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CFO roles will expand and create more value in 2025

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2025 is shaping up to be a year of rapid change for CFOs across their accounting and finance departments. Continuing talent challenges, increasingly dangerous cyber threats, renewed focus on ROI and the rise of AI will all influence — and permanently change — the way CFOs work and how they drive value for their organizations. 

IBM’s 2024 CFO Survey found that the top 9% of CFOs in terms of performance were significantly more engaged than the average in activities including cybersecurity, brand reputation, enterprise strategy and execution, technology and talent. Because of the connection between performance and wider involvement, the biggest trend we expect to affect CFOs in 2025 is the need to consider and contribute to activities across the organization. 

In some cases, this engagement may look like a convergence or overlap between the roles of CFO and COO. CFOs who haven’t already forged working partnerships across their companies may want to start by making closer connections to the CIO or CTO for the biggest early wins. For example, 65% of CFOs who participated in the CFO survey said, “Their organization is under pressure to accelerate ROI across their technology portfolio,” but just a third said finance and technology strategize together early in the IT planning process. 

The CFO embraces data-driven storytelling

To help different departments improve their ROI, CFOs increasingly need storytelling skills to craft narratives based on financial data. This is important for conveying to other decision makers how they can create value in a way that resonates with their department’s goals and the company’s goals. If leaders in other areas of the business can understand the how and the why behind the CFO’s budget and purchasing input, they’re more likely to factor that input into their decisions and strategies. 

AI continues to reshape accounting and finance functions

In 2024, only 34% of finance departments had implemented standard AI use cases, and just 11% were using generative AI. Those numbers will almost certainly grow in 2025, as more organizations implement use cases like automating accounts payable, accounts receivable, and monthly closing tasks, so that people can shift their time to value-added work. 

More organizations may also adopt AI-powered forecasting and budgeting, so these become real-time processes rather than static activities that only get updated once a year. Challenges for finance and accounting leaders who want to leverage AI include standardizing data for AI models and monitoring the AI model’s output for accuracy. 

Talent shortages will require new strategies

A dwindling pipeline of accounting graduates and employees’ increasing desire for better work-life balance will force CFOs and accounting managers to find new ways to get the work done. Without the option to simply hire more full-time employees or to expect people to work 80-hour weeks, automating basic tasks with AI may allow organizations to get the same amount of work done with fewer employees. The use of outsourced talent will also continue to grow in 2025, as smaller companies seek people to handle their workloads and larger companies use outsourcing strategically.

Even the CFO role can be outsourced. The use of fractional CFOs — contract CFO talent that works part-time for multiple clients — can help companies maintain stability while they search for a permanent CFO or cover for a CFO who’s on leave. Smaller companies and early-stage startups that don’t need a full-time CFO can benefit from working with a fractional CFO to set strategy and focus on value creation. This kind of temporary leadership role has grown by 57% since 2020 and is likely to keep growing as more companies discover the benefits of accessing CFO expertise without a full-time commitment. 

Cybersecurity becomes a CFO concern

CFO collaboration with security will be increasingly important in 2025 because of the rise in AI-enabled security threats. These include cyberattacks on organizations’ networks to steal data or disrupt operations, email attacks designed to steal funds or employee network credentials, and brand impersonation attacks on customers that can inflict heavy damage on brand reputation and trust. 

The potential for financial losses to theft, reputational damage, compliance penalties and post-attack recovery gives CFOs an urgent need to collaborate with IT leaders on their organizations’ security efforts. For example, the average cost of a data breach in 2024 was $4.88 million, the highest figure yet. But only a third of midmarket organizations put the CFO in charge of cybersecurity budgets in early 2024. As attacks get more expensive, look for more companies to loop in the CFO on cybersecurity investment decisions or change how CFOs staff and utilize different team members.

These skills will matter more in 2025

People in accounting and finance will need some new skills to make the most of the technology, security and strategy trends we expect to see in 2025. One area where almost everyone needs to upskill is data literacy, to support AI initiatives. Employees don’t need to become data scientists in addition to accountants or finance leaders, but everyone in the organization needs to understand how to look at data, spot anomalies and analyze them.

Soft skills will matter even more. Effective collaboration, storytelling and relationship building skills can help everyone, especially CFOs who may be called on to work with a growing number of other leaders and groups within their business. 

Strengthening data literacy and interpersonal skills are ways to build another critical skill for 2025, which is staying adaptable to change. Flexibility is a requirement in today’s accounting and finance landscape, which is changing faster than ever, as these trends indicate. CFOs and accounting professionals who can keep up will be in the best position to create value for their organizations in 2025.

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Accounting

Trump allies fret tax-cut plans at risk with GOP infighting in Congress

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A faction of President-elect Donald Trump’s allies is harboring doubts about Republicans’ chances of passing a sweeping tax bill in 2025 amid party infighting and strategy disputes.

Republicans broadly agree that there’s little room for error on what is a rare opportunity for the GOP to update the Tax Code without having to make any concessions to Democrats. There’s also time pressure: households and privately-held businesses will see their tax bills rise if Congress doesn’t act by the end of the year.

But Republicans openly disagree on how to meet that deadline. Little progress was made on Wednesday night when Trump met with GOP senators, with the president-elect telling reporters at the conclusion of the meeting that it “doesn’t matter” to him how his allies in Congress plan to get his top legislative achievements passed.

Stephen Miller, the incoming deputy White House chief-of-staff and a vocal advocate for an immigration crackdown, has pushed lawmakers to first pursue a border security bill, before pivoting to taxes, an idea Senate Republican Majority Leader John Thune endorsed during his address to open the new Congress.

That pits them against House Republicans, many of whom want to cram all the party’s legislative goals — immigration, energy production and taxes — into a singular bill. That’s an approach that yields to the reality that the tiny House GOP majority — a fractious group of lawmakers willing to torch members of their own party during heated disputes — will have a hard time passing even one bill, let alone two.

“The best chance for a reconciliation bill that includes tax cuts to pass the House is for the tax cuts to be included in the first one, and preferably in one big beautiful bill,” said House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith, referring to the legislative process, known as reconciliation, which allows the majority party to advance its priorities with the votes of the opposing party. 

Trump, who made taxes and an immigration crackdown the centerpiece of his 2024 presidential campaign, has waffled on his wishes, further muddying the debate. Over the weekend, he posted that he supported “one powerful Bill that will bring our Country back, and make it greater than ever before.” At a press conference on Tuesday, however, he indicated a willingness to separate immigration from taxes.

“Well, I like one big beautiful bill. I always have. I always will. But if two is more certain, it does go a little bit quicker, because you can do the immigration stuff early,” he told reporters.

Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, said following Wednesday’s meeting with Trump that they discussed using tariff hikes as a way to offset the cost of the tax cuts, a politically risky move that could further divide Republicans.

Thune, after meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday, joked with reporters that the plan for sequencing the legislation is “as clear as mud.”

After the Wednesday meeting with Trump, Thune told reporters they are all united on the goals but lawmakers still have different views on the legislative strategy to get there.

Strategy planning

Congress also must raise the debt ceiling this year — an issue that has routinely caused Republican infighting and soured relationships within the party. Johnson told reporters Tuesday he plans to add a debt ceiling increase to the bill, with the final product put together by “churning it out amongst our colleagues.” He also set an April goal to pass it out of his chamber.

Paul, however, said Wednesday there’s opposition from Republicans in both chambers to addressing the debt ceiling in the bill. 

“We need to do the tax bill in the first 150 days,” said Steve Moore, an informal economic advisor to Trump.

Moore said that he, along with Trump’s former National Economic Council Chair Larry Kudlow and economist Arthur Laffer, urged Trump to tackle taxes first.

“We shouted from the rooftops,” Moore said. “The argument made to Trump that carried the day was that delaying it would put the tax cut at risk.”

The business community has also warned that a delay — or failure — of the tax measure could stymie the economic growth promises Republicans ran on.

“I’m not going to second guess the speaker or the majority leader on the timing of the tax bill, but I will say that from a business perspective, from an investment perspective, a manufacturing perspective, sooner is going to be a whole lot better than later if they truly want to keep their promises that they’ve made,” said Jay Timmons, president and chief executive officer of the National Association of Manufacturers.

Many Republicans also publicly and privately worry that isolating immigration — an issue that has vexed Congress for decades — into an initial bill will take far more time than anticipated and eat up a great amount of political capital and good will, potentially jeopardizing the size, scope and ambition of a tax measure.

History lesson

In 2017, Trump faced a similar legislative strategy quandary on the sequencing of policy when his team spent months trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act only to have then-Senator John McCain, an Arizona Republican, strike down the bill at the last minute. The Trump White House managed to barely pass tax reform that December — and that was with a much larger margin of Republicans in the House. 

That legislation was also hastily written and passed solely with the support of Republicans. At the time, there was a feeling in the Trump orbit that tackling infrastructure or taxes first would have provided the new president with far more political dividends than pursuing the failed health care legislation.

In the closing days of the 2024 election, Trump promised to extend the personal tax cuts from 2017 and expand the state and local tax deduction, while also creating new tax breaks like no taxes on tips, overtime pay or Social Security checks. 

Trump has vowed to Wall Street executives that he would reduce the corporate tax rate to as low as 15%. That laundry list of promises surprised even some of his closest economic advisors, who privately said Trump was unlikely to turn all of this rhetoric into reality. 

Trump, as recently as last weekend, has repeatedly singled out one specific pledge — no taxes on tips — which suggests it could be among the highest priority cuts for the incoming president.

Political calculus

For Republicans, a key calculation is delivering on Trump’s tax promises so the party can hold onto its control of the House of Representatives in 2026. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a close Trump ally, said history shows that Trump needs to pass the tax bill by July 4, 2025, to satisfy voters.

When President Ronald Reagan “did not front-load the tax cuts in 1982-1981, we lost 26 seats in 1982. When Trump did not get the tax bill through fast enough, we lost 40 seats in 2018. We also know that Franklin Delano Roosevelt, by acting aggressively, picked up nine seats,” he said.  

Former Representative Kevin Brady, who led efforts on Trump’s 2017 tax overhaul, said Republicans ought to “educate” — or perhaps browbeat — their colleagues to make a priority of the cuts.

“Failure is not an option. You cannot wreck this economy. You cannot damage this presidency,” Brady said at an event in Washington. “You’re going to find a way to get this done.”

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Accounting

Extra tax filing time granted for Carter remembrance

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Taxpayers have an extra day, until Friday, Jan. 10, to file any return or pay tax originally due on Thursday, Jan. 9.

The IRS granted the time for the Jan. 9 National Day of Mourning for Jimmy Carter, the 39th U.S. president. He was the longest-lived president in history, dying December 29 at the age of 100.

The one-day extension also applies to any federal income, payroll or excise tax deposit due on Jan. 9, including those required to be made through the Treasury Department’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System.

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Accounting

IRS Free File starts Jan. 10

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IRS Free File Guided Tax Software will be available this Friday for taxpayers ahead of the start of tax season later this month.

Starting Jan. 10, IRS Free File will begin accepting individual returns. Providers will generally allow taxpayers to prepare and file returns now and hold them for e-filing when the season starts. 

Taxpayers can access free software tools at IRS Free File page on IRS.gov.

U.S. Department of the Treasury Internal Revenue Service (IRS) 1040 Individual Income Tax forms for the 2016 tax year are arranged for a photograph in Tiskilwa, Illinois, U.S., on Monday, Dec. 18, 2017. This week marks the last leg of Republicans' push to revamp the U.S. tax code, with both the House and Senate planning to vote by Wednesday on final legislation before sending it to President Donald Trump. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg

“Taxpayers have multiple filing choices,” said IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel, in a statement, “including trusted tax professionals, tax software, Free File, Direct File or free preparation services through IRS partners.”

IRS Free File is entering its 23rd filing season and is delivered through a partnership between the IRS and Free File Inc. (formerly the Free File Alliance). Eight private-sector partners will provide online guided tax software products for taxpayers with an adjusted gross income of $84,000 or less in 2024. Taxpayers with an AGI above $84,000 can use the Free File Fillable Forms starting Jan. 27.

For 2025, the partners participating in IRS Free File are 1040Now, Drake (1040.com), ezTaxReturn.com (also in Spanish), FileYourTaxes.com, On-Line Taxes,TaxAct, TaxHawk (FreeTaxUSA) and TaxSlayer.

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