Does tax season just seem to suck more and more every year? Why repeat the sins of the past when you do something different - making busy season into opportunity season!

1. Building a Better Busy Season
How Not To Repeat the Sins of the Past

2. Speaker Bio – Jason Deshayes
• Vice President – Butler and Company
CPAs, PC
• Serving clients since 2003, providing
advice to individuals and closely-held
businesses, with a focus on professional
services, medical and veterinary
practices, individual taxation and
business start-ups.
• Honored in 2011 as one of New Mexico’s
“40 Under Forty” by NM Business Weekly
• PCPS Executive Committee – 2012 –
2014
• 2010 AICPA Leadership Academy
Graduate
• Was a Seattle Seahawks fan WAY before
they won (and lost) the Super Bowl
@taxguyjase

3. How did your busy season go?

4. Check the boxes…
 ACA Individual Responsibility Penalty
 Missing Forms 1025-A
 Cap/Repair Regs
 Identity theft
 Corrected and late 1099s
 Late K-1s
 Phone calls from fake IRS collections people
 Clients and their info coming in later
 More and more tax season compression
 Bad weather
If you checked 7 or more, you are not alone!

5. Some ways to soothe the pain and
avoid it from happening again

6. Set the Tone
• Staff
– Establish a timeline of known tax seasons
projects (year-end close, 1099s, payroll
reports)
– Tax season kickoff meeting(s)
– Make sure new staff have a good “vibe” of
the office
– If you did a debrief from last year, follow up
with what came out of that meeting

7. Set the Tone
• Clients
– Send a letter with a timeline in their
organizers or in late fall
– Create an extension deadline…but stick to it!
– Have the bill ready with the return
• And if you are really cutting edge, give it to them
when they show up!
– Communicate ahead of time if you know of
IRS delays or tax law situations that may
negatively impact your clients’ taxes

8. Coping with Compression
• Tax advantage of year-end planning
– Have your clients’ books 98% “complete” in
December
– Know what your client’s situation looks like
with a tax plan – no surprises when you do
the return!
– Easy extension because you’ll know what is
due

9. Coping with Compression
• Clients you handle monthly accounting
– No reason these can’t be done quickly on the
front end
– Even if there are adjustments (like profit sharing
contributions, etc…), it can be 99% done
• Extensions
– Many clients think extending is an audit flag
– Communicate ahead of time what an extension
is and what it actually means to them

10. Be Proactive
• IRS Form 2848 – Power of Attorney
– Have each client sign one along with their e-file
paperwork
– Have it apply for 3 years in the future and 3 years in the
past
– You will be completely in the loop with your clients and
proactively respond to IRS “stuff”
– Helps with transcripts for extended returns, identity theft
and clients who may forget what estimates they made
• Pre-Scheduling Tax Appointments
– Figure out what clients like to be on the calendar and
schedule them in advance (call or e-mail in January and
include in tax organizers)

11. Document and Review Your
Processes
• Uniformity is important
– All staff should understand the importance of processes
– Review the processes over a meeting in January
• Documentation in case of emergency
– Loss of staff due to death, disability or departing your firm
• Documentation resolves conflicts
– Staff can at time differ in work product quality
– Different administrators process work differently
– Peer reviewers like to see workpaper uniformity
– Having good documentation avoids these becoming
issues within your practice
• Cut down on inefficient training time for new staff

12. Be In Your Happy Place
• “Happy Staff, Happy Busy Season”
– Stock up the office fridge with healthy snacks, caffeine, waters,
etc…
– Provide a three day weekend (Saturday – Monday or Friday –
Sunday)
– Order out food for lunch or breakfasts (all weekends/evenings)
– Chair massages
• Regular weekly staff meetings
– Can be short and sweet
– Keeps staff on alert of upcoming work and client needs
– Keeps abreast of status of outstanding projects
• Post Tax Season Debrief meeting
– Easy to forget, but really important to understand areas of
improvement – need to get feedback from everyone

13. Thanks!
Contact me if you have any questions!
Jason Deshayes, CPA, CGMA
Jason@butlercpa.com
505-821-0893
@taxguyjase
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