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Key Takeaways From Tax Season

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What was your biggest “a-ha” moment from tax season? While you may have put a number of clients on extension and tax season isn’t really isolated to just a few months of the year, tax year 2018 was unlike many others in recent history due to the legislation enacted by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA).

We asked this question of several Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax Pro Center authors: “What did learn most from this first season of tax reform to help you prepare for next season?” Here were their responses.

Dawn Brolin, CPA, CFE – Powerful Accounting

I realized that it is more important now than ever to allow time to explain the reasons why the clients’ end result is so much different than in the past. As many taxpayers are paying more in taxes despite the promises of a better result, people came in very nervous and concerned.

Nayo Carter-Gray, EA1st Step Accounting

I learned that my firm could have done a better job reaching out to our clients we knew would be the most affected. Although we briefly mentioned the changes we knew were going to make a huge impact on our clients, we didn’t take any extra time outside of last year’s initial tax preparation appointment to stress the importance of planning for the negative impact the new law could have on those particular clients.

I also learned that clients with children were very excited about the child tax credit. A number of our clients with children thought it was a new deduction and not just an increase. This excitement means we should also highlight the positive aspects of the new law.

Renee Daggett, EA – AdminBooks

We prepared for hours on Qualified Business Income (QBI), knowing the complexity of this new rule, but QBI was much easier than expected. However, what we did not anticipate were several other issues that would affect our firm. The first was withholding, so we are now educating clients to adjust their withholding. We also did not realize how the limitation on mortgage interest and property tax would affect the home office deduction. In addition, the mortgage interest and home equity line of credit excess allocation took more time than we expected. As a result, we will closely review Intuit® ProConnect™ Lacerte® and the 1040 instructions to make sure these issues are correctly reported.

Caleb L. Jenkins, EA, CQP – RLJ Financial Services, Inc.

Here is what I learned from tax season this year as a result of tax reform:

  1. Invest more in additional education related to tax reform.
  2. Continue automating client accounting in QuickBooks® throughout the year so that we have reconciled and accurate books as of Jan. 15.
  3. Spend more time with clients outside of tax season, helping them understand what they can do to maximize tax savings from tax reform.

Debra KilsheimerBehind the Scenes Financial Services

This tax season was quite different from all the others. With the TCJA, many clients were surprised with the smaller refund and/or shocked for the first time that they actually owed any taxes. What they didn’t understand was the difference between a tax expense and a tax refund. This gave us the opportunity to really promote the tax planning part of our business, and although we offered tax planning sessions to all clients before 2018 came to a close, many clients didn’t think it was necessary to talk about it; after all, what could be different? They heard they were getting a $4,000 bonus.

However, even though they paid in less, showing them their tax expense went down helped them understand the difference and allowed us to further educate them on the importance of keeping us in the loop with their financial lives. Overall, the TCJA was a great opportunity for us to differentiate our firm from other firms. Not only could clients could see for themselves that we are a proactive firm, but that we also we understand tax-related consequences. That makes all the difference in client satisfaction.

Tyler McBroom, CPAMeasured Results

I learned that the updated tax laws were great for small business owners, especially those under the QBI threshold. Next season, I will proactively encourage year-end tax planning to help business owners close to the phaseout threshold get their income to a point that can maximize the QBI deduction.

What did you learn from tax season? Leave your comment below to let us know!

Scott Cytron
Scott Cytron

Written by Scott Cytron

Scott H. Cytron, ABC, is editor of the Intuit® Tax Pro Center. He brings more than 35 years' experience in accounting and financial services to the profession. An accredited consultant, Scott works with companies, organizations and individuals in professional services (medical, legal, accounting, engineering), high-tech and B2B/B2C product/service sales. Follow Scott on Twitter @scytron. More from Scott Cytron

One response to “Key Takeaways From Tax Season”

  1. The Tax Planning from Pro Connect was very helpful last year to begin a conversation about the Tax Reform. Even though it did not reflect in actuality the loss in refunds and changes my clients faced, it was great because it helped me show them the “Excemption Deduction” at $0.
    We invested great amount of time education our clients last year in changing their withholding amounts. Some of my clients did in fact change it to $0 and they received a refund. Others, (thought
    I was crazy) did not change it and had to pay thousands in taxes.
    We are now educating them on the “Underpayment Tax Penalties that are scheduled to 2019” Those were moved and did not take effect in 2018. However, they will be in full force in 2019. Take the time to educated them and save your clients thousands in unnecessary tax penalties. The IRS stated the underpayment tax penalty will start at $500. Cheers!