Calling all tax firms: 1040 reviews done for you this tax season
Tax season is merely days away. The last two tax seasons have been abominable. Will the old adage, ‘third time’s a charm’ provide any relief in 2022?
Many firms we speak with express that they would love to divest some (or even most) of their 1040 business. Recent tax seasons have taken their toll. Is it worth it? The stress of tax season and the investment of time and professional liability risk that can result from mistakes makes it harder to justify doing 1040 returns in some firms. Because firms care about their quality, there is often a tendency to “over review” returns. This is time consuming, expensive, and it adds no value to the taxpayer client. It is also commonly the bottleneck in firms.
The 1040 review checklist and the ‘bottleneck’
For years, experienced accountants have built checklists that help more junior reviewers follow a detailed process to technically review each return. We’ve seen 1040 review checklists that span 10+ pages. We’ve also worked with firms who have multiple checklists and reconciliation spreadsheets. 1040 review checklists and reconciliation spreadsheets come in many sizes and shapes, and can take an incredible amount of time to work through. The one thing they all seem have in common is the bottleneck they create at the most expensive level in the firm- the final reviewer.
What if you could outsource that time-consuming bottleneck …the 1040 review?
Imagine having a reliable, automated solution that would review your 1040s for you and deliver a summary that identifies errors and verifies totals. Kind of like closing your eyes and opening them to a magic wand that highlighted anything erroneous in the return you just prepared…and that also verified what is correct. No more onerous checklist. No more ticking and tieing, and no more clicking through dozens of connectors.
Too good to be true? Allow us to introduce you to…
VERIFIED…powered by TaxExact™.
How does it work?
Simple.
- Securely upload a preparer’s copy of the return from your tax software along with client source documents to our TaxExact™ portal.
- TaxExact’s team of reviewers uses TaxExact™ to create a 1040 return project that will verify the totals on the return that are correct and isolate errors.
- Your deliverable is a secure cloud-based instance of the TaxExact™ project with notes linked to specific sections of the project where we identified errors or discrepancies.
What do you do with it?
That’s the best part! You breathe easier and wonder what you did back in the ‘old days’ when you spent hours during evenings and weekends reviewing (and over-reviewing) tax returns.
You are notified via email when the review (TaxExact™ project) has been completed. From the notification email, you click the link to log into TaxExact™ and see verified totals and specific notes for where discrepancies were found. You can link directly to the area of the TaxExact™ project to drill deeper into identified areas and address them.
The deliverable to you can also be used as a deliverable to your client.
Most taxpayers don’t speak “accounting and tax.” They want to know the magic number of their refund or balance due, they want to know it’s correct, and they want to understand how to minimize their tax liability next year. That’s it.
TaxExact™’s Summary…
- Gives you and your clients the assurance that the return is right
- At a glance, show prior year, current year, and variance totals
- Show total refund or balance due
- Allows you the ability to click into any part of the project to review ‘what if’ scenarios with your client- without having to remember to back out changes in your tax software
- Allows you to print the VERIFIED Summary to deliver to your client or attach to their electronic file.
Capacity is limited!
Tax season 2022 is just days away. Schedule your demo today to see how this process will save your firm hours of review time and allow you to focus on more profitable advising and consulting.
