Ready for Tax Season?

Ducks in rows

When the clouds thicken at sea, sailors batten down the hatches. As the holiday shopping season approaches in mid-November, retailers stock shelves and line up extra store help. So what do tax preparers do in early January?

Much like a farmer, I sharpen my tools for the coming season, said Kerry Freeman, an Enrolled Agent at Freeman Income Tax Service.

In that spirit, here are some of your peers other to-do items from members of the National Society of Accountants and the National Association of Enrolled Agents.

You can see a text version of this story here.

A place for everything

Sorting the paper remains one of the first tasks for you as well as for your clients. Freeman, like many, prepared by drafting and printing organizers and appointment letters for a January 2 mailing. EA William Keats of Keats Tax & Financial Service spent time updating the engagement letter he sends annually to clients. So for you maybe this task is more about sorting paper to make sure the paper gets sorted.

Tech talk, tech talk...

Its hard to imagine what tax seasons must have been like when software meant a No. 1 pencil. Now you need your bits and your bytes all in order before the first client shows. Updating tax software tops the to-do lists for preparer Eric Hansen at Hansen Accounting and EAs Jerry Gaddis at Tropical Tax Solutions and Stephen DeFilippis at DeFilippis Financial Group. Hansen is busy transferring over last years clients, and Were looking for a secure method of exchanging information through the Internet with our clients, DeFilippis added.

Prepare in advance

Working ahead to get your ducks in a row not only makes you look sharp and on the ball, but it smooths the workload as the season heats up. CPA James Perkins made sure weeks ago to meet with or call all of my business clients to discuss year-end tax strategies and plan for fourth-quarter estimated tax payments. CPA and EA Charles Grass of Grass CPA & Associates is also making sure to push year-end and multi-back-year arrears projects, to reduce season distractions.

Now its personal

Do you remember your first tax season? After that season, did you remember your family and friends? On the to-do list of San Antonio EA James Berardi: Prepare my personal life for the next four months, he said, plus clean the building very well. Ditto George Hodge of Hodge Accounting, whos also attending last-minute seminars.

Now its personnel

As tax season really heats up, no slip-up rears its ugly head quite like the wrong staffers trying to do the wrong jobs. Review my office systems for staff, Freeman noted, for the proper handling of private information, cash and the new credit card machine. Also phone etiquette and scripts.

Review and recharge

CPA Joanne Elsen was recently reviewing business clients financials to determine if their January tax estimates need to be adjusted and to discuss final tax planning items ... I [was also] reviewing my fees for both my business and individual clients. So was Laurie Ziegler, an EA at Sass Accounting, who also just attended a retreat with other tax pros: Our goal was to recharge our batteries and to share ideas of what works, she said.

And EA Daniel Setters of Accounting Plus Tax Solutions plans a mid-January break to recharge the batteries and begin a 36th year of doing it once again.