1949 search results for "busy season" or "tax season"

what if you could start over?

by

clean slate with three pieces of colored chalk

spend a few minutes imagining a clean slate.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

we all get caught up with what we do. sometimes so much that we lose sight of what we are doing and the purpose.

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

 

also, work happens. many of us start out with lofty plans that go astray as the practice develops. many things cause it – clients we get, availability or lack of availability of the right staff, how we choose to learn or not learn new things, and even where we locate.
read more →

advanced tax preparers need managing, too

by

four best practices.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

managing advanced-level preparers sounds easier than it is. these preparers will all have blind spots that appear at inconvenient times. some won’t be able to adapt to your internal procedures, because they worked at firms without well-defined procedures.

we had one person who insisted on printing out the prior year tax returns and workpapers before beginning a return. she said she just needed the paper in her hands. that didn’t work for us.

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

 

she asked to be paid on a salaried basis. when we agreed, she then demanded to be paid on an hourly basis. we agreed to that as well. then she wanted to go back to a salary. she believed that whatever we agreed to would be bad for her.
read more →

the top ten problems the irs still needs to fix

by

angry man wearing tie and glasses, punching fist through laptop screen

despite improvements, substantial issues remain.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

erin m. collins, america’s national taxpayer advocate, has been unusually complimentary in her annual report on the irs, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t identified 10 problems that should be – and could be – fixed.

more: tax pros gear up for a better busy season | irs processing up; payouts down | help tax clients help you | art werner: beneficial ownership and control | quick tax tip | four challenges of managing new tax preparers | irs funding pays eye-popping 415x roi | tax season 2025 begins. ready or not. | every tax reviewer should be able to answer these ten questions | art werner: corporate transparency act and fincen reporting | taxpayer advocate sees big improvements at irs | major changes to circular 230: implications for tax professionals | cornerstone report
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

all of these problems impact the tax preparation business. the impact is often indirect, hitting taxpayers who have a tendency to ask their tax preparers to do something about their particular problem.
read more →

tear down towers of knowledge to transform accounting

by

why sharing beats hoarding.

by donny c. shimamoto

series note: this post is part of a series inspired by “joy, inc.”, written by richard sheridan, cofounder and ceo of menlo innovations. while his book is about the software industry, there are many direct analogies applicable to the accounting industry. we must #transformaccounting and bring joy back into the work we do to sustainably address our industry’s people crisis.

a “tower of knowledge” (“tower”) is a person on your team who has vast technical knowledge that no one else has. this knowledge could be about a client or about the project itself. this person is often seen as the center of the team or as a key person who holds the project together.

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

 

for high achievers – which many accountants are – this probably sounds like a good thing. being a tower of knowledge reinforces our worth and makes us feel important. “yes, i’m critical to this project. yes, the team needs me. yes, i know a lot. yes, i am important.” yes, being a tower can be very validating and make us feel good.
read more →

irs processing up; payouts down

by

data table

figures for 2024 topped those of 2023 until it came to refunds.

by beth bellor

as the 2025 busy season kicks off and we wait for the first individual income tax return reports to trickle in, let’s take a peek at how the last drips of 2024 compared to the dregs of 2023.

more: tax pros are making changes for a better busy season | irs funding pays eye-popping 415x roi | tax season 2025 begins. ready or not. | every tax reviewer should be able to answer these ten questions | art werner: corporate transparency act and fincen reporting | taxpayer advocate sees big improvements at irs | ask tax clients the right questions | major changes to circular 230: implications for tax professionals | cornerstone report | art werner: due diligence and irs enforcement | make ‘done but’ tax returns a thing of the past | six methods for getting paid faster this tax season | use humor to get tax documents in early
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

by the end of 2024, the internal revenue service had received 163.5 million returns, up 0.9 percent from the end of 2023. it had processed 163.5 million returns, up 0.3 percent, which included returns received in the prior or current year and processed in the calendar year.
read more →

help tax clients help you

by

eleven steps to better instructions.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

providing instructions of what a client needs to do must be clear enough so that the client doesn’t call you to find out what to do.

more: is your team ready for tax season? | six methods for getting paid faster this tax season
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

sometimes taking an extra minute to lay out what the client should do can eliminate that call or indecisive moment a client might feel.
read more →

four challenges of managing new tax preparers

by

… and three tips to make it easier.

by frank stitely
the relentless cpa

how do you train up newly hired tax preparers?

hint: don’t start with taxes.

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

 

having standardized processes is key. teaching processes is much easier than teaching tax return preparation. learning your processes teaches tax return preparation if your processes are well defined. much of tax preparation is data entry-oriented. then you teach the variations.
read more →

six questions to ask before innovating

by

man with hand on chin, looking at computer screen

hint: jumping in with technology is not the solution.

by alan anderson, cpa
transforming audit for the future

“if i had an hour to solve a problem, i’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” – albert einstein

innovation means doing things differently and doing different things. but what does that mean in practice?

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

 

i see audit firms around the country who set up “innovation teams,” or appoint someone to be the chief of innovation. the problem is that if these are home-grown teams, or if no one on the team has ever had any experience working with anything other than a traditional audit firm, at best, their efforts will be like moving around deck chairs. many of these chiefs of innovation don’t have an innovative bone in their bodies, and they don’t know what they don’t know. all they know is the old way of doing things.
read more →

irs funding pays eye-popping 415x roi

by

from a business perspective, funding the irs is an excellent investment.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the internal revenue service’s taxpayer services and business systems modernization accounts got short shrift in the big-time funding provided by the inflation reduction act. but still, the combined total of $8 billion they got has gone a long way to improve the taxpayer experience.

more: tax season 2025 begins. ready or not. | every tax reviewer should be able to answer these ten questions | art werner: corporate transparency act and fincen reporting | quick tax tip | taxpayer advocate sees big improvements at irs | ask tax clients the right questions | major changes to circular 230: implications for tax professionals | cornerstone report | art werner: due diligence and irs enforcement | make ‘done but’ tax returns a thing of the past | six methods for getting paid faster this tax season | use humor to get tax documents in early | art werner: busy season predictions
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

here’s the breakdown of the original account allocations at the irs:

  • enforcement: $45.6 billion, 58 percent of the total
  • operations support (e.g., rent, phones, paper, etc.) $25.3 billion, 32 percent of the total
  • business systems modernization (including tech upgrades): $4.8 billion, 6 percent of the total
  • taxpayer services: $3.2 billion, or 4 percent of the total

read more →

tax season 2025 begins. ready or not.

by

bar chart
ready or not? more than four in ten accountants are expecting a better tax season this year than last year, with only one in six dreading worse. join the survey. get the results.

most pros will hit the ground running.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

join the survey. get the results.

ready or not, here it comes: the marathon of the tax season. the w-2s are in the mail, the k-1s shouldn’t be far behind, and the 1099s are being filed.

more: every tax reviewer should be able to answer these ten questions | art werner: corporate transparency act and fincen reporting | quick tax tip | taxpayer advocate sees big improvements at irs | ask tax clients the right questions | major changes to circular 230: implications for tax professionals
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

so far, most of america’s cpas and tax preparers are ready for the tax season and reasonably optimistic about this year’s revenues.

according to early results to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer, 44 percent of respondents are better prepared than they were last year, and almost as many are in about the same position as last year. only 14 percent say they’re less ready than last year, with a mere 3 percent much less ready. fifteen percent are “much better” prepared.

but that was before a trump-ordered government-wide hiring freeze and new threats of over $20 billion in budget cuts.

read more →

every tax reviewer should be able to answer these ten questions

by

man wearing glasses holds papers in right hand and looks at laptop screen against a backdrop of windows
yes, we included the answers … just in case.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

the primary people who should review tax returns are trained tax department reviewers. however, often the bunching and compression of work shifts some of the review to higher level, non-tax personnel such as audit managers and partners who might not necessarily have the comprehensive training, background and experience to handle everything that might come up during the tax preparation process.

more: taxpayer advocate sees big improvements at irs | ask tax clients the right questions | major changes to circular 230: implications for tax professionals | cornerstone report | art werner: due diligence and irs enforcement | quick tax tip | make ‘done but’ tax returns a thing of the past | six methods for getting paid faster this tax season | use humor to get tax documents in early | art werner: busy season predictions | four steps could close the tax gap | art werner: how to turn tax prep into tax advisory | art werner: navigating business structure decisions amid tax law changes | tax season memo from staff to managing partner | is the irs adequately tracking corporate tax evasion? | irs still unsure how to measure audit rate
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

 

additionally, in many firms, almost everyone on the staff prepares some returns. that lack of dedicated preparers with the trained skills places an added burden on the tax reviewers, making it important for them to have the range of experience needed to perform the review.

following are 10 questions reviewers should be able to answer to qualify for their role.

read more →

beth whitworth: focus on outcomes not hours | the disruptors

by

stop wearing your hours worked as a badge of honor.

this is a preview. the complete 1-hour video episode, with commentary and transcript, is first available exclusively to pro members | go pro here

subscribe to 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 podcasts anywhere: apple, google/youtube, spotify, iheart, deezer, amazon music, audible, player fm, audacy, rss.

the disruptors
with liz farr

a few months ago, beth whitworth emailed her remaining legacy 1040 clients, informing them that they would have to move over to the subscription-based model she’s been implementing over the last few years. “i will say it’s scary,” she says. “and when i pushed the button and then sent the email, i was like, ‘oh, what’d i do?” but she quickly realized that she was doing the right thing. “this is where we need to move to.”

more podcasts and videos: mike sylvester: learn to say no | salim omar: identify your client’s $100,000 problem | jackie meyer: earn more with fewer clients | jack fleherty: don’t be a ‘yes’ person | greg adams: from finance to storytelling | the disruptors | jody padar: make radical changes now if you want to be relevant in 2030 | rebecca driscoll: amplify reach by helping other firm owners | rory henry: create the return on relationships | mike maksymiw: be the leader you wish you had | terrell turner: build a solid business showing up as yourself | kelly mann: be the bull in the china shop | alicia katz pollock: create a human-centric business |  nancy mcclelland: be the one your clients ask first |alan whitman: stop accepting the status quo | sean duncan: discover your own genius | ingrid edstrom: true wealth is not financial |

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

instead of continuing to accommodate the clients who were resistant to using technology, who wanted to continue dropping off documents, and who no longer fit her business model, she decided that “it would be okay if none of them stayed.” while she did get some pushback for the increase in fees that would accompany a higher level of service, she did get some who happily responded, “sign me up!”

read more →