The dawn of a new year brings a fresh opportunity to help clients make tax-optimized decisions. Here are three more tips and tricks to help tax professionals continue to manage, enhance, and expand their practice, including IRS and AICPA tax tools and a sugesstion on how to apply them.
IRS Tax Tools
Reliable resources to answer common tax questions are worth their weight in gold. Two such tools are the IRS Tax Map and the IRS Interactive Tax Assistant tool. The Tax Map provides tax law information integrated with related tax forms, instructions and publications. While both resources are slow to the point of timing out, they are reliable and worthy of a spot in a tax professional’s toolbox.
AICPA Marginal Tax Rate Calculator
Helpful tools are available to enhance the work you already perform. The AICPA provides a Marginal Tax Rate Calculator to show clients and new staff members the effect of deductions and tax credits on the actual tax rate: http://www.360financialliteracy.org/Calculators/Marginal-Tax-Rate-Calculator. Whether clients are in the 15% or 39.6% tax bracket, it helps to show them their effective tax rate on tax decisions. This calculator is one of several provided by the AICPA at http://www.360financialliteracy.org.
Tax Transcipts
One final tax practice management tip is rather than pay $50 per return to request a copy of a return from the IRS by using Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return is to request a Tax Return Transcript free of charge using Form 4506-T. There is an automated self-help service at IRS.gov. Click on “Get a Tax Transcript” or call 1-800-908-9946.
Publishing CPA Magazine since 2002, T. Steel Rose began his career with Price Waterhouse leading to the start of Rose & Cash, CPAs. He was a VP for Solomon Software, now owned by Microsoft, and launched CPA Software News in 1991.
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