Art of Accounting: Jumpstarting tax season 2024

Now is the time to start planning tax season and easing some of its pressures. Last week’s column had three ways. Here are three more ways you could start now:

1. Target training for what staff people will actually be working on. Many firms send tax staff to updates or daylong training, but many lower-level staff will not be using most of what those programs teach and many higher-level staff are thoroughly familiar with much of that information. Each type or category of staff person should attend courses that will teach what they will actually work on. This might require finding multiple one- or two-hour courses rather than half-day or daylong programs. Alternatively, firms could develop in-house programs teaching what the staff will actually work on. This is more important for lower-skilled staff who will work on less complicated tax returns, but they also need to be trained to recognize issues they would need assistance with. This should also be considered when they are scheduled to do tax returns. It is easier to find specific courses with higher-level topics. Not every higher-level preparer or reviewer needs to know everything. It’s more efficient to have these people become specialists and the go-to person on specific areas. Firms need to get their staff performing at the best level they can. If you feel setting up an inhouse training regime is too onerous (I did it, it worked and helped us have pleasant and profitable tax seasons) then either get together with similar practices or work to have your professional societies offer these courses. You could also offer to present one or some of them there.

2. Teach basic research techniques to lower-level staff. A good way to start tax research is to go over the tax instruction booklets (which can be accessed almost instantly in your search engine) for the forms they would primarily work on. The instruction booklets are well written and provide clear instructions for most items on the return. If preparers find themselves referring often to certain instruction booklets, they can download and save them on their laptop or desktop computer. I also suggest and recommend that firms should require a written tax research request. This request should include the date needed, a time budget (this would need to be determined by an owner, senior manager or partner), the issue, facts, documents provided and the precise question. Multifaceted questions should be broken down into a series of shorter and more exact questions. All documentation provided by the client, found or used, should be submitted with the research request. That would show the reviewer or more experienced researcher what was looked at, creating a shortcut for them. I have found that when the question or questions are clearly written out, many of the lesser issues can be answered or disposed of permitting a zeroing in on the bigger and more complicated issues. This should be part of your research techniques’ training. It will also help lower-level staff focus on the real issues. 

3. Determine how returns will be reviewed. Many firms’ follow legacy procedures that have been used for many years by the practice’s founders. Just because they have always been done one way is not an excuse to continue methods that are anachronistic. There are new techniques and methods of reviewing a return. Further “review” does not mean rechecking everything that was done. Review is a form of quality control that should utilize test checking and big picture and results assessment. QC should also include efforts to raise the quality of the returns submitted for review. This means better training of preparers and adopting a culture of responsibility by everyone that works on a tax return.
There are many more things that could be done, but these, and the ones from last week, do not need excessive effort and could all be easily done. To be successful, firm management must make the effort to instill the importance of getting better work done using more deliberate and efficient methods. I know these all work! 

Try all or start with just one. Any change you adopt will ease tax season pressures, and the sooner, the better. 

Do not hesitate to contact me at emendlowitz@withum.com with your practice management questions or about engagements you might not be able to perform.