In contrast to fears of a stressful and complicated tax season due to
tax reforms, a 2019 Post-Tax Season survey of 300+ small businesses from
cloud-based accounting solution provider Right
Networks found overall attitudes towards their 2018 tax filing as
overwhelmingly positive, with only 15% describing the process as
“stressful.” In fact, when asked to select one word that best describes
their experience filing their 2018 tax returns, the top two words chosen
were “streamlined” and “satisfying:”
| Streamlined | 28% | |||
| Satisfying | 23% | |||
| Complicated | 18% | |||
| Stressful | 15% | |||
| Disappointing | 8% | |||
| Rewarding | 5% | |||
| Excruciating | 2% | |||
Most small businesses will be putting tax savings in their back
pockets
Saving and investing in inventory or capital goods are
the top two actions small businesses said they plan to take with their
tax savings, with hiring more people coming in a distant third.
“Despite a strong economy, plenty of small business owners still harbor
memories of the Great Recession, which may explain their desire to
pocket their savings,” said Joel Hughes, CEO of Right Networks. “As for
the lack of hiring, with unemployment at a 50-year low, most businesses
simply can’t find people to hire, making investing in capital expenses a
smart choice to take their business to the next level,” said Joel
Hughes, CEO of Right Networks.
Republican party seen as more favorable to small business success
Optimism
is high that the savings will continue, as 80% of small businesses
expect the tax reforms to remain in place for at least the next three
years. As for the political party viewed as most favorable to the
success of their small business, 46% of respondents said the Republican
party, 38% said they do not know, and 6% said the Democratic party.
CPAs successful in guiding small businesses through tax changes
Not
surprisingly, owing more money than expected was the top concern of more
than half (55%) of the respondents, followed by concerns that their
accountant would not be knowledgeable about the tax changes (23%), and a
lack of resources to handle the filing due to tax changes (16%).
These fears, however, were largely unfounded, as 54% of respondents were
very satisfied and 43% were satisfied with their CPA’s knowledge of the
new tax rules. In addition, 68% reported that their CPA anticipated the
impact of tax changes on their business and guided them on how to take
advantage.
“Small businesses we surveyed gave their CPA a resounding thumbs up when
it came to guiding them through the 2018 tax reforms,” said Hughes.
“This was gratifying to see, as at Right Networks our mission is to help
ease stress during tax time by enabling frictionless collaboration with
their CPAs and eliminating worries around IT and data loss. In a year
when strong collaboration was essential, CPAs adeptly navigated the
reforms and helped their small business clients reap the benefits.”
In terms of how their CPA could serve them better when it comes to
taxes, respondents said:
| Share more information and best practices | 39% | ||
|
Be more proactive in educating me on changes and the impact to my business |
35% | ||
| Call me more often, checking in at least once per quarter | 13% | ||
Methodology
This nationally
representative survey was conducted online among 29,599 Right Networks
small business customers and prospects and fielded between April 24
through May 1, 2019. The survey yielded responses from 315 small
businesses. The margin of error was +/-5%.
About Right Networks
Right Networks
helps accounting firms, independent accounting professionals, and small
businesses move their legacy accounting software and business-critical
applications to the cloud. Right Networks is 100% accounting focused and
offers an industry-leading solution that hosts and maintains legacy
accounting software alongside a curated application ecosystem of 250+
best-in-class applications, including QuickBooks, Lacerte and ProSeries
from Intuit, Expensify, Bill.com, Avalara, SmartVault and Webgility. By
providing critical, time-consuming application updates and back-ups and
zero scheduled downtime, as well as 24/7 tech support and
enterprise-class security, Right Networks customers achieve the
flexibility that is critical to serving their clients and/or running
their business. The company has earned widespread industry recognition
and was most recently named a 2019 CPA Practice Advisor Readers’ Choice
Award recipient.
Visit https://www.rightnetworks.com/ to
learn more about the company’s solution, pricing and available plans.
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