’ top problems for tax season 2023 | tax season 2023: better or worse?

goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

as of feb. 3, the end of the first week of collections, the irs had received 19 million individual income tax returns, up 13.5 percent from the same week in 2022. it had processed 16.8 million returns, up 29.1 percent.
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10 errors that ‘smart’ scanners make

man staring at computer screen in shockdon’t have one? ask another firm for a demo.

by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns: the field-tested update

for those who haven’t tried them yet, smart scanners are a fabulous tool, which, if used correctly can save time and cost. the one thing they don’t do is check their work.

more: three ways to improve tax returns | tax follow-up worksheets can mean more revenue | stop tax return review shortcuts | routine is key to reviewing tax returns | seven types of tax return reviews
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however, smart scanners do not need lunch or dinner brought into the office, don’t take coffee or smoke breaks and you don’t have to listen to how their weekend was. but they do organize the digital work papers on your internal filing system. nothing is perfect but many things are good enough and you just need to determine your tradeoffs.
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marchternity: just say ‘no’

whether marchternity continues depends entirely upon you.

more on marchternity:
the solution is community, by liz farr

by seth fineberg
at large

after nearly three years of what many tax pros consider one of the longest tax seasons on record –- a.k.a. ‘marchternity’ –- one would think this season would be different.

more fineberg: what bogs down accountants | your classic business model won’t allow growth

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to be sure, plenty of tax practitioners in late 2022 did indeed call the end of marchternity and look forward to some sense of normalcy, as much of what caused the extended tax season in the first place appears to have subsided. so, do tax pros expect this season to be different?

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don’t let clients dictate tax workflow

//www.g005e.com/2014/02/02/marcus-metrics/ask the right questions and stick to your processes.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

who makes the errors in your firm? staff obviously, but that’s half of the answer. clients are a major source of tax return errors. clients cause errors in three ways:

  1. errors of omission
  2. errors of commission
  3. errors in attitude

more: make fewer mistakes, increase revenue and capacity | how small firms can win the talent wars | easy ways to avoid ‘done but’ tax returns | six ways to create a millennial-friendly firm | do you know your turnaround time?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

every tax season, we finalize and deliver returns only to hear from the client, “i think i might have forgotten to tell you that we had a baby last year.” does this happen to you? this is a client error of omission. unintentionally, clients withhold important information.
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marchternity: the solution is community

before another grueling tax season, find your tribe.

more on marchternity:
just say ‘no,’ by seth fineberg

by liz farr

the last several years have been rough on accountants, to say the least.

i left public accounting at the end of 2017, so i have been spared the never-ending chaos of the last five years, starting with the last-minute sweeping changes of the tcja, and continuing on through the pandemic. however, thanks to social media groups like #taxtwitter and accounting firm influencers on facebook, i’ve had an idea of the misery, confusion, exhaustion, and sheer frustration of tax pros trying to maintain sanity in the face of complete insanity.

more liz farr: donny shimamoto: future firm growth requires a mindshiftjennifer wilson: empower young workers to build the firm everyone lovesmike whitmire: re-think your hiring and training practiceshector garcia: success strategies of a quickbooks youtube superstar | blake oliver: why tax work yearns to be freeprivate equity explodes in u.k. | brannon poe: the status quo must go  | accounting nerds, unlock your super powers  | disruptor: jason statts shakes up the status quo | think small to think big with matt wilkinsonwhen financial statements go extinct with corey schmidtcan geraldine carter save accountants from themselves?re-inventing accounting with tyler anderson

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in 2020, adam markowitz, a razor-sharp ea and active member of the #taxtwitter community, coined the term marchternity, for the month of the 2020 tax season that never seemed to end. ultimately, thanks to the mad coding skills of chris hervochon, the marchternity bot was born, providing “daily updates on what day of marchternity it is because march 2020 will never end.”

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why the irs is still doing data entry by hand

young businessman sleeping on the keyboard in the officefive recommendations are offered to improve processing. start with scanners.

want to know the top trends and issues this year?
join the survey. get the answers.

start here.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

here’s something you’d better explain to your tax clients, lest you get blamed:

more: news on irs is maybe sort of a little bit good | why we all hate the tax code | how bullish are you this tax season? | accountants’ top problems for tax season 2023 | tax season 2023: better or worse?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

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make fewer mistakes, increase revenue and capacity

businessman horrified by what he sees on computer screentackle the four error categories.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

determining the workflow harm that errors cause should be second nature now. errors cause rework. rework adds to work in progress (wip) and, thus, increases turnaround time.

this happens in two ways: as wip increases, capacity decreases. it’s a double whammy.

more: how small firms can win the talent wars | easy ways to avoid ‘done but’ tax returns | six ways to create a millennial-friendly firm | do you know your turnaround time?
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when a reviewer spots errors on a tax return and sends it back to the preparer, the preparer wastes at least 15 minutes, and probably more like 30 minutes, fixing the errors. the return then goes back to the reviewer, who spends another 15 minutes re-reviewing the return. we have added 30 to 45 minutes to the wip for this tax return. we know that adding to our wip numerator increases turnaround time.

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news on irs is maybe sort of a little bit good

number 10but. there’s always a but.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

every year, national taxpayer advocate erin m. collins submits to congress a report on the 10 most serious problems taxpayers face in dealing with the internal revenue service.

more: why we all hate the tax code | how bullish are you this tax season? | accountants’ top problems for tax season 2023 | tax season 2023: better or worse?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

this year, reporting on the frustrations of 2022, the nta had no shortage of bad news, but collins did note a glimmer of hope. “we have begun to see light at the end of the tunnel,” she wrote. “i am just not sure how much further we need to travel before we see sunlight.”
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