It actually went fairly smooth this year. Some thoughts (in no particular order):
1. The IRS help lines for tax professionals were well staffed. Hold times were way, way down from prior years (especially last year). The average hold time for me was about ten minutes. In the 2015 tax season, hold times were above one hour.
2. Deadlines matter. We set a fairly early deadline this year (March 16th). While we did get to returns received after that (we got to returns through March 30th), some clients were not happy with the deadline. That’s reality: There are only so many hours in the day. We told you back in January what our deadline was.
3. K-1s are coming later and later. Many of my clients had to extend this year because a K-1 from a partnership is missing. I’m definitely seeing more business entities filing extensions, and that leads to more individuals filing extensions.
4. While tax software may be somewhat flawed, it’s essential for any tax professional. A tax return still must always pass the smell test, but it would be impossible for most tax professionals to complete complex returns without it.
5. Next year could be very interesting for my practice because of the FBAR deadline. For 2015 FBARs filed in 2016, the deadline is June 30th. The law will change next year and the deadline will be April 15th. Will this deadline be literally April 15th no matter what day of the week that falls on or will it match tax deadlines? Will FINCEN accept the federal tax extension or will it require its own extension to be filed? I’ll have more on this issue in a post that’s coming tomorrow.
6. Federal refunds appear to be fairly smooth this year. None of my clients have noted any issues with those. The same cannot be said for state tax refunds, though. Many states are drastically slowing refunds and/or requiring additional information prior to the refund being issued.
I cannot complain overall, though. Of course, now that Tax Season is over comes my paperwork season: shredding and invoicing. And more than six hours of sleep each night.
Tags: 2016.Tax.Season