by ed mendlowitz
when you perform additional services on a tax return that you will be charging for, list it as a separate item along with the fee for that service. this way the client will know that something extra was done and the charge.
12 easy traps to fall into.
by ed mendlowitz
practice management answers
question: it is tax season and i am inundated with work. do you think it is proper to tell regular clients that i will deal with their problems after april 15? read more →
it’s better than last week’s 704,000-return deficit.
but irs data shows the professional tax preparer industry is still running behind year-ago rates, with 48.8 million returns e-filed in the latest week, compared to 49.2 million in the year-ago period. read more →
by ed mendlowitz
top 101 practice management answers
question: it is tax season and i am very busy, but many clients need financial planning advice and i want to make it a separate engagement for after tax season. what can i do now to get the work? read more →
is it part of a trend?
what’s the future of the tax business?
click here to join the survey; get the results
the irs says it has received more than 75 million individual tax returns as of march 14 and projects that it will receive about 149 million individual income tax returns by the end of the year.
see also:
is it an opportunity for tax professionals or a “scam on the public?”
in irs emerges as major tax season competitor, rick telberg’s suggestion that the irs is stealing business from tax professionals by offering clients free software apps is setting off a flood of comments. join the pro member conversation. read more →
irs marketing to 100 million taxpayers for free filing.
by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
if you’re wondering where some of your tax business went this year, maybe the irs took it.
professional tax preparers are missing about 769,000 returns, compared to last year – business that appears to have gone to former or would-be clients now using do-it-yourself software. at typical rates, that’s about $153 million in lost fee income to the industry, enough to support thousands of practitioners, according to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 estimates.
fact-checking adds little value. so why are you spending so much time on it?
by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns
too many otherwise very smart tax preparation operations confuse the two primary types of tax-return quality-control reviews: reviews for content and reviews for issues. each type of review requires a different discipline. one of them costs you money and the other can make you money, lots of it. read more →
accountants scramble as competition surges for bread-and-butter tax work.
join the survey; get the results.
by rick telberg
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间
pricing and fee pressures are surging as the hot-button issues this tax season, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer.
to be sure, late or unprepared clients remain the single biggest issue, with 48% of more than 500 practitioners surveyed in february citing it, followed by tardy 1099s and k1s at 35%. those metrics are little changed from last february.
but this year, 31% of practitioners are complaining about pricing and fee pressures, which is triple the year-ago 10% figure.
related research
is the tax prep business topping out? the number of filings by tax professionals appears to have slowed or even reversed.
tax season metrics shift for the better: key indicators point to a better 2014 than 2013.
practitioners plot fee-pressure countermeasures: competitors vie for clients on price and promises.
competitors vie for clients on price and promises…
eight data points to check your tax season quality control systems.
by ed mendlowitz
how to review tax returns
accounting firms that have high review times usually have high error rates necessitating the higher review time. doesn’t that sound crazy?
why not set up procedures to reduce the error rate? i have been told that error rates range between 5% and 95%. 95%!? that is crazy! there must come a time when you decide to fix this. you can rationalize all the expediency reasons in the world, but this is just bad, stupid and poor business!
start by considering eight key metrics. read more →
when will tax season kick into high gear for professionals? or is this the new normal?
how’s tax season for most professionals?
join the survey; get the answers.
today’s bonus question:
best tips and strategies for working at home. read more →
in its first sounding on tax season 2013, the irs says filings are coming in faster this year. and that may be true enough. as of feb. 7, the irs received 27.3 million returns, up 2.5 percent compared to the same time last year. electronically filed returns account for almost 96 percent of those filed so far this year.
but filing by professionals is actually running behind last year, by about 5.6%, and without the crushing effects of last year’s government shutdown. read more →