busy season 2016: why some have it worse

picture1the factors that undermine an otherwise better busy season.

how was your busy season?
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by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

according to the final results of the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 2016 busy season survey, this has been a relatively good year…better than last year, anyway. a good 60 percent of respondents said 2016 was much better or somewhat better than 2015.

more busy season management:  better gets better. and worse gets worser | busy season 2016: topline survey results | accountants see economy improving… but mainly for themselves | tax season 2016: turning id theft from a problem into an opportunity  | lessons learned from a bad busy season | busy season 2016: more clients, fewer problems | busy season 2016: problem clients are causing big trouble | 12 ways to stress less this tax season | the dreaded ‘quick question’ | 40 other services your tax clients should know about | where workflow management runs off the rails | ready for tax season? not so fast | 8 ways to delight tax season clients | tax season management: multi-tasking is a myth | digital workflow systems make tax season easier | tax professionals find it increasingly difficult to keep up with late-changing tax regs | the new normal: a busy season that never ends | pro member exclusives: sign in or 2022世界杯足球排名 here

which, admittedly, isn’t saying much. last year was a bad year, a perfect storm of problems. it left 19 percent grousing about a “somewhat worse” busy season, another 3 percent saying it was “much worse.”

could 2016 really be worse than 2015, especially given that it was so much better for so many tax preparers? yep.

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busy season 2016: better gets better. and worse gets worser.

z_ busy season before during after much betterwith apologies to lewis carroll, 2016 wonderland compared to 2015.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

when 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 sent out its 2016 busy season questionnaire, the early results looked good. comparing the early stages of 2016 against the same period in 2015, 18 percent told us their year was looking much better. another 32 percent somewhat optimistically told us of a “somewhat better” year. that added up rather neatly to half, which was better than in 2015, when only 44 percent said their year was better than the year before.

more busy season management: busy season 2016 topline survey results  |   accountants see economy improving… but mainly for themselves  |  turning id theft from a problem into an opportunity  |  lessons learned from a bad busy season  |  more clients, fewer problems  |  problem clients are causing big trouble  |  12 ways to stress less this tax season  |  the dreaded ‘quick question’  |  40 other services your tax clients should know about  |  where workflow management runs off the rails  |  ready for tax season? not so fast  |  8 ways to delight tax season clients  |  tax season management: multi-tasking is a myth  |  digital workflow systems make tax season easier  |  tax professionals find it increasingly difficult to keep up with late-changing tax regs  |  the new normal: a busy season that never ends  |  pro member exclusives: sign in or 2022世界杯足球排名 here

and then, as the season closed on april 18, something beautiful happened. this year turns out to be even better than expected. almost a quarter—23.6 percent—report a much better year, and more than a third—36.5 percent—report a somewhat better year.

all in all, 2016 exceeded expectations. in both directions.

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tax filing season 2016 ends on positive notes

chart of irs statistics for week ending april 22, 2016.
[click for larger image]

pros handled 58 percent of e-filings.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

after weeks of falling statistics, the 2016 filing season closed on positives in every category but one – the profession’s market share slipped another percentage point this year.

more on tax season: most tax season filing stats down | tax pros preparing 58 percent of e-filings | tax filing trends remain steady | refunds top $200 billion mark | tax filings, processing remain slower | pros lose ground in e-filing | tax questions up, filings down

there were 136.53 million individual income tax returns filed by april 22, with the april 18 deadline falling within that week. the total returns received were up 1.7 percent from 2015. total returns processed numbered 129.46 million, up 0.9 percent. that puts the processing rate to date at 94.8 percent.

e-filing receipts totaled 122.55 million, up 2.6 percent. tax professionals prepared 70.86 million, up 0.5 percent, and 51.68 million were self-prepared, up 5.7 percent.

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tax filing trends remain steady

chart of irs filing statistics through april 1, 2016
[click for larger image]

pros handling about 57 percent of filings.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

same song, yet another verse in individual tax filings.

related: refunds top $200 billion mark | tax filings, processing remain slower | pros lose ground in e-filing | tax questions up, filings down

refunds are up a hair, self-preparers rise while tax pros lose ground, and people still like visiting the irs website better than ever.
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lessons learned from a bad busy season

卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season barometer
join the survey; get the results

6 ways to fix the biggest problems.

the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season survey
next question: accountants’ economic outlook
join the survey; get the results

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

we must have struck a chord in our article on the large number of firms suffering through a busy season worse than last year’s, a dreadful depth of bad. several cpas and tax preparers chimed in with comments, most of them constructive.

more on tax season for pro members:   3 ways to save time during busy season  |  most tax professionals call 2016 busy season much improved over last year | 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

from the discussion, we’ve gleaned six client management techniques that should be in practice at almost any firm.

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refunds top $200 billion mark

chart of irs data for week ending march 25
[click for larger image]

tax pros hold edge while direct deposit rules.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

refunds to individual income tax filers topped the $200 billion mark as the 2016 filing season entered its final month.

the internal revenue service had received 89.41 million individual returns by march 25, down 0.9 percent from the same time in 2015. it had processed 86.91 million of those returns, down 1.6 percent. while slowing, that’s still a 97.2 percent processing rate.
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pros lose ground in e-filing

businessman holding a printed red "down" arrowrefunds are up a smidgen, while website visits soar.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

are more e-filers switching to self-preparation, and if so, why?

the “why” unfortunately isn’t told in the data, but the most recent tax filing statistics available show that e-filings by professionals are down 3.6 percent from the same week in 2015, while self-preparation is up 3.8 percent.

related: tax questions up, filings down

e-filing receipts as a whole were flat at 55 million, with 27.7 million coming from tax professionals and 27.37 self-prepared. sure the pros’ number is larger, but we like to look at trends here, and this one causes concern. not to mention that larger number is by a hair’s width of a margin, as pros are handling 50.3 percent of e-filings.
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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.

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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.
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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:

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19 ways to stop wasting reviewer time

bonus: they improve the firm for everyone else, too.

by ed mendlowitz
the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 practice doctor

question: how much time should a reviewer spend on a return in relation to the preparer time? our reviewers spend .75 hour for each hour of preparer time.

more practice doctor q&a for pro members: how to sell your practice | no go on pro bono | how much overhead is too much? | why adopting new technologies is a must | closed for tax season? looks that way

answer: you are high and most firms i speak with are also high with an average time of about 24 minutes, or .4, hour.
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