Accounting
Art of Accounting: Tax season staff appreciation gifts
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Tax season is almost over and you’ve made it this far, so congrats. Now is certainly not the time for me to write a column with lofty ideas for the future, so I am providing a few short tips for ways to show your appreciation to your staff in the closing days of tax season. Each is a way to thank your staff for their hard work.
- Send a plant or bouquet of flowers to their spouse or family with a thank you note.
- Give your staff a generous gift certificate for a meal for two at an upscale restaurant they usually would not go to.
- Give each staff person five crisp $100 dollar bills as a “gift” (and do not put it on their W-2 and do not deduct it).
- Give your team a day to “chill out” by closing your firm on April 16th.
- Arrange for an ice cream truck to be parked outside your office one afternoon and let everyone know about it and tell them they could also have their family come.
- Give your staff a $100 or $200 credit to buy firm logo clothing of their choosing at a well-known vendor for this material. The staff would appreciate this and each time they wear it, they become a walking billboard for you.
These are suggestions of showing appreciation and should not be in lieu of compensating anyone for their tax season work. The method of compensation should have been worked out long ago. These are not “cheap” or inconsequential costs. However, in the totality of tax season none of these is that costly, and I feel each is a good way to show appreciation. Also, anything you do should be done this week or on April 15th and not delayed beyond then.
A caveat is that once you start something like this, it likely would become expected in the following year. So what! Your business could not function without your staff working as hard as they are. Look at this as an investment, in addition to being a way to show appreciation and doing something unexpected and nice.
If you read this and feel your staff does not deserve anything extra, perhaps you need to start a serious introspective on your current staff and how you intend to move forward if they are not people you are appreciative of. That could wait until after April 15th, like for April 16th. This is your future.
Do not hesitate to contact me at
Total postsecondary spring enrollment grew 3.2% year-over-year, according to a report.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center published the latest edition of its
The report found that undergraduate enrollment grew 3.5% and reached 15.3 million students, but remains below pre-pandemic levels (378,000 less students). Graduate enrollment also increased to 7.2%, higher than in 2020 (209,000 more students).
(Read more:
Community colleges saw the largest growth in enrollment (5.4%), and enrollment increased for all undergraduate credential types. Bachelor’s and associate programs grew 2.1% and 6.3%, respectively, but remain below pre-pandemic levels.
Most ethnoracial groups saw increases in enrollment this spring, with Black and multiracial undergraduate students seeing the largest growth (10.3% and 8.5%, respectively). The number of undergraduate students in their twenties also increased. Enrollment of students between the ages of 21 and 24 grew 3.2%, and enrollment for students between 25 and 29 grew 5.9%.
For the third consecutive year, high vocational public two-years had substantial growth in enrollment, increasing 11.7% from 2023 to 2024. Enrollment at these trade-focused institutions have increased nearly 20% since pre-pandemic levels.
Jordan Vonderhaar/Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/
The Internal Revenue Service has released
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 amended Sec. 55 to impose the CAMT based on the “adjusted financial statement income” of an “applicable corporation” for taxable years beginning in 2023.
Among other details, proposed regs provide that “applicable corporation” means any corporation (other than an S corp, a regulated investment company or a REIT) that meets either of two average annual AFSI tests depending on financial statement net operating losses for three taxable years and whether the corporation is a member of a foreign-parented multinational group.
Prior to the publication of any final regulations relating to the CAMT, the Treasury and the IRS will issue a notice of proposed rulemaking. Notice 2025-27 will be in IRB: 2025-26, dated June 23.
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Trump says ‘extremely hard’ to make a deal with China’s Xi as trade stalemate fuels calls for leaders to talk
New 2023 K-1 instructions stir the CAMT pot for partnerships and corporations
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