Posts Tagged ‘2023.Tax.Season’

Today Is the Partnership & S-Corporation Deadline

Wednesday, March 15th, 2023

You know what today is, right?  Yes, the Ides of March–and the US tax filing deadline for partnerships and S-Corporations.  If your entity isn’t ready to file, download Form 7004 (the extension request) and mail it using certified mail today.  The deadline is a postmark deadline so it doesn’t matter when your extension is received–but you need to maintain proof of filing.  Better yet, efile your extension and you don’t have to stand in line at the Post Office.  (You can also send your extension via an IRS authorized private delivery service.  Beware, not all offerings are authorized and it does matter.)

Most states piggyback onto the federal extension, but not all of them.  New York, for example, requires a separate extension to be filed.

If you’re in most of California, you have an automatic extension until October 16th and you don’t have to send in an extension.

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California (Franchise Tax Board) Conforms to Extension to October 16th

Friday, March 3rd, 2023

The Franchise Tax Board announced late yesterday that California is officially conforming to the IRS extension until October 16th for all tax returns due from January 10th through October 15.  Almost all of California is covered by the extension; only Imperial, Kern, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Shasta, and Sierra counties are not covered.  (The largest cities which still have March, April, June, and September deadlines are Bakersfield, El Centro, and Redding.)

The extension covers:

  • 4th quarter 2022 estimated payments due on January 17th;
  • Partnership and S-Corporation returns due on March 15th;
  • Individual, C-Corporation, and Trust/Estate returns due on April 17th;
  • 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarter 2023 estimated payments due on April 17th, June 15th, and September 15th; and
  • Almost all other tax forms due before October 16th.

Individuals in the federal disaster area do not need to do anything to obtain an extension: It’s automatic.  However, if you have moved from the area because you were impacted by the flooding or you reside outside of the area and were impacted and need the extension you do need to contact the IRS at 866-562-5227; I would also in such a situation contact the FTB.

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No Vacancy

Monday, January 30th, 2023

If you are searching for a tax professional and have yet to find one, you really, really need to get that into high gear.  As of today, we’re telling anyone inquiring that you will be put on a waiting list.  Based on talks I’ve had with other tax professionals, few have space for many (if any) additional clients.

There are two main reasons this has occurred.  First, the average age of tax professionals is in the 50s.  Many tax professionals retired when the pandemic hit.  Tax and accounting are not glamorous fields, and not enough individuals are getting into this profession.

Additionally, each year it takes longer and longer to prepare a tax return.  This isn’t just the Tax Code getting more complex; it’s also the regulations that tax professionals must comply with.  Let me give two examples.  Every time we efile a return to the IRS we are required to note the Submission Identification Number (SID) generated by the IRS on either the signature document, or we can note it separately with the signature document.  We print this as a pdf from each return and save it in our paperless system with each return.  This takes about 90 seconds–not a big deal.  But if you multiply this by 1000 returns, that’s 1500 minutes or 25 hours of work–more than three days I’m paying someone for “make-work.”  The SIDs are always maintained in the software we use, but the IRS regulation is very specific on what tax professionals must do so there is no choice.

Another regulation we deal with are the required interviews for the Earned Income Credit (EIC), Child Tax Credit/Additional Child Tax Credit, American Opportunity Tax Credit, and Head of Household status.  We don’t have many clients who take the EIC, but we have plenty of clients who have children and qualify for these other credits.  We’re required to do a brief interview where we talk to the client and note the client’s responses.  Most of these interviews take less than five minutes–for the CTC, the average is around three minutes.  With about 600 of these interviews, that equates to 1800 minutes (30 hours).  Who pays for this?  Anyone who hires a tax professional does.

Those were just two of the many regulations we have to deal with.  Then we get into the Tax Code, and dealing with Congress’s “simplifications.”  Maybe some session of Congress will see the Tax Code simplified, but I have my doubts.

What does this all mean?  First, the number of returns a tax professional can prepare decreases each year.  It should be the other way; after all, if I’m experienced I can work faster, right?  But it’s not: complexity and regulations just eat into the time.  Second, I value my employees and I don’t want them to burn out.  We (a) moved our deadlines earlier for the 2023 Tax Season and (b) are making sure that our staff gets one day off per week even in the height of Tax Season.  Third, while I want to hire an additional tax professional, I have been unable to find quality candidates.  Meanwhile, demand for tax professionals in our specialty areas is increasing.

What happens when supply decreases and demand increases?  Price goes up–significantly.  That’s the case for us and (as best as I can tell) the entire tax professional community.  If you need a tax professional, be aware of the issues we face and if you have a good one, treat him or her well.

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California Storm Victims’ Tax Deadline Pushed Back to May 15th

Tuesday, January 10th, 2023

The IRS announced today that California storm victims have until May 15th to file any tax returns and make any payments that are due between now and May 14th, including the fourth quarter federal estimated tax payment due January 17th, partnership and S-Corporation tax returns due on March 15th, and individual and C-Corporation tax returns due April 18th.

The IRS is offering relief to any area designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). This means that individuals and households that reside or have a business in Colusa, El Dorado, Glenn, Humboldt, Los Angeles, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Ventura, Yolo and Yuba counties qualify for tax relief. Other areas added later to the disaster area will also qualify for the same relief. The current list of eligible localities is always available on the disaster relief page on IRS.gov.

Given continued storm damage, it would not surprise me to see additional counties (especially in Northern California) added to this list.  Friends of mine living in the San Francisco Bay Area told me of some incredible damage (local to them).

These extensions are automatic.  California’s Franchise Tax Board (the state’s income tax agency) automatically conforms to FEMA-related disaster extensions.

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2022 Tax Season: The Tax Season From Hell (Part 4)

Friday, November 4th, 2022

To recap, in Part 1 of this series I dealt with IRS failures in the 2022 Tax Season; in Part 2, I covered what the IRS should do to fix the mess.  In Part 3, I wrote about what our firm got wrong.  It’s now time to look at the opportunities (or change-points) to resolve our issues.

1. We’re upgrading our hardware and software.  Our computer server is being replaced in a little over one week (which should allow us to access files faster).  We’re switching to a unified back-end software before year-end; this should eliminate (I hope) or greatly reduce our internal systemic issues and increase our work-flow efficiency and speed.

2. We’re moving to a new office in December.  We’re moving across the courtyard to a larger office that’s far better suited for our needs.  We’ll have room for expansion.  While I’ll miss having the only 17-sided office in the country (yes, it’s a heptadecagon!), the new office will work better for our staff.

3. We’re moving up our submission deadlines.  We need to be able to better deal with the workload, and we simply couldn’t get everything done correctly and provide the proper level of service with our old deadlines.  This does mean many of our clients may need to file extensions; however, while inflation is adding costs for all of us, the 24-hour day remains just 24 hours long.  (The details will be in the Engagement Letters we send to our clients in December.)

4. We’re changing our work hours for the health and efficiency of our staff.  We’re decreasing the hours we’re working during Tax Season.  Everyone needs time to recharge, and working seven days a week isn’t healthy.  We will be starting our increased Tax Season hours earlier, but our staff deserves time off every week–and they will be getting it this year.

5. We’re raising our rates for the 2023 Tax Season.  There are two major components of this.  First, as I’ve detailed in the past, inflation is impacting every input.  From the paper we use to the software we rely on, everything has gone up between 10% to 488% from last year.  Like every business, we must pass that on to our clients.  Second, we believe we’ve been charging too little and we need to adjust our rates (while providing a far better level of service than we did in the 2022 Tax Season).  (The details will be sent when we distribute our Engagement Letters.)

6. We’re not planning on net growth of clients for the 2023 Tax Season.  When Price goes up, Demand goes down; that’s one of the outputs of the Law of Supply and Demand.  We do expect to lose some clients because of our price increase, and we accept that.  Additionally, we’re going to cap the number of clients based on the number of returns we can realistically complete with the level of service we want to provide.  It’s quite likely that we will not be accepting new clients sometime early in 2023, so if you’re interested in using us, now is the time to let us know.

7. We’re attempting to hire another tax professional (or trainee).  Even though the economy is in a recession, the job market remains extremely tough.  We’d like to hire another tax professional, and we’re looking to do so.  Our trainee from 2022 will be on board as a tax professional for the 2023 Tax Season, so that should help.  Still, demand remains strong (and likely will continue to be strong as long as the Tax Code remains as convoluted as it is today).

Will these fix our issues from the 2022 Tax Season?  At minimum, they should greatly reduce the issues we faced.  However, no one can predict the future.  I can promise that we’re not going to have a repeat of the issues we had during 2022, and we are building more resiliency into our systems.

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Is Anyone Happy In Tax Professional Land?

Wednesday, October 19th, 2022

Except for our four international clients on second extension and our ten clients impacted by Hurricane Ian, the 2020-2022 Tax Season is over.  I expect that within one month, we will be off filing returns until February 2023 (well, there is our one September fiscal-year-end corporate client….)  We had quite a few issues this year, and I’ll expound on them at length in the next week or two.  For now, let me ask a question:

Among tax professionals, is anyone happy?

I saw lots of tax professionals leaving the profession over the past two to three years, and it didn’t make sense to me.  This is a good profession where we help our clients.  I enjoy the work (yes, someone has to).  But this past Tax Season was the first year I felt, at times, that I didn’t like what I was doing; I now understand why tax professionals are retiring.

This has major impacts to our clients.  The Law of Supply and Demand holds throughout the world (no matter what politicians say).  If Supply decreases, Price increases.  Even if inflation were 0% (and it’s not), prices would be increasing significantly.  Add in the huge inflation we’re seeing (example: paper prices at Costco have increased from $28.99/case to $35.99 $36.99/case since November 2021), and most tax professionals will be increasing prices dramatically for the 2023 Tax Season.

Did I mention Demand?  That’s increasing, too.  During the month of October (and today is October 19th, so there’s still another nine business days) we’ve received twenty inquiries for next year!  So that, too, will cause price increases.  Additionally, if you are seeking a tax professional to assist you with your 2022 tax returns now is the time to find him or her because January will likely be too late!

I’m going to have a lot more to say about this as I review our failings (and, unfortunately, there were plenty) and successes during the 2022 Tax Season.  I’ve written two parts of the series (Part 1 and Part 2 were posted earlier this year); Part 3 should be up by the end of next week with Part 4 following soon thereafter.

Let me go back to the question I asked and ask it of myself: Was I happy doing what I do this year?  Far less so than in the past.  This means changes are coming–perhaps dramatic changes.  I am going to be happy doing what I do or I won’t do it anymore: life is too short to do otherwise.

UPDATE: I just returned from Costco to buy paper (and a few other items), and the price has increased $1/case (to $36.99 from $35.99) from September.

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