The busy season: It’s an institution of the accounting profession, known and dreaded even to those whose practice is far from tax work. It is one of early mornings and late nights, of endless takeout meals and the occasional sheet cake, of stresses to both mind and body that leave even seasoned accountants feeling as limp as a used-up dishrag. Professors warn their students about it. Tax planners build their schedules around it. Clients get fussier during it. And everyone, from the lowest first-year to the highest partner, breathes a sigh of relief after it, grateful for the brief reprieve before next year’s season, when it starts up all over again.
No one likes it, but over time everyone has come to accept it because that is simply the nature of tax work. At least it is today. Geni Whitehouse, the “Countess of Communication” who leads the Impactful Advisor, predicts that, as automation and e-filing options grow, this intense time crunch will slowly fade, freeing professionals once and for all from the sturm und drang of the busy season.
She noted that a client of hers is working on developing a solution that will ease corporate tax filing and allow accountants to connect with clients on a monthly basis, a type of venture she thinks will move the profession in this direction.
“The tax role has traditionally been a once-a-year kind of thing, and the tools we use don’t facilitate more than that. What I see on the horizon are those that allow collaboration every month, and the regulatory filings, so they free us from the burden of the year-end crunch,” she said.
This means that, rather than a single massive scramble before the annual deadline, there could instead be a series of much smaller scrambles that take place before the month end, provided there is more and better software enabling it. Whitehouse believes business intelligence applications will be vital to this effort, as it will not only provide the relevant metrics on a regular basis — it will also allow tax planning to happen more regularly due to more frequent conversations with clients.
“There are tools where you’re seeing a lot more of [real-time metrics] built in, the overlay of accounting, so we can see what’s happening each month and have an intelligent dialogue. … We have programs that can put a user-friendly dashboard on accounting and overlay the financial information and directly port that into the tax file,” she said.
She noted that what will also help is better analytics that will point out common errors both in terms of the tax filing itself and the internal processes around it (e.g., if there are five accounts for the same user). Professionals are already seeing improvement with the programs out there today. As time goes on and software improves, there will be even fewer manual processes involved in tax work, which will further free up accountants to focus on strategic advisory work.
“It doesn’t replace what we do, but it does take away the garbage we don’t want to do anyway and frees us to have this conversation,” she said.
This, according to Whitehouse, could eventually lead to the end of tax returns themselves; if data becomes easier to move directly to and from the IRS, why bother with a specific form? She noted that there are already countries experimenting with this, and thinks the U.S. won’t be far behind.
“I wish I had a futurist hat, but I think the day of filing tax returns should be almost over. It’s ridiculous that we have to do a separate thing for that. I think we’ll just be connecting to the IRS,” she said.
This story is part of an Accounting Today series called “The Frontier,” where we explore the cutting edge of accounting technology through conversations with thought leaders across the country, who will share with us their observations, hopes, concerns and even a few predictions here and there. We’ll see you at the Frontier.
See the rest of
