tax season

when clients create errors

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one cause? taking us out of our familiar workflow.

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: how to reduce tax return errors | teaching the meaning of ‘done’ | why millennials are the answer | calculating and cutting turnaround time | debunking the demise of the cpa firm | how many tax preparers do you need? | how the annual tax meeting died | how to teach reviewing and time management | 4 steps to take before next tax season | 3 tips for handling rookie tax preparers
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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19 ways to make reviewers happier

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bonus: they improve the firm for everyone else, too.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: how much time should a reviewer spend on a return in relation to the preparer time? our reviewers spend .75 hour for each hour of preparer time.

more: before you sell your practice | price your practice by gross | advising estate executors: the newbie guide to getting started | how’s your overhead? | envision your future, then plan for it
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answer: you are high and most firms i speak with are also high with an average time of about 24 minutes, or .4, hour.
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how to reduce tax return errors

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error stampedwe must turn unseen clients into human beings in the eyes of staff.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

i wasn’t initially certain this post was necessary. i covered a lot of material in my first book and other posts.

more: teaching the meaning of ‘done’ | how we killed the tax season client meeting | why small firms can win the talent wars | there are no easy answers | how to thrive as a 21st-century firm
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

however, last night my sleep was haunted by the ghosts of tax return errors past, present and future. i saw my coffin rolling down the chute to the cremation chamber. i was inside shouting that i had one more checklist to complete before my life was done.
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teaching the meaning of ‘done’

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angry boss in chair staring down at tiny businessmannot to be confused with the dreaded “done but.”

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

in my last book, as with this one, i recommended hiring younger staff. in that book, i cautioned that you might have to teach very simple tasks like breathing and using the bathroom to your newbies. www.g005e.com posted an excerpt with my advice.

more: how we killed the tax season client meeting | why your firm needs to attract more millenials | the fool in the room | the 3 biggest tech failures of accounting firms | 7 steps to effective project management | wip-ing clients into shape | the land mines in tax returns | give your people the resources they need | the right way to assign staff projects | workflow for dummies
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

one reader posted that she didn’t believe it was the responsibility of an admin department to teach bathroom use. she was new to this hot new writing technique called sarcasm. she did a great job making my point that you have to teach your staff a lot of really basic things.
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how we killed the tax season client meeting

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man working hard at office deskyep, there’s an app for that!

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

what did dorothy and her friends fear in the wizard of oz? “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” dorothy feared the wrong things if she’s a partner in a cpa firm. we don’t see much wildlife in our offices during tax season unless you count fast food delivery people and the occasional crazy client.

more: why your firm needs to attract more millenials | why millennials are the answer | calculating and cutting turnaround time | debunking the demise of the cpa firm | how many tax preparers do you need? | 3 tips for handling rookie tax preparers
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

we should really fear the events that destroy our priorities and drain hours from productive work. meetings and phone calls and emails, oh my! let’s look at why these communication methods are so destructive from a practice management standpoint.
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don’t get burned by these ppp pitfalls

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three ways to get it wrong and only have one chance to get it right.


^ click for video

by stephen nelson

over the last few months, i’ve answered hundreds of questions about ppp loans. and i’ve written a short e-book, “maximizing ppp loan forgiveness” for the accountants who will help small businesses with their forgiveness applications.

stephen nelson’s new e-book maximizing pp loan forgiveness is available through 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 directly from his website for instant download. |  more from stephen l. nelson

learn more here: new e-book: ‘maximizing ppp loan forgiveness’

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

^ click for podcast

and, here’s an insight from all this frenzied ppp activity: big surprises await many borrowers.

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software saves the 2020 tax season

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survey says tax practitioners have never been so satisfied with their tax prep applications.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

what’s the best word to describe the infamous 2020 tax season?

brutal? infectious? interesting? perpetual? weird?

one word works for everybody: unprecedented. a pandemic. a lockdown. new legislation. new rules. federal programs. federal disasters. bankruptcies.

it seems the only thing that’s gone right is software.

the bottom line: tax practitioners have never been more satisfied with their tax apps.

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the forecast: partly gloomy, chance of doom

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almost three in four accountants now foresee a deeper downturn for the u.s. economy.

it gets worse: almost 25 percent of accountants forecast a “much worse” outlook for the nation’s economy over the next 12 to 18 months. and another 48 percent predict “somewhat worse.” (卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research)

busy season barometer:
how accountants are battling the coronavirus recession
join the survey. get the answers.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

new 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 2020 busy season barometer results bear bad tidings for cpa firms, their clients, and their families. the forecast is not good. accountants know numbers, and the numbers they are seeing do not bode well.

more busy season 2020: busy season benchmarks in free fall | fiinal rs efiling stats: the end of tax season? | say hello to the new 24-month busy season | 9 big ways the irs could help accountants | the mystery of 10 million missing tax returns | tax pro e-filings down 20 percent | irs web traffic doubles over year-ago | covid drowns irs in new filings |   percent | irs web traffic doubles over year-ago | covid drowns irs in new filings | 2020 tax season comes to a screeching halt | the tax season 2020 dumpster fire | tax pros fall behind 6.2% in returns filed
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

as the u.s. braces for a summer surge in coronavirus infections, the economy is crashing – with gdp down at an annual rate of 33 percent last quarter, and a 10 percent drop from the first quarter – the worst declines in more than 70 years of record-keeping. and new jobless claims in the latest week rose by 867,000 to 17 million.

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busy season benchmarks in free fall

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major declines in all kpis: clients, revenues, profits, revenue per client, and profit per client.

busy season barometer:
how accountants are battling the coronavirus recession
join the survey. get the answers.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

last year’s busy season was complicated, no doubt about it. the tax cuts and jobs act and the irs shut-down made life difficult for tax practitioners. but ultimately, they had a good year. a good 56 percent enjoyed an increase in clientele, and only 16 percent saw a decrease.

flash forward to the annus horribilis, aka 2020. according to this year’s 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer, only 46 percent of accountants are gaining clients — a 10-point reversal from last year. and another 25 percent are losing clients – a 15-point swing from 2019.

more busy season 2020: fiinal rs efiling stats: the end of tax season? | say hello to the new 24-month busy season | 9 big ways the irs could help accountants | the mystery of 10 million missing tax returns | tax pro e-filings down 20 percent | irs web traffic doubles over year-ago | covid drowns irs in new filings |   percent | irs web traffic doubles over year-ago | covid drowns irs in new filings | 2020 tax season comes to a screeching halt | the tax season 2020 dumpster fire | tax pros fall behind 6.2% in returns filed
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

it’s impressive that so many tax offices have actually expanded their clientele during such hard times. and it’s not surprising that so many have lost clients.

what happened?

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down by 400,000 returns – the end of tax prep?

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red alert: tax professional e-filings drop by 0.5% year-to-year, first year-to-year decline ever.

final irs stats for busy season 2020 shows professionals filed 0.5% fewer returns than last year and lost market share to diy’ers.

busy season barometer:
how accountants are battling the coronavirus recession
join the survey. get the answers.

by beth bellor
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

in what may be an alarming turning point for the profession, tax practitioners finished an already chaotic and bruising tax season 2020 after preparing a total of 73.8 million e-filed returns – a decline of 400,00, or 0.5 percent, from tax season 2019 – the first such reversal on record. ever.

jon baron

more on tax season 2020: say hello to the new 24-month busy season | when covid ‘got real’ | tax pros hold efiling market share as tax seasons winds down | the top six irs #fails this tax season (so far) | how covid has pulverized irs operations | the mystery of 10 million missing tax returns | covid cuts accounting profits | why busy season may never be the same again | covid tests accountants’ entrepreneurial talents | pro tax prep stalls to a crawl amid covid-extended season | clients, revenues, profits – trending down, down, down |

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

“if you are in public accounting and relying on personal return revenue, the results this year are troubling as it is the first time that professionally prepared returns actually fell from the prior year,” says jon baron, the longtime ceo of thomson reuters tax & accounting, and now a venture capitalist with more than a couple startups in stealth mode.

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say hello to the new 24-month busy season

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deann auman hill and mike shost at aicpa engage: “the 24-month tax season?”

covid chaos turns busy season 2020 from bad to worse.

busy season barometer:
how accountants are battling the coronavirus recession
join the survey. get the answers.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

last year—the good old days!—busy season seemed to be about as bad as it could get. congress enacted the tax cuts and jobs act without explaining how it was to be enacted, and then changed some things. and then the irs shut down before the rules could be set and the new forms and schedules made available. and all of a sudden it was april 15.

more on the 2020 season: the mystery of 10 million missing tax returns | tax pro e-filings down 20 percent | irs web traffic doubles over year-ago | covid drowns irs in new filings | 2020 tax season comes to a screeching halt | the tax season 2020 dumpster fire | tax pros fall behind 6.2% in returns filed
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

tax practitioners had little good to say about 2019. according to last year’s 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer, 46 percent said 2019 was worse than the previous year. only 13 percent thought it was “much better.”

that was then.

this is now. and, now is worse.

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9 big ways the irs could help accountants

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number 9 created by gaps between many small green plastic 9'sdeadlines could change. so could options.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the taxpayer advocacy service’s mission is to make life easier for taxpayers, but when it succeeds, it alleviates the burden on tax practitioners as well.

more: flexibility in a time of pandemic | what are irs faqs worth? | the top six irs #fails this tax season (so far)
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with that mission in mind, the tas has set itself a serious series of nine objectives for fiscal year 2021. each one touches on the services of cpas and tax practitioners, so it’s worthwhile to follow how successful the tas is.
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start marketing now for next season

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no, it’s not too early to begin planning.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

marketing takes many forms. further, many accountants are not trained in marketing. i also know that while most cpas want more business, they are too busy with what they have to be actively seeking new business. additionally, marketing can be external, internal or retentive.

more: 4 reasons not to let staff go after tax season | nine keys to success and growth | what kind of accountant are you? | covid tests accountants’ entrepreneurial talents | have you gotten where you wanted yet?
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

external is where new clients are solicited. that takes effort, ingenuity, time and maybe even some money.
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