in van nuys, calif., steve glick came up with a new concern: “now the software companies—turbotax, intuit, etc.—are competing against their customers by preparing tax returns.”
gretl siler, at succentrix business advisors, in panama city, fla., has the problem everyone wishes they had, plus the one everyone wishes they didn’t. she says, “note that i am not having any problem with increasing prices or with competitors. the problem is too many new clients and staffing… plus the irs is still terrible.”
to be sure, there’s bob langworthy, the founder of southern maine’s management accounting. he couldn’t name a single concern. “none!” he says. “we served 1,000 clients last year and already have more than 200 committed new clients this season.”
for 2023, the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer expanded the list of possible concerns, 24 in all, plus an “other” option. it’s our longest list ever, and accountants checked off each and every possible worry.
maybe we should be glad that covid and competition from others scored at the bottom of the list, six percent and five percent, respectively.
it’s still the stragglers
with those problems fading in the rearview mirror, practitioners are far more worried about the classic obstacles to a smooth season. first among them is, as always, straggling clients who are late or showing up with their shoe boxes of receipts, unbalanced checkbooks, creative tallies of monies made and spent, and not much in the way of answers other than “um.…”
fifty-two percent of respondents were cringing to think about that, and another 31 percent were worried about a related problem, late or erroneous k1s, 1099s, etc. delays, in other words, are what keep accountants up at night – before the season even begins.
over a third of respondents add to that their fears of late or erroneous k-2s and k-3s.
it’s still the irs
you can probably guess what ranks second among the january perturbations. yes, that infuriating nemesis that keeps us all in business, the internal revenue service. fifty-two percent of practitioners fret dealing with the agency that they are paid to deal with, and another 25 percent fear that the irs (or, really, congress) will change the tax code and related regulations.
worries no. 1 and no. 2 are all the more intimidating given worry no. 3: lack of staff. nearly half of the respondents—44 percent, to be exact—are concerned that they won’t have enough people to solve all the other problems coming down the pike.
a third of respondents see all the above swirling around in a troublesome economic environment. but they seem to be worried about the big picture, not their particular picture. fewer than one percent think their particular firm will be much worse off, and over half think they will be better off. but 63 percent expect a downturn in the national economy, with almost as many seeing small businesses suffering more than they did last year.
pricing pressures
and though only six percent are worried about competition, 31 percent are worried about pricing and fee pressures. this is where increasingly complex tax returns meet increasingly stressed small businesses. what’s a tax preparer to do? dump the client? jack up the price? or find an unhappy medium?
other concerns run a gamut of likelihood.
security, privacy, and identity theft: 25 percent
tech and software problems: 23 percent
setting aside enough time to plan: 22 percent
crypto (new to the list): 16 percent
that said, it’s still early. and, as we’ve learned, anything can happen.
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