Fewer days this filing season

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#1
makbo  
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In 2019, 2020, and 2021 (and please, can we all start saying "twenty-twenty-one" for that?), the filing deadline will be Apr 15, no extra days tacked on at the end, and except for 2020, no leap year days either.

Fewer days to get more work done?
 

#2
Preppie  
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Until the IRS systems are swamped on the last day and they have to add day(s) to the end of filing season.
 

#3
FLAcct  
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Personally, I hate it when more days are tacked on to the end of tax season. Just more days to be stressed out!
 

#4
smtcpa  
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I've generally always treated 4/15 as the actual deadline no matter what the real deadline was. Or at least I tried. I am happy to have an actual 4/15 deadline. I am trying to move clients away from the concept of 4/15 being THE deadline anyway, so for me it will have less of an impact as years go by.

By the way Makbo, how else would you say 2021 other than twenty-twenty-one?
 

#5
makbo  
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smtcpa wrote:By the way Makbo, how else would you say 2021 other than twenty-twenty-one?

Some people, contrary to a hundred plus years of tradition, still add in an extra, drawn-out syllable by saying "two thousand twenty-one". I blame it all on the movie "Twenty-Oh-One: A Space Odyssey" which many people mistakenly decided to pronounce as "two thousand one", for no good reason other than it sounded better for marketing purposes.
 

#6
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smtcpa wrote:I've generally always treated 4/15 as the actual deadline no matter what the real deadline was. Or at least I tried. I am happy to have an actual 4/15 deadline. I am trying to move clients away from the concept of 4/15 being THE deadline anyway, so for me it will have less of an impact as years go by.


I do not stress myself out and freely tell clients that they may end up being extended. Stress = mistakes = unhappy clients = unhappy CPA = unhappy life. I have yet to have a client object. I know some CPAs that work from end of January to April 15th from 4-5am to at least midnight, 6-7 days a week. That is asinine.
 

#7
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CornerstoneCPA wrote:I do not stress myself out and freely tell clients that they may end up being extended. Stress = mistakes = unhappy clients = unhappy CPA = unhappy life. I have yet to have a client object. I know some CPAs that work from end of January to April 15th from 4-5am to at least midnight, 6-7 days a week. That is asinine.


+1000

We are in charge of our destiny. There has been a lot of research into the productivity of knowledge workers as of late, and it's alarming how backward our industry is. We really shouldn't be working 40 hours a week, let alone 60, 70, or more. Every little bit we can do to reduce our hourly load will pay off in surprising ways -- I took a 3 day weekend right after 3/15, and I came back more efficient than at any other time during tax season.

I've always refused to work hard on the deadline day; if it's not done it's extended. For next tax season, I'm looking to remove one weeknight from my availability and dedicating it to one of my hobbies.

Life's too short.
 

#8
CathysTaxes  
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I refuse to work Sundays.
Cathy
CathysTaxes
 

#9
ATSMAN  
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I too work with the assumption that 4/15 is the deadline regardless of any extension for any reason. Some of my client's try to push that but they end up paying for that!
 

#10
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missingdonut wrote:
We are in charge of our destiny. There has been a lot of research into the productivity of knowledge workers as of late, and it's alarming how backward our industry is. We really shouldn't be working 40 hours a week


We are also our own enemies when it comes to fees for our services. Generally speaking, we undercharge based on our required education, expertise, CPE, and/or certification, especially relative to lawyers.

While I understand larger firms can provide ample experience, their billing quotas are also ridiculous. I know a CPA that resigned and went out on her own after being employed for quite a while with a midsize regional firm. When you took her billing quota and divided it by the number of billable hours she was actually able to generate, she was having to work no fewer than 80 hours per week to also accommodate the required non-billable work.
 

#11
smtcpa  
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missingdonut wrote:We are in charge of our destiny. There has been a lot of research into the productivity of knowledge workers as of late, and it's alarming how backward our industry is.


I think there is a bit of a Superman/Superwoman mentality in our industry, where practitioners like to get bragging rights for how long they work and at what times they are working. I can't tell you how many times I've seen posts on some of my FB groups at 2am asking who else is still up working hard? Really? They feel the need to brag?

Asinine is right.
 

#12
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smtcpa wrote:
missingdonut wrote:We are in charge of our destiny. There has been a lot of research into the productivity of knowledge workers as of late, and it's alarming how backward our industry is.


I think there is a bit of a Superman/Superwoman mentality in our industry, where practitioners like to get bragging rights for how long they work and at what times they are working. I can't tell you how many times I've seen posts on some of my FB groups at 2am asking who else is still up working hard? Really? They feel the need to brag?

Asinine is right.


The book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff, and It's All Small Stuff," discusses this very mentality. Our goal needs to be to lower our stress tolerance, not to raise it, because our body will naturally reach the equilibrium by adding more stress as our tolerance goes up. Why the heck are we proud of or feel a need to admire people that have high stress tolerances? You crash and burn, eventually...I learned the hard way in private accounting.
 

#13
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CornerstoneCPA wrote:While I understand larger firms can provide ample experience, their billing quotas are also ridiculous. I know a CPA that resigned and went out on her own after being employed for quite a while with a midsize regional firm. When you took her billing quota and divided it by the number of billable hours she was actually able to generate, she was having to work no fewer than 80 hours per week to also accommodate the required non-billable work.


Once you're a sole practitioner, all of the admin responsibilities fall on you to do (or to hire out). But the flipside of it is that a high level great CPA who is expected to bill 1700-1800 hours as an employee should net the same in a solo practice (including benefits) by only billing 800-900, no?

smtcpa wrote:I think there is a bit of a Superman/Superwoman mentality in our industry, where practitioners like to get bragging rights for how long they work and at what times they are working. I can't tell you how many times I've seen posts on some of my FB groups at 2am asking who else is still up working hard? Really? They feel the need to brag?

Asinine is right.


I think a lot of it is attention-seeking behavior in the pursuit of some combination of attention, sympathy, and kudos. It's the same as it's always been; social media just gives us a bigger outlet and an easier method to get the attention.

A lot of us who post here seem to be of a different mind... we've made mistakes in our past by overworking but have learned from them (finding new mistakes to make in the present :lol: ). It does seem like more and more people are starting to change their minds. It's not that people hate working any more or less than they used to, but that people are willing to stand up against a bad system and make a change.
 

#14
ATSMAN  
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I have had conversations with other accountants and lawyers stung by the billable hours problem. If you want to rise up to a partnership level unless your relatives own the firm, that will be one of the major hurdles to overcome. When you do the math to what you get paid actually to the actual # of hours worked, you are making around $25 to $30 per hour for a junior associate!

My sister in law quit a firm and went on her own and is much happier now!
 

#15
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ATSMAN wrote:I have had conversations with other accountants and lawyers stung by the billable hours problem. If you want to rise up to a partnership level unless your relatives own the firm, that will be one of the major hurdles to overcome. When you do the math to what you get paid actually to the actual # of hours worked, you are making around $25 to $30 per hour for a junior associate!

My sister in law quit a firm and went on her own and is much happier now!


My brother-in-law is a lawyer and made partner a couple of years ago, but certainly has quotas. He likes to brag that some of his work produces an effective rate of $600+/hr, but that is certainly not his compensation. His firm does not look at the total revenue generated, just the number of billable hours so his effective rate of $600+ for certain work is meaningless. For the hours he works and the niche he has developed, he'd be better off on his own but enjoys the prestige of being named a partner at a regional firm. Take his total compensation, do the simple math of dividing by hours worked, and he is barely making $56/hr.

A tax partner at a regional CPA firm I know does quite well with compensation, but again, compare it to the hours he works and it is an effective hourly rate of $75.

That math simply does not sit well with me given their hourly fees to clients are no less than $300/hr.
 


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