surveys & research

six-minute survey: top business strategies for after busy season

by

after busy season, which strategic activity will be your top priority?

check one to launch the survey and get the results

b. focus on marketing and getting new business

c. learning from busy season ’19

d. investing in new technology

refund amounts remain lower than 2018

by

data chart
cumulative through week ended march 29

tax pros handling 54.3% of e-filings, down 2 points from year ago.

by beth bellor
卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

the pace of 2019 remains behind that of 2018 on most counts as the tax season stumbles to a close.

more: who’d like a friend in the irs? | hello, irs? anybody home? | tax pro e-filing off 2.7% from last year’s pace | tax professionals file 38 million returns | refunds still up, but only by 0.7%
goprocpa.comexclusively for pro members. log in here or 2022世界杯足球排名 today.

the irs had received 92.9 million individual income tax returns as of the week ending march 29, the last data available, down 1.4 percent from the same period last year. it had processed 90.3 million returns, down 2 percent.
read more →

is the irs about to get beefed up?

by

today’s bonus question: lessons from tax season to apply to 2020?

trump proposes 5% boost to the irs budget, reversing years of cutbacks and declines.

busy season barometer
today’s bonus question: what are firms learning from tax season 2019, that they’ll apply in 2020?
join the survey. get the results.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

after many years of increasing austerity—and some would say crippling austerity—the irs may have bottomed out. despite broad cuts proposed in the overall 2020 federal budget, president trump has included an additional $362 million—a five percent increase—for the agency that gathers the funds that keep the united states in business.

more busy season: tax season funnies: april fool is when?  |  wanna change the tax world?   |  how the irs hides its legal decisions  |  tax season 2019 serves up a taste of the future  |  the biggest reason fraudsters run rings around the irs  |  the irs free-file flop  |  protect your clients’ assets  |  the demise of schedule a?  |  tammy’s tale of tax season tardiness  |  how effective project management makes your life easier  |  survey: busy season goes sour   |  when clients cash out: four smart financial moves

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

if congress approves the budget as proposed (and that’s bound to be an exciting story), the irs can begin—just begin—to recover some of what has lost over the last decade or so.

read more →

tax season 2019 serves up a taste of the future

by

“thirty percent of tax services will be obsolete in three years.”

robert hockensmith talks about tax season 2019 on local tv news in phoenix.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

this year’s tax season is giving tax preparers a taste of the future—a future where tax returns are both simpler and more complex.

according to data streaming into the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer survey, tax practitioners are just beginning to get a handle on the radical changes wrought by the tax cuts and jobs act—not just the technical changes to the tax code but the resulting changes to the business of tax preparation.

more: the biggest reason fraudsters run rings around the irs  | the big free-file flop | the demise of schedule a? | refunds still up, but only by 0.7% | survey: busy season goes sour | tax refunds up 1.7% | lessons learned: how the federal shutdown hit busy season 2019 | tax refund fury roils busy season | taxpayer advocate slams congress over funding

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

robert f. hockensmith, cpa, ea, in phoenix, ariz., and a website site notably named azmoneyguy.com, offers a variety of tax and non-tax services, sums it up thus: “thirty percent of tax preparation will be obsolete in three years. clients will want advice and tax resolution more than preparation for 50 percent of taxpayers. and only 50 percent of all tax returns will be prepared by professional tax preparers.”

read more →

the demise of schedule a?

by

join the survey. get the results.

“if you charge by the form, schedule a’s are almost obsolete.”

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 research

with the countdown clock running down toward april 15, many tax professionals’ early-season optimism is turning into frustration and anger, according to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer.

the latest readings from the tracking poll show:

  • only half as many professionals now predict “significant increases” in the number of clients, and who now expect a “significant decrease” has almost doubled.
  • the number of practitioners forecasting revenue gains has been cut in half.
  • the number expecting better profits than last year has been cut by a third.

what’s happening?

read more →

refunds still up, but only by 0.7%

by

chart of filing datae-filings are nearly evenly split between the pros and the amateurs.

by beth bellor

the gloomy season continues. the irs is slower than ever before, the tax cuts and jobs act didn’t simplify our lives, and after all the work we put in, we face clients who are upset about their refunds. everyone got an eye on their countdowns?

the internal revenue service had received 67.7 million individual income tax returns as of march 8, the latest data available, down 2.5 percent from the same period in 2018. it had processed 65.3 million returns, down 2.8 percent. read more →