Latest / The Cynical CPA / Diary of a CPA: Tax Season Edition
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- Corrine Hasbany: Welcome to The Cynical CPA, the podcast where accounting meets real life and we keep it blunt, honest with zero sugarcoating. I'm your host, Corrine Hasbany CPA, Enrolled Agent and founder of XAct Accounting Services. Each episode, we cut through the accounting jargon, tax confusion and bookkeeping chaos and tell you what actually matters. No fluff, no spin, just real talk, real numbers and the truth you wish your accountant told you sooner. Let's get into it. Thanks for listening to The Cynical CPA. If you liked what you heard, make sure to follow for more real talk about accounting, taxes, and everything in between. No fluff, no sugarcoating, just straight talk and clarity because someone has to say what your accountant is really thinking. Until next time, remember numbers don't lie, but they do need a translator. And that's where The Cynical CPA comes in. If you're ready to stop guessing and start gaining clarity in your numbers, head to xactaccountingservices.com and click on Let's Connect. The Cynical CPA: Hey everyone, welcome back to The Cynical CPA. It's been a minute since my last episode because well, you know, it was tax season. And now that tax season is officially behind us, I think we all deserve a moment. Because whether you're a client, a business owner, an accountant, or a tax preparer, this season was, well, it was brutal. In today's episode, I'm giving you a behind the scenes look at what goes on during tax season. Because if you've ever wondered what tax season really looks like from my side, this is it. So let's get into it. So let's start with some of the wins from this season. Organized clients, clients who send documents before the middle of March, the clients whose books are reconciled and organized. It's truly a beautiful thing. Clients who understand that tax planning happens before December 31st and not on April 15th at 11 p.m. Clients who don't just see us as a service, but as partners who truly understand the why behind the work that we do. And then there are the referrals. I so appreciate when clients refer friends, family, or other business owners to me. It does. It means so much. And it's the greatest compliment. But here's the reality. February and March are not when most accountants are taking on new clients. At that point, most of us are at capacity. We're focused on getting existing client returns prepared on time. So when I say let's connect after tax season, that's not me brushing you off. That's me being realistic and protecting the quality of work. Now, Most people understand that. And every now and then you get the response, well, I'm a referral. Can't you just fit me in? Or even worse, if you can't fit me in, maybe you're not very good at your job. And let me just say this, being fully booked during tax season is not a sign of a bad accountant or a bad tax preparer. It's usually the opposite. Most people respect the timing and the process and they'll follow up after the season. And those are the ones that actually turn into long-term relationships. Then there's the respectful clients, the clients who don't yell at you because you can't change the tax code. I bet you didn't know that, right? You know that accountants and tax preparers, we can't change the tax code. It's shocking, right? And that clients who actually understand that just because they saw something on social media or heard about a new tax law doesn't mean it automatically applies to them. Because not every credit fits every business. Not every strategy works for every situation. Those clients, They ask questions, they listen, and they trust the process. And guess what? Their tax season is a whole lot smoother. And before we get into the more challenging entries of this season, we need to talk about something that drove a lot of it. The tax law changes. Because those played a much bigger role this year than most people realized. So this past season, the One Big Beautiful bill brought some changes which started multiple conversations where people thought they automatically qualified for everything in that bill. But you see, that's not how it works. Tax law is targeted. It's not universal. There are income limits. There are entity requirements. There are timing rules. There are details that actually matter. So just because you saw it online or your friend did it doesn't mean it applies to you. We need to explain why something doesn't apply, which is just as important as when we explain why something does apply. And while some clients handle that well, others heard about these new provisions and when they didn't apply to their situation, they got frustrated. And some even got, well, let's call it, a little rude. So let's take a few minutes to talk about something that doesn't get said enough. Clients yelling, arguing, blaming. I've had conversations where the tone shifted from frustration to straight up disrespect. Your CPA didn't write the tax code We don't decide who qualifies and who doesn't. we apply the rules based on your actual numbers. So if something doesn't apply to you, it's not that it's being missed, it's just not yours to take. And by the time you're asking these questions in April, there's very little that can be changed. At that point, the outcome is already there. So when your expectations don't match reality, that's not a tax problem, that's a planning problem. So let me be clear, asking questions is fine, disagreeing is fine. Disrespect is not. I'm here to provide a professional service, not to be spoken to like I caused the problem. And if you're yelling at your CPA, something already went wrong long before that conversation. So now let's move on to some of the more challenging parts of this past tax season. The, thought you handled that client. The shoe box of receipts dropped off at the end of March. The QuickBooks file that has never been reconciled. And the last minute, we lower my tax bill question after the year is already over? So here's the reality. Accounting is not magic, it's strategy. If your books are not in order, your numbers are unreliable. If your numbers are unreliable, you cannot make proper decisions. And then somehow it becomes the accountant's problem in April. Spoiler alert, it's not. So let's talk about the books, because this brutal tax season, the books are a main component. Books that are behind, out of order, or haven't been touched in months or even years. Uncategorized transactions. personal expenses mixed in, accounts not reconciled, numbers that don't tie. And now instead of preparing a return, I'm reconstructing your financials under a deadline. Disorganized books don't save you money. They just move the cost to tax season. You either pay to do it right during the year or you pay more later to fix it. And this is exactly why I focus so much on consistent accounting and bookkeeping as part of my business. Because when your books are organized and consistent, Tax season becomes a completely different experience. There's less stress, there's fewer surprises, and there's no chaos in March or April. If you're a business owner listening to this and your books are behind, this is what I do. I help business owners get their books cleaned up, organized, and actually usable. Whether it's cleanup, monthly bookkeeping, or getting you set up properly with your accounting software, the goal is simple, to assist you with your numbers so you can actually rely on them and make tax season easier. Then there's clients not sending their documents or sending them incomplete, and then not completing the questionnaire that was specifically designed to make this process easier for everyone. That questionnaire isn't busy work. It's there to catch changes that occurred in the past year, identify new activity, and to help make sure nothing gets missed. And when it's skipped or half filled out, it slows everything down. So now instead of a smooth process, it turns into 150 back and forth emails, followups, and delays. And here's the part people don't always realize. Incomplete information doesn't just make things inconvenient. It increases the risk of errors, missed items, and last minute surprises, which usually leads to stress right at the worst possible time. Because now we're chasing details instead of moving things forward. And a lot of that comes from the same mindset I hear every year. It's only March. I have time. And technically, yes, the deadline hasn't passed. But here's what that really means during tax season. March is not early. March is in the middle of the storm. By that point, everything is already in motion. Returns are in process. Deadlines are stacked and schedules are full. So when you wait until March thinking you're ahead of the game, you're not early. You're actually late to an already crowded process. And that leads to more pressure, less flexibility, and a much higher chance of delays or extensions. Tax season doesn't start in March. It starts when your information is ready. And the earlier that happens, the smoother everything goes. March feels early to clients, but to accountants, it's when capacity is already tight and timelines are compressed. And right at that point, when everything is already in motion, that's usually when the next question shows up. Why do I owe? Can't we fix it? And I get it. No one likes to owe. But by that time, we're having that conversation in March or April, there's very little left to fix. At that point, we're not planning, we're reporting. We're taking what already happened over the past year and putting it on paper. The tax bill isn't being created in that moment. It's the result of everything that already happened, your income, your withholding, your decisions throughout the year. So when you owe, it's not because something went wrong at filing, it's because there wasn't enough planning before the year ended. And that's the shift people need to make. Taxes aren't something you fix in January. February, March, or April, they are something you all year, which leads into just extend it and we'll figure it out later. And I understand why people say that. It feels like it creates space, but an extension doesn't change the numbers. It doesn't reduce what's owed. It doesn't fix mixing information. It just moves the filing deadline. So if the issue is already there in April, an extension doesn't solve it. It just delays it. And even with an extension, your return still needs to be prepared if you owe. Because an extension only extends the filing deadline, not the payment obligation. It stops the clock on the return being filed, not the tax being due. So if you already have a balance due, that doesn't go away just because we extend your return. The return still has to be calculated, reviewed, and finalized because the IRS still expects payment based on what's owed, regardless of the extension. an extension buys time to file, not time to ignore what you owe. So when you step back and look at everything this season, it wasn't just about deadlines or forms or missing information. It was about patterns and the same ones that show up every single year, just in different ways. And the reality is tax season doesn't create the stress. It reveals where things already were. So if this year felt harder than it should have, that's not something that gets fixed in April. That's something that gets fixed before the year even starts. And if any of this sounded familiar to you, this is exactly what I do at XAct Accounting Services. I help business owners and individuals get organized, clean up the chaos, and actually plan ahead, not just react at tax time. That includes bookkeeping, tax preparation, and year-round tax planning, so you're not walking into March or April with surprises. Because the goal isn't just to file a return, it's to actually understand what's happening before it ever becomes a surprise. So there you have it, an inside look at tax season from the CPA side of the desk. If you're tired of last minute stress, the confusion or feeling like you're always playing catch up, now is the time to fix it because next tax season should feel very different than this one. For more tips, resources and ways to take control of your numbers, you can reach out through my website at xactaccountingservices.com by clicking Let's Connect. Until next time, this is a Cynical CPA reminding you that tax season doesn't create chaos, it reveals it.