coronavirus rattles tax season

can you turn a crisis into an opportunity?

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer
benchmarks, trends & analysis

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by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

coronavirus—covid-19—is coming. don’t imagine it won’t reach your community. it will. and even if you manage to keep it out of your office, and even if its lethality is less than the flu, just the threat of covid-19 is already impacting many tax and accounting firms.

how accountants are preparing for the worst:

  • do you have the portals, web-based apps, and cloud accounts necessary for staff to work from home? have you tested them? maybe you should have an everybody-works-from-home-day drill.
  • do you have policies and procedures in place for home-based work?
  • do individual staff have plans for caring for their family without disrupting work?
  • have you prepared clients for the possibility of electronic delivery of data and documentation? do they understand what to do?
  • are you ready to request filing extensions due to staff or client illness or local quarantine?
  • have you established sanitation procedures for your office?
  • do you have a vision of the worst-case scenario? this could include a) long-term quarantines of your office, other businesses, and all clients, b) widespread illness and absence of staff, c) general economic downturn, d) interruptions in cash flow, e) slower than usual responses from the irs, and f) well…what else can go wrong?

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer has always asked a variety of poignant questions about everything from the status of firms to the state of the economy. this is the first year, however, that it includes a question about disease. read more →

more firms falling behind

rate your firm performance metrics decline from last year
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research annual busy season barometer

more accountants see their businesses weakening under competitive pressures.

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer:
today’s bonus question:
are you ready for covid-19 conditions?

join the survey. get the results.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

competition among tax and accounting firms is clearly intensifying, according to new readings from the annual 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer. it’s a stark warning.

more on tax season 2020: what makes a good tax season client?  |  call the irs for answers? good luck!  | do your clients feel important? | 5 small leaks to beware during tax season | 5 tax review keys | 4 reasons to push ahead with tax question research | one can’t-skip touch for tax season | 5 steps for tax season success | help tax clients help you | 3 steps to tax season happiness | 12 ways to have more fun this tax season | bill with the tax return, get paid faster
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 annual busy season barometer asks a lot of questions about how things are going at tax and accounting firms, and the results are always interesting for comparative purposes and, sometimes, advice from peers.

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headcounts dip by 3,500 in tax & accounting

hourly earnings hit new high.

by beth bellor

cpa firms and payroll agencies are trimming their headcounts going into busy season 2020, according to new data obtained by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

in this report, 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 highlights:

  • current hiring trends in each of the bookkeeping, payroll, tax and cpa segments of the industry (all data seasonally adjusted)
  • average hourly wages for key segments
  • typical hours worked per week
  • trends concerning women in the accounting workforce

read more →

call the irs for answers? good luck!

irs levels of service for total enterprise, accounts management, consolidated acs, and installment agreement telephone lines for fiscal years 2015–2019

irs insists your call is important. but the numbers don’t add up.

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer:
new year, new strategies

join the survey. get the results.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

nothing kills a day like a phone call to the internal revenue service. a caller put on hold during the busy season literally has enough time to go out to lunch and come back before anyone answers.

more on tax season 2020: does irs need a practitioner services division? |  slow start for tax pro e-filingirs urged to form tax pro strategy | accountants cautiously bullish on economy | tax pros forecast better 2020 | can irs enforce the tax code? | tax pros upbeat on busy season | irs undertakes overhaul
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

unfortunately, given the inhuman complexity of the irs tax code, taxpayers often need to call for guidance or advice. last year, 99.3 million did so, and only 28.6 million of them actually hung on long enough to talk with someone. over the course of the year, the average time it took to get connected was 16.2 minutes.

read more →

slow start for tax pro e-filing

data charttax pro market share down 409,000 from year-ago.

by beth bellor

as of the week ending feb. 7, the latest data available, the internal revenue service had received 28.7 million individual income tax returns, down 0.4 percent from the same week last year. it had processed 27.5 million, down 2.1 percent.

more: data points down as tax season opens | the fight for new tax clients
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the irs had processed 96.1 percent of returns received.

e-filing receipts read more →

data points down as tax season opens

data chartdiys, refunds are up.

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer: new year, new strategies?
join the survey. get the results.

by beth bellor

filings were behind last year’s marks as tax season opened, according to the irs, and pros handled about 35 percent of e-filings.

more: the fight for new tax clients | 5 tax review keys | treat review procedures like quality control |  survey results: tax pros forecast a better 2020 |  can the irs enforce the tax code? |  tax pro’s upbeat on cusp of busy season |  use tax return prep for training and growth |  irs undertakes overhaul  | all 2020 tax season coverage
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the internal revenue service received 15.8 million individual income tax returns for the week ending jan. 31 – the first of the season and just five days long – down by 1.6 percent from the year before. it had processed 12.9 million returns, down 2.7 percent, for a processing rate of 82 percent.
read more →

accountants cautiously bullish on the economy

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer. join the survey. get the results
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer. join the survey. get the results

“local optimism” a bit better than last year.

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer
new year, new strategies.

join the survey. get the results.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

when cpas talk about the economy, people listen. they listen because accountants have their finger on the pulse of the economy. they look at real numbers all day. they look at where the numbers are coming from and where they’re probably going. it’s what they do.

more: pros improving performance | can the irs enforce the tax code? | tax pros upbeat on cusp of busy season | irs undertakes overhaul
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

for that reason, 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间’ 2020 busy season barometer steps back from strictly tax issues to ask how things look economically. the answers are always interesting.

read more →

the fight for new tax clients

bar chart
by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

and will refunds reverse their downward trend?

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer: new year, new strategies?
join the survey. get the results.

by beth bellor

the irs is about to roll out its first filing statistics of 2020, but before it does, let’s recap 2019.

more on tax season: pros improving performance | can the irs enforce the tax code? | tax pros upbeat on cusp of busy season | irs undertakes overhaul
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

first, the market share: how many individual income tax returns were filed, and how many of those were touched by accountants?
read more →