April 15th, err, make that April 18th, has come and gone. Every Tax Season is different, and this one had its ups and downs. So let’s take a look at eight observations I have of the first part of the 2017 Tax Season:
1. The IRS did a good job with telephone service for tax professionals. My average wait time on hold with the Practitioner Priority Service was three minutes. That’s superb. I was told by several agents that the IRS added personnel to help tax professionals. That made my life easier, but…
2. The IRS didn’t do as good a job with taxpayers. I had a couple of clients who called the IRS note the hour-plus hold times.
3. The new law mandating interviews with taxpayers claiming the Earned Income Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and the American Opportunity Credit is annoying for tax professionals and will only stop the lowest of low hanging fruit of tax cheats. Most tax professionals know their clients, and simply aren’t committing tax fraud. My clients were more bemused than anything else with some of the questions I had to ask about their children.
4. More of my clients filed without extensions than in the past. This result appears to differ from the national average (the latest report I saw was that there were five million fewer returns filed year-to-date than last), and differs from the long-term trend that I’ve seen the last few years (that more returns were going on extension).
5. The new FBAR deadline will make my life far easier. Officially, the deadline coincides with the tax filing deadline, but there’s an automatic six-month extension. This will allow FBARs to generally be filed coincidentally with tax returns.
6. It would be impossible to run our tax practice without using tax software; however, tax software isn’t a panacea for thinking about the returns themselves. I’ve seen some self-prepared returns this Tax Season that were, to be kind, amusing. Tax software is great in automating the mundane but not so great in thinking for you.
7. We need tax reform, and soon. The Tax Code is far, far too complex. I’m now preparing returns that are close to “basic.” And I practice in a state where there’s no income tax. (Yes, I prepare returns for many states, but my local clients generally don’t have to deal with state income tax.) Yet these clients find the Code so complex that they can’t do their own returns.
8. Deadlines matter. Almost every tax professional I know sets deadlines for receiving paperwork from clients; ours was set at March 15th. We did get to many returns that came after that date, but for the client who wondered why I stifled a laugh when he dropped his paperwork off on April 17th and said he’d be in tomorrow to pick up his completed return. He’s on extension, of course. If you’re using a tax professional to prepare your returns, he almost certainly has also set a deadline for receiving paperwork prior to the October 16th extension deadline. You should pay attention to that, and get your paperwork in to your professional timely.
I’m hopeful my thoughts in October will be just as kind about the second half of the Tax Season; only time will tell.
Tags: 2017.Tax.Season