Income tax appointments

[rcooley25]

Have any of you noticed that over the last few years people whom you have prepared income tax returns for years are coming in later and later every year.

[IRonMaN]

I have been seeing the reverse so far this year.

[Dusty2]

Same here - earlier.

[dascpa]

15% of individual returns in.  Not bad for Feb 13th.

[ljr]

yes, my tax season is now really mid feb to april whatever it is each year. Unfortunately, more and more of my clients have at least 1 broker statement if not more, college kids with crypto (robinhood or coinbase) and now they know those statements are not out until mid feb. Maybe tax season should end April 30 to make up for the weeks we lose allowing them to not send until mid feb. LOL. 

[garman22]

I run numbers and I am about the same as I was last year. To me if feels slow though................

[rcooley25]

This seems to be taking place for me over the last 3 years. Feb. has always been my most busy time of the year except for the first two months of April. But starting about 2 years ago it started to change. Last year for instance I prepared almost the same number of tax returns that I did the previous year. But I prepared more in March than I did in Feb. While Feb. has not been that bad up to this point I am surprised how few appointments that I have for the rest of the month. The phones seem to be completely dear.

[PATAX]

noticed average return over the years is becoming more complicated.

[dkh]

I find the timing of clients coming in correlates with how many weeks the RV industry shut down over holiday break.   The normal is 2-3 weeks.  This year it was 6-8 weeks.   Clients coming in sooner and want it done ASAP !  

I agree with @PATAX ... the average return is more complicated.

[Camp1040]

Mine are about the same, but missing information is running higher, so the inprocess pile is larger. "Thank you for the checklist, but I don't look at that stuff"...can you say surcharge!

I'm getting a little older and mayby a lot crabbier. 

[IRonMaN]

Like I've said before, tax season would be a lot easier if you didn't have to deal with clients 😜

[qbteachmt]

"Not bad for Feb 13th."

Schwab isn't releasing combined 1099 until Feb 17.

[pamdory]

Yes, or I should say they are attempting to come in later.  I attribute some to late 1099s from brokerages and the pandemic delays.  But I've prescheduled appointments as long as I've had my own practice.  Yes, there are several reschedules, but for the most part I try to stay in control of the intake schedule.  We know brokerage 1099s will be in later, we get folks in with everything else and they can upload, drop off or have their broker send us a copy automatically.  

With the pandemic I knew it could get out of control, especially after the July 2020 extended due date. So in my letter the next two years I told them we still have to stay on schedule, so even though you may not be coming in for your interview, get your crap in here one way or another so I have it in front of me when your phone appointment is scheduled.  And remarkably it's still working.  I have clients who know they need to have their act together by the Xth Tuesday of Xmonth at X:00 for 27 years.  Those that don't like it either are perpetual extenders or they go away.

[IRonMaN]

When I started my practice, I prescheduled all of my appointments.  Most of my clients were like clockwork as to when they were ready each year so the prescheduling worked well.  When human interaction ended with the start of COVID, I dumped the prescheduling and encouraged drop offs.  I went from meeting with most of my clients to meeting with very few.  A lot of folks thought they needed to meet and found out that drop offs worked quite well for both them and us.  Some of the folks that I still meet with really don't need to meet, but they need the extra little hand holding and the social interaction involved with the process.😁