tax season

pros handle 52% of e-filings

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irs website remains popular.

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self-preparers continue to gain ground on tax pros in e-filing, according to new data from the irs.

related: pros lose ground in e-filing | tax questions up, filings down

e-filing receipts overall are up 0.5 percent, to 62.63 million. but while tax pro filings are down 2.5 percent, to 32.6 million, self-preparers are up 3.9 percent, to 30.04 million. the professionals are holding on to 52 percent of the total to date in 2016.
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imagine starting with a clean slate

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clean slate with three pieces of colored chalkare you there yet?

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

we all get caught up with what we do. sometimes so much that we lose sight of what we are doing and the purpose.

more on tax season: know your value | beware the opportunity graveyard | 21 reasons why tax clients switch firms | top 12 tax return preparation errors | 8 ways to delight tax season clients | small tax season leaks can cause great damage | 5 personal touches for tax season | how to get paid faster this tax season

also, work happens. many of us start out with lofty plans that go astray as the practice develops. many things cause it – clients we get, availability or lack of availability of the right staff, how we choose to learn or not learn new things, and even where we locate.
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busy season 2016: more clients, fewer problems

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mostly better than last year. here’s why…

next question: key issues and concerns
join the survey; get the updates

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last year’s 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. remember? the rollout 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.

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

more on tax season for pro members:  problem clients causing big trouble  |  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  |  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)

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

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busy season 2016: irs user fees may boost preparers

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paper currency falling out of a person's handplus 5 ways this will increase noncompliance.

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great news! the internal revenue service is planning to raise its user fees! taxpayers may soon have an unprecedented opportunity to not only pay their taxes but pay more for the ability to pay those taxes.

related: the future as the irs sees it | get set for refund delays at irs

actually, taxpayers might not be so happy about that, but it could be good news for tax preparers.
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pros lose ground in e-filing

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

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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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busy season 2016: problem clients are causing big trouble

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1 in 5 tax professionals report ‘worse’ year. here’s why…

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

it’s painful to think that the 2016 busy season is actually worse than the 2015 season for a large number of tax preparers. last year was bad. how can this year be worse?

join the survey; get the updates
join the survey; get the updates

more on tax season for pro members:  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

over a fifth of all respondents to the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 busy season 2016 survey are having a bad start to the year.

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busy season 2016: more health care headaches

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businesswoman with headache at laptop… and clients likely will blame the preparer.

by 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间

let’s give the internal revenue service a break – but just for a second. the affordable care act wasn’t easy for them, either.

related: the future as the irs sees it | get set for refund delays at irs

the aca called for major overhauls of information technology, the issuing of guidance, collaboration with other federal agencies, and the processing of information from insurers and exchange. generally speaking, the irs handled the thorny can of worms reasonably well.
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survey results: tax professionals call 2016 busy season much improved over last year

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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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know your value

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handshake3 questions to ask.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

know your value to your clients. better, understand your business and what you really do and what you add to the client’s life.

more on tax season: beware the opportunity graveyard | two questions to ask yourself – before clients or staff do | 41 checkpoints for business tax returns | recognize your tax season resources | 40 other services your tax clients should know about | eliminate tax season excuses

i had a group of gastroenterologists as clients who were going to get into a business of inserting a gastric bubble into people’s stomachs. there were a number of issues to this.
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tax questions up, filings down

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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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beware the opportunity graveyard

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"opportunity just ahead" road sign in deserthelp your clients, help yourself.

by ed mendlowitz
tax season opportunity guide

many opportunities only come along once. the way to be successful is to not let them pass by without acting on them or taking advantage of them.

more on tax season for pro members: two questions to ask yourself – before clients or staff do | 41 checkpoints for business tax returns | 21 reasons why tax clients switch firms | small tax season leaks can cause great damage | 5 personal touches for tax season | how to get paid faster this tax season

spotting opportunities is quite easy if you are looking for them – and extremely difficult if you don’t have a clue of client needs or wants.
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is tax season the new fraud season?

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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 idt911. meanwhile, 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

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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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