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

join the survey. get the results.

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 →

the irs needs more to get more

man with net chasing winged moneytighter enforcement leads to more service needs.

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

between 2010 and 2019, the budget of the internal revenue service was cut by 20.4 percent, after adjusting for inflation. the situation has been severely aggravated by legislative changes that demand more work from the irs even as it has less to work with.

more: more firms falling behind | does irs need a practitioner services division? | irs urged to form tax preparer strategy | accountants cautiously bullish on the economy | survey results: tax pros forecast a better 2020 | 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.

over the past decade, the irs has had to spend

  • more than $2.6 billion to implement the affordable care act
  • more than $500 million to implement the foreign account tax compliance act
  • more than $600 million to implement the tax cuts & jobs act

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.

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 →

does irs need a practitioner services division?

typing numbers for income tax return with pen and calculator

practitioner orgs say “yes!”

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the internal revenue service has less than six months to provide congress with a comprehensive strategy for providing taxpayers with better service. the report, due july 1, is mandated by the taxpayer first act of 2019.

more: irs urged to form tax preparer strategy | accountants cautiously bullish on the economy | survey results: tax pros forecast a better 2020 | 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.

the irs is already hammering out a strategy on several fronts – enforcement, technology, modernization, training, cybersecurity, overall structure and organization, and, yes, taxpayer experience.
read more →