The tax filing deadline for 2018 is over, but the IRS is still busy sending notices to taxpayers and their accountants – including small businesses. Canopy Notices is a new offering designed to specifically address this issue by helping accounting professionals manage their client’s IRS notices from a single management dashboard.
The IRS sends out more than 200 million IRS notices each year to small businesses and other taxpayers to resolve the more than 150 types of infractions the agency usually identifies. And because of budgeting, reduced staff and newly available technology, these notices are being sent using automated solutions.
For individual accountants and small accounting firms, responding to these notices can be time-consuming and costly. And this is where Canopy Notices comes in to help tax professionals manage the IRS notices their clients are served with.
In a press release, Canopy’s Vice President of Product Management and Design, Nate Barrett says, “The IRS can cover more ground sending millions of notices than they can by doing traditional audits. Now, the average accounting firm is dealing with upwards of 100 notices per year. IRS notices are a huge source of frustration for many firms, as it can take the average practitioner more than three hours to research and respond to a notice.”
In an email interview with Small Business Trends, Barrett shared some insight into Notices. He said the solution is especially suited for small businesses, such as accountants and other financial service providers.
Barrett explained, “Receiving a notice can be a very distressing experience for your client. The IRS sends millions of notices to taxpayers each year. They are fairly common. In general, clients have the expectation that their tax professional can resolve notices and so those that don’t may lose clients. Even if they don’t lose clients, practitioners who don’t respond to notices will lose a lot of chargeable work.”
He goes on to say the size of your business or accounting firm does not matter. “If you provide tax services, particularly tax preparation, you have to be capable of helping your clients respond to a notice.”
Barrett added, “If you can show you know how to handle the notice quickly and accurately you build confidence and trust with your client.”
Canopy Notices Features
Canopy Notices can be used as a standalone product or as part of Canopy’s Practice Management Suite for a comprehensive solution to keep track of IRS notices.
Notice Library allows professionals to quickly assess notices that are time sensitive using search capability.
Resolution and Letter Templates to Take Action are developed by seasoned tax professionals and former IRS employees so each notice can be resolved with clear and step-by-step instructions.
Management Dashboard and Status Tracking allow you to see what is taking place throughout your entire firm. You can assign tasks, track progress based on official deadlines and see the status of any engagement so all notices are being tracked and addressed on time.
Barrett said, “Ignoring a notice is never the right way to respond. If you choose to ignore a tax notice, it will definitely come with some consequence.”
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This article, “New Canopy Tool Allows Tax Pros to Manage Client IRS Notices” was first published on Small Business Trends