Archive for May, 2010
As tax businesses grow, one of the things they realize they need is a Policies & Procedures Manual. At Peoples Tax , we have a comprehensive P&P Manual that has evolved over the 22+ years since I founded the business. We find it essential to ensure that all employees in all of our 9 offices are adhering to our company philosophy and policies and procedures. A P&P manual is also a useful training tool.
I founded Peoples Income Tax in 1987 after working for 19+ years as a District Manager and Regional Director for H&R Block. We opened with 3 offices for the 1988 tax season and expanded aggressively in the following years. I knew we had to have a comprehensive tax office policies and procedures manual to ensure consistent implementation of our operating system throughout our multiple offices. We created this P&P Manual and it has been invaluable for both training and reference. Without it, many employees would be “doing their own thing” and we would not have the adherence to our operating methods and company philosophy to ensure efficiency and consistent quality service.
After being asked about it so many times, we decided, some years ago, to license it for a nominal fee (link below) to independent tax businesses who wanted to operate systematically without buying a franchise and be more on a level playing field with the national tax firms. Do you have a Policies & Procedures Manual for your tax office(s)? If so, what does it cover?
http://www.theincometaxschool.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=84
Will IRS Modernized E-File (CADE2) result in the RAL becoming Obsolete?
Posted by: Administrator | Comments (0)IRS Modernized E-File (CADE) promised to speed up direct deposit refunds to a few days instead of about 2 weeks .
Read Details at: http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=204763,00.html The new CADE2 IRS project is explained at the following link.:http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2010/03/29/irs-data-centers-gird-for-tax-season/
We have been phasing out of RALs for the past 5 years in anticipation of faster refunds from IRS. We believe the RAL will be replaced by various refund transfer products such as stored value credit cards.
What impact will this likely have on the RAL market? What implications will CADE2 have for your tax business?
How can you ensure security of your clients’ tax return information?
Posted by: Administrator | Comments (0)As tax preparers, we are responsible for maintaining privacy of all tax return information in accordance with IRS privacy code, Section 7216. Most tax preparation software encrypts the clients’ date when e-filing. However, if you save your clients’ tax returns as PDF files and e-mail them to the client, how can you be sure the PDF does not get into the wrong hands? How can you ensure that your employees do not take client information out of the office, including clients’ names and addresses? Do your employees sign an employment agreement that includes a provision requiring them to adhere to IRS Section 7216? How can you keep employees from leaving taxpayer documents in view where unauthorized persons might see them? Do you adequately cover security of clients’ tax return information in your employee training? What are the best practices?
Tax software (CrossLink, ProSeries, TaxSlayer, Drake, TaxWise)
Posted by: Administrator | Comments (18)
With Chase following suite with Santa Barbara Bank and pulling out of the RAL business who will be left to meet the needs of independent tax businesses to provide RALs for their clients to keep from losing clients to the national tax firms? If you are not able to offer RALs, what can you do to keep your RAL clients? How would this affect your tax business?
