December 3, 2023
2023 Business Scheduling
Dear Friends,
I’m emailing you with an update on the scheduling of business tax appointments.
In January I announced that we were not going to schedule 2022 tax appointments until those on the 2021 wait list had been completed. Despite great progress, there is still a backlog.
If you’re wondering why we are in this situation, it’s because our office had been operating at, or maybe a little above, full workload capacity when the covid pandemic came in 2020. Many tax laws changed mid-season, then there was PPP, ERC, EIDL, EEIG, UIA and PUA. We were forced to stop processing tax returns for months in order to assist in obtaining these vital and time sensitive funds for everyone. We will never recover that lost tax processing time.
Some good news - we have added staff to help with business returns. Catching up remains a priority and a challenge. I’m still the only one to complete business returns along with reviewing all 1040 tax returns before they are transmitted. This attention to detail is one of the things that sets us apart from other firms and is the level of service you’ve come to expect from us. We will never waiver from producing quality work for my clients.
With another tax season fast approaching, we have been planning the 2024 work calendar to reach the goal of everyone being caught up by September 15th. The situation is clear – there aren’t enough hours available to meet everyone’s needs.
You have all been with me for many years; there has been marriages, kids, new jobs, retirements, we’ve become like family. This makes the decision I’ve come to a very painful one:
I have to reduce the number of business clients that The Tax Authority serves
I will be finalizing my 2024 calendar in the next two weeks and this reduction to our business client workload must happen. I am asking you to help me by choosing another CPA. Continuing on the current path is neither fair nor realistic to you or myself. Some of you must be frustrated with waiting for your tax returns. The month of December is an ideal time to transition to another tax preparer. For those that do move, we will assist in any way we can.
If not enough of you make the choice to move, I will need to make that most difficult decision and ask some of you to go, which is not something I’m looking forward to.
All bookkeeping and payroll services can continue uninterrupted, even if you take your tax returns elsewhere, we can continue to do your bookkeeping and payroll if you desire us to.
As always, I will file all business extension forms on March 15, 2024 and all individual extension forms on April 15, 2024 for all that are able to stay.
As a reminder, businesses with a December 31st year end are due September 15th and the penalty for not filing 2021 on time is $205 per month per owner and for 2022 is $220 per month per owner, each have a 12-month maximum. This penalty can be abated under certain circumstances.
Thank you for understanding and for your years of patronage and friendship, I wish you all great success.
Shari
Shari L. McConnell, CPA
THE TAX AUTHORITY, P.C.