Tax Pro Roundup: April Edition
SurePrep, part of Thomson Reuters
SurePrep integrates with leading tax software to streamline the 1040 process for tax pros and taxpayers.
CPA Practice Advisor
[2/28] The Startup Accelerator’s kickoff meeting is being held at the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) headquarters in New York. Five early-stage companies are participating this year.
"The Startup Accelerator supports the growth of early-stage technology companies benefiting the accounting and finance ecosystem."
Accounting Today
[3/30] AICPA is advocating for the IRS to dedicate a greater portion of their newly acquired funding to improved services for taxpayers and tax professionals. The majority of the $80 billion is currently dedicated to enhanced enforcement of revenue collection.
"But as in a recent blog post from National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins, the AICPA is urging the IRS to reallocate more of that funding toward helping taxpayers as well as tax practitioners. In her blog post, Collins pointed out that only 10% of the extra $80 billion is designated as going toward taxpayer service and IT modernization."
Accounting Today
[3/8] In celebration of International Women's Day (IWD), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) called on employers globally to accelerate diversity by providing flexible work hours and training. Information about the 2023 Women in Accounting awards and Xero’s IWD efforts is also included.
"Remote and hybrid work, as well as education and training, have proven to be invaluable in extending access to opportunity, especially since the advent of the COVID pandemic, and the ACCA is urging employers to maintain the momentum."
Bloomberg Tax
[3/9] Bloomberg Tax analysis indicates that certain corporations will be able to delay or reduce the impact of the newly passed 15% corporate tax by factoring in losses incurred during the pandemic.
"Companies have long been able to use their losses to defray future tax bills, but some practitioners say that’s the kind of tax break that the corporate alternative minimum tax was supposed to cut through—and it doesn’t."
SurePrep, part of Thomson Reuters
[2/22] Many firms looking for their next hires or their next clients may be depending on Generation Z. Understanding Gen Z’s characteristics can help firms appeal to them.
"Generation Z hasn’t made much of a footprint in the tax and accounting industry yet, but recruiting them in the coming years will be paramount. People born between 1997 and 2012 are projected to make up 30% of the U.S. workforce by 2030, according to a May 2022 story from Fortune."
Forbes
[3/7] Tony Santiago of TaxSearch Inc. sits down with Forbes to discuss how the tax industry is evolving, including leadership turnover and salary inflation. (Podcast)
"Now, in several of your articles, you discussed preparing for the biggest tax leadership turnover ever. The statistics you compile indicate that more than two-thirds of all baby boomer heads of tax and No. 2s reporting to them will retire from full-time work in the next four years."
Forbes
[3/14] There’s a growing interest from tax professionals toward providing financial advisory services. Higher education programs may shift their approach to help expand the reach of CPAs.
"While educational programs set the foundation in undergraduate courses, most graduate programs are understandably focused on students passing the CPA exam. The practitioners believe more focus should be placed on advisement skills to produce well-rounded professionals."
The Wall Street Journal
[3/29] While salaries for U.S. accountants are rising at the fastest rate in years, industry experts worry that it still won’t resolve the industry-wide shortage, citing the decline in accounting graduates and newcomers.
"Accounting and auditing jobs have been long viewed by people in the profession as underpaid, undervalued and less dynamic than positions in tech, investment banking and private equity."
Bloomberg
[3/14] Municipalities across the country risk having their credit ratings withdrawn or downgraded due to delayed financial disclosure documents. The cause for this delay is due to a shortage of tax professionals.
"S&P [Global Ratings] has placed 149 long-term, underlying and program ratings on a negative credit watch this year because the ratings company hasn’t received 2021 financial statements from the issuers."
Journal of Accountancy
[3/9] Onboarding new hires is rarely a seamless process, especially in a remote environment. Firms with extensive remote onboarding experience share their advice on how to ensure success.
"Dustin Verity, CPA, CGMA, managing partner at Honolulu-based Verity CPAs, has hired several accountants based in the Philippines. He travels there at least once a year to meet with them in person and ensure they're treated as and feel like full firm employees, not just remote contractors."
Boomer Consulting
[3/21] Adding automation to your firm isn’t an overnight process. Chris Rochford, Business Analyst for Boomer Consulting, shares four steps to support identifying and implementing automated processes.
"Some automation opportunities might be available within your existing technology stack, or you may need to select a new vendor or platform that integrates with your current systems. Some popular ones include Microsoft Power Automate, Power Apps, UiPath and Blue Prism."
Rootworks
[3/10] Burnout is an unfortunate norm in the workplace. By identifying the signs, dealing with staff burnout may be easier.
"If you notice members of your team working long hours, not prioritizing work-life balance, carrying high levels of stress or disengaging from work, you need to step in. But keep in mind that these signs may be due to external factors outside your control."
CPA Practice Advisor
[3/21] If you’ve collaborated with team members in a remote environment, you’ve probably realized that some individuals thrive in the setting while others struggle. Steve Evans references Big-5/OCEAN personality assessments to determine which personality types are best and least suited for remote work.
"Someone with a high need for affiliation derives all their interactive fulfillment through their family, friends and hobbies and are more than happy to not have extensive affiliation at work."
Thomson Reuters
[3/15] Growth is a top priority for many accounting firms, but not all firms have the strategy and infrastructure to manage growth. Scaling your tax practice involves several factors.
"For tax and accounting firm leaders who are focused on growth, their first consideration should be determining what type of service they want to deliver and to whom do they want to deliver it?"
Rootworks
[3/23] There are certain key performance indicators (KPIs) that every firm should track. Even when proper KPIs are actively tracked, they may not be tracked in the most useful way.
"The 10 KPIs every firm should track fit into three basic categories: comparing your firm’s current performance to past performance, comparing your firm to other firms and looking at the status of your leadership."
Rootworks
[3/21] People matter most at firms. Building a healthy and sustainable work environment may be easier by using Smart Team Management.
"If you’ve wondered how you can determine whether your accounting firm culture is healthy, Rootworks has a solution: Apply the Four Cs—Clarity, Candor, Connection and Consistency. The Four Cs are at the heart of Smart Team Management, so let’s take a closer look at each one."
CPA Practice Advisor
[3/27] Your clients might be oblivious to their pain points and desires in their collaborative process with your firm. Listening carefully during your annual meeting may reveal opportunities to upsell them on enhanced services.
"These conversations can also be framed as a demonstration of an accountant’s proactive work to protect clients. According to recent data from the Federal Trade Commission, banks saw an increase of 84% in check fraud in 2022 fueled by security gaps in the US postal system."
Bloomberg Tax
[3/24] Sophisticated tax scams now involve vishing, the phone-based version of email phishing. Fraudulent inquiries can appear legitimate, causing tax professionals to be tricked into thinking they’re acting on behalf of clients.
"In 2021, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center reported receiving nearly 324,000 vishing and related complaints, totaling $44 million in losses."
CPA Practice Advisor
[3/24] Taxpayer services are improving, in part, due to Congress approving an additional $80 billion for the IRS in 2022. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says the IRS is now in the 80% to 90% range for answering taxpayer calls.
"If those numbers hold, it would be a dramatic change inside the IRS. In 2019, taxpayers reached a live person on the telephone only about 30 percent of the time. Last year, it was down to 13 percent, up from the abysmal 11 percent in 2021."
Accounting Today
[3/9] The IRS has drastically ramped up digital processing on 1040 tax returns. Since the start of 2023, they’ve already scanned twenty times as many returns as they did the year prior.
"The IRS has been using various technologies to scan returns for more than 35 years, but recently took a leap forward by leveraging cutting-edge technologies that enable it to digitize more paper for downstream processing and storage, resulting in greater efficiencies and improved data management."
领英推荐
Journal of Accountancy
[3/9] Former acting IRS commissioner, Danny Werfel, has been selected as the new IRS commissioner after a 54–42 vote.
"The vote by the full Senate followed a 17–9 vote by the Senate Finance Committee on March 2 to approve Werfel's nomination by President Joe Biden. All 14 Democrats on the committee voted yes to the nomination, along with three Republicans."
Accounting Today
[3/14] Accounting Today surveyed leading firms across the country to determine the main problems plaguing the tax industry, sharing the top 20 from their findings.
"A long-term decline in accounting graduates, a similar drop in accounting grads becoming CPAs, and serious competition from other careers in areas like technology and finance all have accounting firms struggling to staff engagements and find their next generation of leaders. That is having a host of knock-on effects."
Accounting Today
[3/13] The digital world is filled with phishing schemes and taxpayers appear to be a prime target. According to CloudFlare data, scammers impersonating government agents are most likely to pose as the IRS.
"In terms of how often an entity is impersonated in such schemes, the IRS ranks No. 6 out of 50. While other government entities are also impersonated with some frequency, such as the National Police Agency of Japan, none of the others comes close to the IRS."
Accounting Today
[3/22] Insights on the struggles of U.S. taxpayers are revealed. Includes list of the top 15 Taxpayer Advocate Service case types, according to the Internal Revenue Service Data Book, 2021.
"In 2020 (the latest year for which data was available), the top five TAS services accounted for just over half (50.4%) of all cases — and the top two made up almost a third of them (31.3%)."
Accounting Today
[3/8] Deloitte launches software-as-a-solution (SaaS) tool to help organizations work toward decarbonizing their operations.
"The cloud-based solution, built on Deloitte's CortexAI, incorporates a large global data library, including 150,000 emissions factors and 200 real-world tested emissions abatement projects."
CPA Practice Advisor
[3/10] By utilizing industry trends and analytics, many are beginning to question if AI will disrupt the HR world next.
"HRSignal buys wholesale data from data brokers, compiles various data sets together, interprets how likely a worker is to quit, and assigns them a risk score from one to 99. This analysis considers details such as a workers’ job title, where they live, the size of their organization, and the number of relevant competing job opportunities."
CPA Practice Advisor
[3/9] The 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) featured a significant amount of technology for improving client productivity. A series of four podcasts from technologists Randy Johnston and Brian Tankersley, CPA, CITP, CGMA highlights their discoveries. (Podcast)
Accounting Today
[3/21] The IRS has officially issued preliminary guidance on the tax treatment of non-fungible tokens with additional guidance to follow.
"Until the additional guidance is issued, the IRS intends to determine when an NFT is treated as a collectible by using a ‘look-through analysis.’ Under the look-through analysis, an NFT is treated as a collectible if the NFT's associated right or asset falls under the definition of collectible in the Tax Code."
Accounting Today
[3/8] Accountants need to stay informed on the world of cryptocurrency, especially due to its financial implications for clients.
"The total market cap for the cryptocurrency industry is just under $1.3 trillion. Bitcoin and Ethereum make up the largest share of the industry. Bitcoin, like many other cryptocurrencies, was originally designed as a peer-to-peer currency without the need for a centralized authority governing its use."
Bloomberg Tax
[3/23] The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is seeking to establish official guidelines for cryptocurrency tax reporting with their new proposal. The plan asks for companies to report their crypto holdings at fair value in order to capture the most up-to-date estimation.
"FASB’s proposal is narrow—on purpose. Tokens a company creates for use within its own platform, such as the self-created tokens collapsed crypto exchange FTX offered to customers to make discounted trades on the FTX platform, are specifically excluded. That’s to ensure that companies don’t mint tokens just to inflate their balance sheets."
Ledgible
[3/10] The wash sale rule has significant tax implications for investors, and the surge of crypto transactions has only added to its complexity. Learning how the rule came to be, how it evolved, and how it effects investors today can provide some clarity.
"The rule can be a frustrating limitation on their ability to claim tax losses. However, the rule is designed to prevent investors from artificially inflating losses, which can hurt the market as a whole."
Fortune
[2/28] Traditional finance roles are being challenged to expand due to a variety of economic conditions and international conflicts. AI and automation are unlocking further value in the accounting profession.
"As finance professionals seek more ways to work smarter, not harder, low-code automation tools remove IT barriers. Empowered with automation and A.I., people are more connected, collaborative, and ready to tackle strategic work."
Bloomberg Tax
[2/24] OpenAI’s ChatGPT and other AI-powered tools could help streamline certain firm tasks, such as client acquisition and workflow optimization.
"Automation helps tax and accounting firms bolster the bottom line and improve clients’ experience. Indeed, 70% of companies have reported substantial return on investment after automating accounting processes."
Boomer Consulting
[3/21] New ways of thinking are key when advancing business objectives. L. Gary Boomer, Visionary and Strategist of Boomer Consulting, shares five steps to drive a growth plan.
"Instead of looking for quick fixes, a better approach is to take a holistic view of your growth strategy. This means considering all the aspects of your firm's growth plan and finding the most effective ways to reach each goal."
Journal of Accountancy
[3/14] The tax space is rapidly evolving and while an air of uncertainty lingers across the field, leaders are confident that these trends are poised to define the industry moving forward.
"While accounting has traditionally been considered a numbers-only profession focused on historical data, technology and transformation have repositioned accounting at the center of strategic decision-making and value creation."
Bloomberg Tax
[3/10] Sahar Zomorodi, an Iranian-American attorney who is a partner at Baker McKenzie, was interviewed for Bloomberg Tax’s Spotlight series. Zomorodi’s expertise includes U.S. and international taxation matters.
"She spent a year at the firm’s Amsterdam office, where she provided US tax advice to European based clients. Before joining Baker McKenzie, she was an economist and team leader with the IRS’s Advance Pricing and Mutual Agreement Program in Washington, D.C."
Accounting Today
[3/14] Many of the largest practices in the U.S. experienced double-digit growth in 2022. Abridged list displays 2022 revenue and growth rate percentage for top firms.
"The firms in Accounting Today's 2023 Top 100 Firms roster of the largest practices in the country reported that their revenues grew by 18.55% in 2022, while the members of our Regional Leaders rankings reported average individual growth rates ranging from 10.52% to as much as 20.5%."
Forbes
[3/26] IRS Criminal Investigation Special Agent Eugene Hall knows tax codes and a lot more. On Sundays, he keeps a different rulebook in mind as a side judge for the National Football League.
"Last month, Hall earned his third Super Bowl ring (game day officials get one as well) in only nine NFL seasons, but he also owns up to bigger ambitions—like becoming a supervisor and ultimately a vice-president of officiating at the NFL."
SurePrep, part of Thomson Reuters
[3/9] It’s important to take a well-deserved break from the tax and accounting grind. Some jokes can help you unwind.
"How do accountants succeed during busy season??By making sure every day accounts."
*Content requires subscription.