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We have "value added" that many of the Blocks/Jackson Hewitts do not. Their numbers will continue to drop if they are relying on simple returns (usually with EITC); whereas those who need 1041's, 1065's, 1120's, 706's, Schedule C, Schedule E, Schedule F (and some Schedule D's) will continue to use tax professionals. Also representation. I try and identify value added on any return I prepare--if they would have the same result elsewhere, I might mention Tax-Aide or some free program--if they still want me to prepare their return, that's okay too.

https://www.accountingtoday.com/news/chatgpt-retakes-cpa-exam-as-v4-0-passes

"The Internal Revenue Service is expected to soon restart mailing out the automated collection notices that it paused last year while it tried to catch up on its backlog of unprocessed tax returns." "An estimated 5 million to 8 million taxpayers will begin receiving notices that they owe money to the IRS around the end of May and the beginning of June." Surprise, Surprise

The 2210 is for the prior year and the interest rates should be hard coded in. The interest rates that ATX does not update are the late paying ones on the 1040 itself.

"The IRS is mostly caught up now on its unprocessed returns from last year, although it recently reported that it had 4.2 million unprocessed tax returns as of May 13, including Tax Year 2022 returns, 2021 returns that need review of correction, and late-filed prior-year returns."

"Blame Colorado. Beginning in 2022, the state began imposing a retail delivery fee on retail sales of tangible personal property delivered by motor vehicle to a location in the state. In order to apply, the sale had to include at least one item of tangible personal property subject to sales or use tax. The retailer is required to collect the retail delivery fee from the purchaser and remit the fee to the Colorado Department of Revenue. " "Significantly, Minnesota and New York are now proposing their own retail delivery fees, similar to the Colorado statute. In fact, Minnesota is looking at raising its proposed retail delivery fee from 40 to 75 cents. " "Not surprisingly, the Colorado fee has drawn criticism from the business community, according to Scott Peterson, vice president of U.S. tax policy and government relations for Avalara. The fee has to be reported on a separate return, so every retailer has to file two tax returns monthly — one for sales tax, and another return just for the delivery fee — that's a big step backward in simplification." Since most states are predicting declines in state tax revenue, I expect these delivery fees (Tax ) will spread to more states.

One of the AI proponents on TaxTwitter said that AI will not replace tax preparers; however, tax preparers who use AI will replace tax preparers who do not. So far, I've only used AI (ChatGPT, an earlier version) to write to letters at the start of this tax season, one to announce/accept my price increase and one to fire clients. I look forward to having my tax software, tax research, etc., build in AI capabilities that I can use seamlessly. I do NOT want to be nor have the skill or time to be the technical person who creates new AI uses in my business. I guess that means price increases from my vendors. Hopefully in line with productivity increases.

FYI Addendum: My IT person took the computer home. He pried it open and removed the battery which had exploded. He took it outside on the concrete, plugged it in and the computer works perfectly. He was shocked that everything survived. I had already ordered a replacement and have gifted the survivor to him. Acer all the way. Sometimes a tragic event has a happy ending.

Of course NYS is considering it. NY would hate to miss out on another opportunity to tax us. If you caught the NBC evening news last night NYS was #2 (California #1) in most people exiting their state. Wonder why.

We really need an IRS site to look up the Name Control in their computers. It's stupid that they make us guess what they have. I had several trusts I couldn't efile for name control rejection for years, and finally the IRS fixed the name in their computers and we were finally able to efile. I kept putting the reason for paper filing as the IRS has an error in the name control database, and I guess someone finally took a look and fixed it.

Just out of curiosity, I used it for some basic tax research and it did a good job. I was using the free version and the next time I tried to use it, the site was too busy and I couldn't get on.

AI knows what it knows because it has "learned" from everything out there in the vast internet. The problem is that a lot of what is out there is wrong. You could probably ask it to prove that the world is flat and it will recall all those ancient texts that said it was. It's always fun when you type a text and it tries to create the word before you type it--some hilarious guesses come up. I do think AI could create a perfect tax return. It could "learn" the entire US Code Title 26 and all the regulations, court cases, and rulings. As our tax system has gotten more complex, we tax pros have often lamented that there is no way one person could know it all. Now some of us will not prepare returns that have foreign income, crypto transactions, etc. or tackle estates, trusts, and worst of all partnerships, because we do not think we have the knowledge to be accurate. Eventually AI could handle it. Tax pros will join the ranks of milkmen, lamplighters, keypunch and telephone operators in the Museum of Extinct Professions.

I noticed that as well. You have to manually check the input form for the interest rate. I have found in many cases the software has not updated the current quarter. Tom Longview, TX