Level 12

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Clients late this year dropping off data

41 replies
173 views

It looks like a lot of clients still waiting for forms. Slow this year compared to prior years. What are you all seeing?

ProSeries Professional

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dkhAnswer

Level 15

Phones have been quiet....not such a bad thing. I had a rush end of last week and first couple days this week. Then things slowed to a trickle.

dkhAnswer

Level 15

Phones have been quiet....not such a bad thing. I had a rush end of last week and first couple days this week. Then things slowed to a trickle.

PATAXAuthor

Level 12

My phones have been almost dormant too. I actually checked the telephone/fax combo to make sure it was in telephone mode and working. But I do have less clients each year, mainly due to them passing away, and I have not been accepting new clients for years, except once in a while for child or relative of existing client.

IRonMaN

Level 15

I am pretty much on the same pace as last year. But usually the returns come in about the same time as the prior year and I have some returns in now that don't usually arrive for another two or three weeks and a few that are normally in by now but are currently MIA.

Slava Ukraini!

Just-Lisa-Now-

Intuit Community Champion

My phones are getting hammered.

I warned my clients in my annual newsletter than I might not have room for everyone by 4/15 and to call in as soon as they can to secure an appointment, looks like almost 1/3 of them actually read the letter! Ive got close to 260 of my 800+ clients written in on my calendar already!

And even though I told myself I wasnt going to take anymore new clients, I think Ive agreed to dozen more already, as long as they can be here in February!

♪♫•*¨*•.¸¸♥Lisa♥¸¸.•*¨*•♫♪

dascpa

Level 11

I've gotten 9% of my individuals in so far. Very slow. Has allowed me to get ahead on businesses. Every year I cut-off all appointments as of the last Sunday in March. I also will not accept start any new returns after that date (at least I try not to) except for ones that came in prior that I haven't gotten to. I got tired of everyone trying to meet with me, drop off, portal upload, fax, etc. on April 10th and later. It's a Pavlov's Dog Training. Most clients conform. I'll accept missing data, but just enforce the no new returns. Portal uploads are now approaching 50%.

IRonMaN

Level 15

Based on your periodic tax season laments, I normally run at about the same pace as you. But I am at about 14% compared to your 9% so you are running a little behind this year. You need to step up the pace if you are going to contend with Jim this year. 😉

Slava Ukraini!

qbteachmt

Level 15

"What are you all seeing?"

Well, not Schwab...

Don't yell at us; we're volunteers

PATAXAuthor

Level 12

Fidelity is also not early for some. I think most of the Financial brokerage firms or whatever they call themselves now are not ready, depending on type of Investments That clients have and so forth

F

Frustrated-in-IL

Level 8

I am not so sure I fully believe this myself, as I just don't picture a lot of my clients keeping up on what Congress is doing regarding taxes, but almost all news stories about the Extenders bill say do not be in a rush to file. Could that have anything to do with it?

In my business, the number of refundable child tax credit returns I do I can count on one hand with several fingers to spare. But if you read the articles, I think I have only seen one which spelled out that this proposed change will only affect those with a liability less than the full child credit. I have had two clients who apparently have read about the proposed bill ask me about how much more they would get if the law passed and when I told them nothing more for 2023, they didn't understand because they heard blah, blah, blah.

Anyway, I am just tossing this out as one possibility.

ljr

Level 9

I was wondering the same thing. We have a lot of appts booked for after 2/15 but the last week or so has been very quiet and slow. I too wondered if there was something with the phones. LOL. This weekend being quiet I will attribute to the super bowl I guess.

On the bright side I could get away with only working a half a day today.

BobKamman

Level 15

No one has mentioned weather, but that may be a factor this year in many parts of the country. Not just for clients getting to you, but Post Office getting to your clients.

F

Frustrated-in-IL

Level 8

Yes, it was in the high 50s here in the western Chicago suburbs on Friday with nothing but sun. I imagine the post office isn't used to that and probably just decided not to deliver the mail until the weather returns to typical February temperatures with some snow.😂

PATAXAuthor

Level 12

It picked up a lot today. One client asked if I would do their taxes and their sons return. But he didnt come back last year. Maybe he went to one of the larger tax prep firms and learned the hard way? Or maybe he tried to prepare it himself and messed up? I Dont know. I told her OK. My good deed for the day.

Jim-from-Ohio

Intuit Community Champion

I finally changed my voice mail to say if you are an existing client, please leave a message and I will return the call the set up an appt but at this time I am unable to take any new clients. I felt pretty good for a day with that, then I caved and changed the voice mail outgoing message to my standard, please leave a message and I will return the call.

I was only able to go one day turning away new clients, clients that I do not need and really am pressed to take them on anyway. At least now when I call them back I get an idea if the return is complex or basic. I can handle quite complex returns, I just don't want to at this point so I refer those out but if it is a basic w-2, 1099 type return I take them on.

For example one lady called .. called her back.. she is going on how she inherited a very large sum of money and wanted to meet with me to discuss how much, if any is taxable and where to put her money. I asked her if any of it was IRAs or pensions and she had no clue. I referred that one out.

T

TiredFarmer

Level 6

@BobKamman I agree Bob. I was just talking on phone with client. I asked if she was thinking of retirement. She is a nurse getting close to social security age. She said she wants to keep working because of high cost of health insurance. I told her that she should be able to get health insurance through Pa "obamacare", called Pennie. She thought that was only for low income people. I told her low income people get subsidy (advance payment), but she should be able to pick and choose the plan she wanted and the monthly fee even without subsidy may be quite reasonable.

Most of our clients are elderly and it gets worse every year about getting all their documents. The others coming in are pretty much the same time as last year. We have a few that has come earlier because they thought they would have to do an extension last year. I read about how many Jim does and feel like I should have retired years ago! The last two years we have tried to basically not take on any new clients but once in a while you have children or parents of current clients that you feel you should.

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