tax pros race to the finish line
the tax season from hell enters its final stages.
by beth bellor
how are accountants handling this crazy tax season?
bonus question: the new rules for small busines post-pandemic?
join the survey. get the facts.
outlook & analysis
survey: records management tops email challenges
phishing, spam, malware come next.
by randy johnston and brian tankersley
the accounting firm operations and technology survey
how today’s staffing crisis can forecast your future
you can read the tea leaves in who’s getting hired today because they’re the generation that will re-define the tax and accounting firms.
by steven e. sacks
the new fundamentals
the accounting profession is at a crossroads: increasing pressure on keeping up with technology to serve more varied and complex clients, while a quick peek at the landscape indicates the ongoing struggle to attract and retain talent.
more: 7 signs your accounting firm agreement falls short | effective networking is an art | courtesy still matters | bigger firm, bigger thinking | 5 steps to better time management | swot’s the purpose? | is your firm’s culture a magnet or a repellent? | click here for more by steven sacks
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but what is meant by this, actually?
what will be the type of necessary talent? will it be a mixture of technical gaap and gaas know-how and technology-driven knowledge like artificial intelligence? or will the necessary technical expertise be superseded by a deep understanding of blockchain technology and data analytics? if that, then how will firms draw the right people to deliver the value-added services that leverage technology?
tax pros handle 53% of e-filings
refunds larger overall, but down for direct deposit.
by beth bellor
women lag men in accounting jobs recovery
new records set in hourly earnings.
by beth bellor
across the tax and accounting industry, almost all the jobs relinquished by men in the coronavirus layoffs have been regained by men. the jobs given up by women, on the other hand, are still largely vacant.
more on jobs: comeback stalls as layoffs hit 1,500 in accounting | tax & accounting regains 3,800 jobs | accounting jobs recovery slows | tax & accounting firms rehire two-thirds of pre-covid workforce | tax & accounting firms rehire two-thirds of pre-covid workforce
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overall, the tax, accounting, tax prep, payroll, and bookkeeping sectors employed 1.02 million full-time equivalents in march 2020, before 70,000 layoffs hit in april. so far, the industry has re-filled all but 17,600 positions.
survey: full recovery by year-end?
pandemic prompts innovation.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
how a few of the wealthiest skate around the irs
and the irs is looking the other way.
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
the internal revenue service isn’t supposed to consider a taxpayer’s income or wealth when prioritizing taxpayer delinquent accounts. rather, the service is supposed to focus on balances due, pursuing collection of higher amounts.
more: pros tackle 49% of e-filed returns | survey: tax season swings into the red | another tax season from hell? | pros process 44% of tax e-filings | tax professionals report tough slogging | busy season 2021 gets off to weak start
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obviously, many of those higher balances are owed by taxpayers (or tax dodgers) in the higher adjusted gross income brackets, and the irs believes that pursuing high balance dues effectively addresses high agis.
but the treasury inspector general for tax administration says that focusing on the balance due is increasing the risk of high earners skipping out on what they owe.
tax pros hold their ground
in shorter season, professional e-filings are down only 5.6%.
by beth bellor
173% increase in irs correspondence backlog
who knew?
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
we all know how the irs works. they send a letter to a possibly delinquent taxpayer who, in quivering fear, returns a response that is slipped through the mail slot in the irs door, where it falls into a shredder that feeds into a massive onsite incinerator. the letter’s ashen remains are then loaded onto a rocket and shot toward alpha centauri, never to be seen again.
more: hunker down: the irs backlog isn’t going away anytime soon | the irs studebaker bomb | imagine irs ‘concierge’ service. just imagine. | irs has recruiting problems, too
actually, that’s not entirely true. in 2019, irs compliance services collection operations managed to respond to 25 percent of its “inventory” of taxpayer delinquent account correspondence. the other 75 percent was considered “over-aged” after not being dealt with within 45 days of receipt.
read more →
survey: 54% of it is outsourced
17% is diy. yikes.
by randy johnston and brian tankersley
the accounting firm operations and technology survey
pros tackle 49% of e-filed returns
refunds are down 19% in number and total amount.
by beth bellor
as in recent years, accountants are losing ground to diyers when it comes to individual income tax returns. the question is, do they care? or is this ground they’re all too ready to yield for more profitable pastures?
more: survey: tax season swings into the red | another tax season from hell? | pros process 44% of tax e-filings | tax professionals report tough slogging | busy season 2021 gets off to weak start
the irs had received 85 million returns as of march 26, down 6.2 percent in a season that started 18 days later than in 2020. it had processed 76 million, down 12.7 percent.
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the cpa’s best role: leveraging knowledge, not just process
david bergstein says you’re wasting your time and your client’s money if you’re not focussing on the future.
with steven sacks
the new fundamentals: thriving in disruption
to be more competitive, cpas need to shift their focus from compliance service to process-oriented, value-added work, veteran cpa david bergstein tells 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间. this means working with clients to understand their business operations, competition, and financial challenges, such as liquidity, solvency, and profitability.
more on value-add: how cas communications are different | how value billing eliminates guesswork | avoid last-minute deal making | how a great managing partner impacts firm growth | tax season client meetings: kill them now | do you give yourself too much credit? | the 17 rules for making partner at a cpa firm | family feud isn’t just a game show
see more 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 videos here | see more david bergstein here
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the key takeaways:
- accountants need to switch their focus to look to the future and real-time accounting, which means that the right way of doing things these days is to take advantage of all technology and automation.
- it’s a small and mid-size business that doesn’t have a bookkeeper, that doesn’t have an accountant, that doesn’t have a controller, that doesn’t have a cfo that looks to cpas to help them. cpas’ advantage is to use that technology to automate all those processes and then spend time selling value-added services.
- today, to be successful as an accountant, you must identify what platform or platforms you’re going to use to capture your clients’ data at the source to move it through the system.
- payroll tax processing services can be expanded by setting up the human resource tools that go with it. beyond processing payroll, cpas can find ways to get lower workman’s compensation; automate the onboarding of employees, and provide various benefit options.
- as part of the de-emphasis on process, younger staff members don’t want to do vouchering anymore, which will be supplanted anyway by automation. so, it’s great for firms to offer more training opportunities to their younger staff regarding analytical thinking, selling, and how to consult with clients to find out what their needs are.
transcript
david bergstein, interviewed by steven sacks
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survey: tax season swings into the red
efiilings lag by 5 million as practitioners call it a “nightmare.”
by beth bellor
surviving busy season 2021:
join the survey. get the results.