Hardly anything about 2020 could be considered normal, and the annual tax software survey of AICPA member tax preparers by the JofA and The Tax Adviser is no exception. For perhaps the first time ever, the survey had to couch its questions about tax season in the present tense, for the simple reason that, with the IRS’s postponement until July 15 of the April 15 return due date, tax season was not yet over, as it usually is when the survey is deployed. The COVID-19 pandemic and federal disaster declaration that resulted in that postponement and many other legislative and administrative relief measures affected CPA tax preparers’ tax season as well (see the sidebar, “Amid a ‘Brutal’ Tax Season”).
The survey also for a fifth year asked about respondents’ experience with clients whose tax-related identities were stolen, indicating that this issue, once in the forefront among those disrupting tax season, has continued to recede.
View results from the survey here on The Journal of Accountancy.
