survey results: tax professionals call 2016 busy season much improved over last year

join the survey. get the results.
join the survey. get the results.

rising economy, no big changes spell more clients, smoother operations.

next question: identity theft?
join the survey. get the answers.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

the 2015 busy season may go down in the annals of accountancy as one of the worst ever. and let’s hope that’s as bad as it ever gets.

more on tax season for pro members: how to stress less this tax season  |  is tax season the new fraud season?  |  5 tax season motivation tips  |  recognize your tax season resources  |  tax season 2016: irs in crisis  |  eliminate tax season excuses  |  record pre-season hiring surge: ready for biggest tax season ever?  |  16 qualities of a good tax season client  |  8 ways to delight tax season clients  |  small tax season leaks can cause great damage  |  5 ways thorough beats sloppy in tax season  |  tax season management: multi-tasking is a myth  |  digital workflow systems make tax season easier  |  why cpas need to worry about cyber crime (especially in tax season)

remember a year ago? the roll-out of the affordable care act, the revamped irs forms coming out in february, a widespread need for new software, people getting sick, and then it snowed, and then it snowed some more.

this year’s looking a lot better, according to early responses to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 2016 busy season barometer.

read more →

frank longobardi: cohnreznick’s battle for top talent

frank longobardi 2016
longobardi

newly named ceo launches bevy of programs to nurture skills at all levels.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 staff

for frank longobardi, chief executive officer of cohnreznick, staffing is the biggest problem facing his and other cpa firms across the country.

imgres“the market is very competitive both in finding talent as well as in bringing in new clients,” he says. “many firms face a lack of talent at the senior level and competition is also coming from private companies who look to hire managers and senior managers from public accounting firms.”

read more →

zte announces new tablet-projector hybrid at barcelona

mobile tech companies converged on the ancient city to unveil glimpses of a new future

what’s new at the barcelona mobile world congress.

by rick richardson
technology this week

another announcement at the mobile world congress in barcelona this past week was zte’s new hybrid called the spro plus.

more tech this week for pro members:  uber invites app developers to share the ride  |  forget about duracell or energizer, buy amazon  |  astropad turns any ipad into wireless drawing tablet   |   chromebooks: low-cost productivity machines |  budget alternative to gopro cameras |  mobile printing breakthroughs for accountants  |  samsung unveils new flexible batteries |  control all your entertainment devices from your smartphone  |  google announces a slew of new devices  |  radar turns your smartphone into a baseball speed detector |  hydrogen-powered iphone runs for a week  |  new pocket-sized projector for the cpa road warrior |  more rick richardson…

the company says the new device could become your second-most-used gadget, after the smartphone.

read more →

tax questions up, filings down

chart of irs filing season statistics for week ending feb. 19, 2016

tax pros doing less than half of e-filings.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

visits to the irs website are up 13 percent, but three weeks into the tax season, almost everything else was down.

irs.gov saw 20 million more visitors than last year at this time, 175,958,748 as of feb. 19, compared to 155,780,478 the same week in 2015.

also up this year are e-filing receipts from self-preparers, with nearly 24.2 million received, up 3.1 percent from last year’s 23.4 million.
read more →

strong industry growth fuels wage and retention issues for firms

cpatrendlines jobs report tilt
join the survey, get the results.

as growth breeds competition, job-seekers gain the upper hand.

what drives staff turnover?
join the survey, get the results

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

the nation’s tax and accounting firms are enjoying one of their most prolonged periods of growth since 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 started keeping track with the careers and hiring outlook survey 15 years ago, but pressures are building in staff retention and compensation.

this month’s 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 jobs report covers:

  • current hiring trends in each of the bookkeeping, tax, payroll and cpa segments of the industry.
  • average hourly wages for key segments.
  • typical hours worked per week.
  • and trends concerning women in the accounting workforce.

read more →

is tax season the new fraud season?

join the survey. get the results.
join the survey. get the results.

and what are tax professionals doing about it?

busy season barometer
today’s bonus question
how are accountants confronting identity theft concerns this year?

join the survey; get the answers.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

with data breaches and stolen identities dominating the tax season headlines, today only about a third of americans say identity theft is a concern to them, according to a survey by idt911meanwhile, about a third of some 600 tax professionals participating in the annual 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer tracking polls are reporting significant concerns about client security, privacy and identity theft issues.

top 10 key findings from the taxpayer survey:

read more →

the robo-cpa: jim sikich prepares for disruptive technologies

sikich
sikich: today only 20 percent of revenue comes from audit, and 15 percent from tax. the rest comes from management advisory services, led by technology, which accounted for about 50 percent of its total revenue.

sikich_logoif ibm’s watson is smart enough to play chess or jeopardy, can robotic tax prep and audits be far behind?

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 staff

the technology revolution is on pace to change the accounting profession much more than it already has, with the potential to replace accountants in work that ranges from tax preparation to high-level business consulting, warns james a. sikich, chief executive and managing partner of the sikich accounting and consulting firm in naperville, ill.

read more →

the future as the irs sees it

businessman pressing a "future" concept buttonbut will it work?

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

uh-oh. the internal revenue service is developing a “future state” plan that it says will transform the way the service interacts with taxpayers.

many components in the plan will may well ease the processing of filing returns, the issuing of refunds, and the identification and resolution of problems. but the tax advocate service – an independent part of the irs that defends and assists taxpayers – warns that key components of the plan are going to aggravate taxpayers and make it more difficult to find answers and resolve issues.

read more →

tech, timesheets & value: top topics at think tank

front row, seated, from left: wilson, wiley, telberg, shiner, shimamoto, leyva, kepczyk, whitehouse. back row, standing, from left, lafollette, johnston, richardson, hood, higgins, root, grissom, caragher, cieslak, bourke, sleeter, boomer, oates, koziel, tankersley, koltin, frederiksen.
attending, front row, seated, from left: wilson, wiley, telberg, shiner, shimamoto, leyva, kepczyk, whitehouse. back row, standing, from left, lafollette, johnston, richardson, hood, higgins, root, grissom, caragher, cieslak, bourke, sleeter, boomer, oates, koziel, tankersley, koltin, frederiksen.

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 founder and ceo rick telberg has been named one of the leading figures in the profession by cpa practice advisor magazine and presented with the sixth annual accounting thought leader award at an exclusive three-day symposium in dallas. read more →

accountants report 12% annual revenue growth… and accelerating

arrow rising above ever larger blocks in businessman's hand, indicating growthindustry heads into 2016 with stronger performances than most clients.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

as professionals who specialize in finance, preparing financial statements and assisting business owners with their financial performance, one would suspect that the tax and accounting industry would have a firm grip on  financial performance. looking at statements filed over the past year, that certainly appears to be the case.

the average private company falling into the category of either accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping or payroll services grew sales at an annual rate of 12 percent. this was a higher growth rate than the average privately held company achieved over that same period, despite being a healthy rate of revenue growth for the average u.s. company.
read more →

get set for refund delays at irs

flow chart of refund return processing in irs integrity & verification operation
flow chart of refund return processing in irs integrity & verification operation (click for larger version)

false positives for fraud can drag things out 11 weeks … or longer.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

tax preparers might do well to prepare their clients for possible delays due to automated inefficiencies at the internal revenue service, according to a report from the tax advocate service.

the delays, which have been reported as a serious problem since 2003, are caused by automatic freezing of refunds when the irs’s pre-refund wage verification (also known as income wage verification) identifies suspected false wages and withholding.

the fundamental problem is that the false positive rate for the electronic fraud detection system in 2015 was a staggering 35 percent. that’s not a whole lot better than random identification would be.

the problem extends to the taxpayer protection program, which is grappling with identity theft. there the false positive rate leaped from 19.8 percent in 2014 to 36.2 percent in 2015.

read more →

5 no-brainer ways to avoid malpractice lawsuits

businessman lifting big elephant on dry ground - leadership conceptbasic risk management strategies too often overlooked.

by sarah beckett ference, cpa
cna financial corp.

when money is lost, whether from embezzlement, a poor investment, or just a bad business decision, a cpa firm’s clients and third parties can be quick to assign blame to someone else. often, that “someone else” is their cpa.

anybody can sue a cpa firm… for anything… at any time. all it takes is some paperwork and minimal court filing fees. courts may even permit plaintiffs to fix insufficient allegations and re-plead their case. and, unfortunately, a cpa can do nothing about it. while the actions of clients and third parties can’t be controlled, there are some fundamental activities and behaviors cpas can employ to help reduce the potential of a professional liability claim or, should a claim be made, improve its defensibility.

read more →