Alison Reiff-Martin

@ignatiuscpa @LoganGrafTax Every day we should repeat “I am stronger than my excuses! All prices will reflect the value I know bring to the table.”

@LoganGrafTax Can’t quite tell if this is satire or not 😂🤣 but sadly this is actually something some of us would need to pay someone for because many of us are weak and afraid to raise prices. Nothing but excuses!

I have decided to start a new business where other accountants will hire me to raise their rates. I will use their communication channels and send all the comms to their clients. My fee? 10% of the additional revenue generated from the new pricing. My services pay for themselves!

@ajthecpa1226 @LoganGrafTax It is so fun to hear a client tell you and your staff that it is just a plug, play and compute. It should be just a few hours to data entry the return..

@LoganGrafTax You clearly didn’t see the keyboard warriors over the weekend claiming it shouldn’t be impossible to finish a return before the deadline even if get source docs 3 days before the deadline. Chop chop!

If your clients are just now sending you their info for a return that’s due next week… Let’s be honest, that’s not your emergency. Unless you’ve already told them you’ll squeeze it in, there should be a clear understanding that you can’t guarantee it’ll get done in time. This is one of those moments where setting boundaries actually builds trust. Of course, you can still prepare the return. But if you have to sacrifice quality to make it happen, you’re doing a disservice to both yourself and your client.

@FortWayneCPA @LoganGrafTax Can you share the template of what you say?

@LoganGrafTax You should see the letter I send them if my client hires me to do so... I disclaim everything and take no position at all. The accept it 98% of the time. They are just checking a box on a check list...

A lender is asking my client if I could write a letter stating that the money they withdraw from their business (to pay for a house) won't negatively impact their business.

@FortWayneCPA @larryjudd Any suggestions on what to send to clients other than “this is bad”

@larryjudd So are we. We will be sending an email newsletter to clients on Thursday...

If anyone knows any Congressional Republicans, please link them to this post. Skip this post as needed. I am going on a rant... The IRS is already a dumpster fire. It just is. This post is honestly not political. It is just common sense and the poll question at the end is just for tax professionals. I realize anti tax, anti IRS Libertarians and Republicans will take offense at this post and so be it. We need a functional IRS. Period. If you think otherwise you are wrong. We are 37 trillion dollars in debt and we need to collect taxes... Cutting 25% of their workforce in seven months is crippling; especially since they are still using technology that in some cases is 40 years old. The Treasury Department under President Trump (With the consent of Congress) is cutting IRA spending significantly and that will have long term effects on the agency and prevent it from upgrading its technology so it can have even a semi modern computer system. I honestly doubt the IRS will spend 15 billion of the 80 billion allotted to it in The Inflation Reduction Act passed in August of 2022 with zero Republican votes. Note I hate bills passed through reconciliation by EITHER Party when they cannot even get one vote from the other side. The Treasury Department requested a roughly 7% budget cut for next fiscal year. The IRS is struggling and the answer is to let go of 25% of their employees, cut their budget, remove the Inflation Reduction Act money and do what? Pray? Now the House Appropriations Committee is suggesting that cut be increased to 28%. Costs are increasing across the board and yet these yahoos want to cut IRS funding by 28% year over year? Seriously? I hope every member of Congress who votes for this gets tax notices that have to deal with. They want to cut enforcement by 45%. There is not better way to encourage tax fraud and increase the National Debt... Remember the IRS is currently using systems and software that in some cases are 40 years old. Can't we all agree the IRS needs a completely modern and secure computer system in 2025? How is this even controversial? Taxpayers and Tax Professionals are regularly disconnected from the IRS phone system, before these budget cuts. Their phone system is garbage before budget cuts. It is taking the IRS a year or more to process paper filed returns in some cases before the budget cuts. Do not even get me started on the delays for taxpayers who are getting refunds for people who are recently deceased. That is an epic dumpster fire. The IRS is on its 5th Commissioner this year alone and Billy Long is the least qualified Commissioner in my adult life. @auctnr1 Today the IRS notices are garbage. Complete garbage. The IRS response time for these notices is slow and can take over a year already. Today the IRS is posting a lot of payments to the wrong period which is generating more notices. Remember by 9/30 25% of the IRS employees will be gone. So whatever we are seeing now will actually get WORSE. One Big Beautiful Bill is law. It is a very complex law that will require the IRS to issue a lot of guidance and create new forms. In other words the IRS will need a lot of resources to implement this bill. Poll question for Tax Professionals ONLY. Be honest, what size Dumpster Fire will next tax filing season be due to the IRS? Be honest... In the comments, what are you changing at your firm to deal with this upcoming dumpster fire?

Heh #taxtwitter if I wanted to use a tax planning software what would you recommend for a solopreneur beyond a self developed fancy spreadsheet. I have tried taxplan iq and Bloomberg tip and they aren’t quite what I am looking for. Any recommendations? Lacerte tax planner? Tia

@AccountingExecs @FortWayneCPA @FortWayneCPA_ How did you learn they were using your firm and your licenses?

@FortWayneCPA @FortWayneCPA_ You should also check out Fiverr! We've received calls from people asking if individuals on that app work for us. We found that they have been using our firm license and other CPAs' licenses as their own. They provide attestation and tax services without the proper credentials.

I still have an imposter. Please block them and report them. @FortWayneCPA_

@PEspey @CPAPlanner Thank you for the detailed info!!! I was wondering same thing re the $130k.

@CPAPlanner Can you explain this further? How would taxable income rise by $130,000? Wouldn’t their salt cap just drop from 40,000 down to 10,000? Did you mean to say their taxable income would increase by 30k? 🤓

1/ 🚨Breaking News🚨 The One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) Act has just been passed by the House, and is now on its way to the President's desk, where it will be signed into law. With that in mind, it's time to break it down... To read it for yourself: congress.gov/bill/119th-con…

@QuickBooks I am sure I am not alone in saying … this sucks rocks!!! #fixit

@ATREIFF Hi there, Alison. Yes, our QuickBooks Engineers are working with urgency to get the systems back up and running. To keep up with the latest updates please use the link below. I appreciate all your patience. intuit.me/34cjcn3 ^Alex

#taxtwitter @QuickBooks is lacerte down? Getting notice that my firm administrator has to grant me access. Hearing that pro series is down too.

@CPATaxTeam I am interested.

@adammarkowitzEA Your work is more interesting too when you get to know your clients and the stuff they do. It becomes more than a tax return and a bunch of numbers on a page.

Maybe the single most important bit of advice I can give to anyone who is trying to break into tax is this: Get to know your clients. That's how you can go from being a number-puncher to a trusted advisor, and that's how you build a client base. #TaxTwitter

@FortWayneCPA What errors are you seeing?

Yes it is bad out there. The quality of returns I am seeing from potential new clients is honestly terrible.

crfb.org/blogs/trump-ta… #TaxTwitter

@FortWayneCPA @HotTakesbyLuca To boot, states rely on our reported federal Income to calculate state income tax (if state has one). Changing to a national sales tax is a huge impact to states too. #badidea

@FortWayneCPA @HotTakesbyLuca A national sales tax is a bad idea. It is a regressive tax that hurts middle income and the poor. Imagine the special interests behind current tax law and how they will fight against it. We will also have even less incentive than we have now to give to charity. #badidea

President Trump now wants to abolish the Federal income tax. I have always supported abolishing the Federal income tax. I like the Fair Tax and would support replacing the income tax with a National Sales tax along with a rebate so that the poor and lower middle class do not get hammered. Basically every American is sent a check in line with poverty level spending. President Trump wants to replace the income tax with tariffs. Tariffs will not replace nearly enough revenue. A 20% increase in tariffs across the board only raises 330 Billion per conservative think tanks... Can you imagine the winners and losers this would create? The top 50% of Federal tax payers, paid 97.7% of the Federal income tax. The bottom 50% only paid 2.3%. So the bottom half of American households gain almost nothing if Federal income taxes go away. Almost nothing. Then if we have massive tariffs and the price of everything increases (which it will in the short run at least) then those same households will be crushed. And they will vote Democrat in the next election. The top 1% of Americans by this metric paid 45.8% of the Federal income taxes. They would save a lot of money. The rich would get richer, the poor would be crushed... We will have to see the entire package Republicans in Congress come up with.

@FortWayneCPA 9. What is the correct tech? There is so much out there that is new and it is hard to know what is the right tech to adopt. Our perfection propensity makes it more difficult because we don’t want to pick the next new thing only to find, like Bench, it won’t be here for long.

Ten things I expect to see happen in 2025 in the accounting/bookkeeping/tax industry. 1. Private equity will buy more firms with mixed results. 2. There will be even more firm consolidation. Much of it with the hope of selling to private equity. 3. Even more people will leave firms where they are overworked and start new firms. 4. Intuit will get more aggressive trying to sell their products. 5. Watching President-elect Trump and the Republican Senate and House negotiate tax reform is going to be very, very, entertaining. With 7-8 trillion dollars of tax cuts promised by various parties this is going to be fun to watch... Zero chance all of it can all get put into a bill and passed. That being said they will pass a tax bill! 6. Intuit will announce the end of Desktop payroll as of some date in 2026. This will be very unpopular; however, Intuit will do it anyway. 7. This one is staggering; however, I actually think I will see even worse prior work from clients I onboard. 8. The real story of what happened to Bench Accounting will come out and it will be "epic." 9. Accounting technology and AI used in our field will grow in 2025 and firms that embrace the correct technology will gain a competitive advantage that will slowly grow over time. 10. Prices charged by most firms will increase by more than people think. I think we will see an average increase in prices of 10% if not more. Note this price increase will be very non uniform across firms. That is what I think. How about you?

@FortWayneCPA 9 Bench seems to be a poorly run company. CEO left in November. Bench shuts down 12/23 and is magically acquired by Employer.com? Bench is a good example of how the value of an audit is obvious but never taken up on because it is seen as a check to box item.

@FortWayneCPA #3 I imagine more people will go off to start their own firm as a knee jerk reaction only to realize they didn’t plan well and are still working lots of hours.

@TBDBITL @RoseParade When/where will the rehearsals be held here in Dallas for the Cotton Bowl?

Ready for the @RoseParade 🌹

@TexasFootball When/where will the band rehearse for the cotton bowl? What an exciting game!

Singing Texas Fight all the way back to Austin! #HookEm | #CFBPlayoff