Good morning. Here’s your quote of the day to start strong
First, your quote of the day.
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.” - Steve Martin
Grab your coffee. Let’s catch up.
Today’s Ledger:
470,000 returns. Questions come later.
The free tax rival Intuit had to sell.
What’s a degree worth on payday?
Trick or Treat 👻
If you have ecom clients, you know the BFCM drill: orders triple, and so do the fees, refunds, and payouts. Great November, red January, and December spent reconciling settlements.
Join Ecom After Dark on October 28, for a spook-free hour of real e-commerce accounting horror stories and how to fix them, and learn the automations to cut close time by up to 90%.
WTF of the Day🤯
The IRS’s $977 Million Blind Spot
More than 470,000 tax returns claimed car loan interest deductions that the IRS’s watchdog flagged as questionable. The IRS accepted them anyway. The deductions totaled $977 million, with an estimated tax impact of $122 million. A key screening rule wasn’t ready in time, partly because the IRS worried about legally rejecting otherwise valid returns.
And as of August, the agency still had no plan to check potentially improper claims after accepting them. It now agrees to develop one, though it disputes some of the watchdog’s recommendations. Questionable doesn’t mean every claim was wrong. But having a return accepted doesn’t mean the deduction passed an eligibility check, either. Some taxpayers could hear back after thinking they were all done.
Read the article
What’s poppin in accounting🍿
Intuit Sold It. Now It’s Back.
In 2020, the Justice Department made Intuit sell Credit Karma’s tax business before it could buy the company. The concern? Giving TurboTax’s owner a growing free rival would mean less competition. Now Intuit is bringing back the Credit Karma Tax name, with a newly built product offering $0 federal filing and $15 state filing, plus optional paid extras.
Why offer another tax product? Live support now brings in more than half of TurboTax’s revenue. Credit Karma Tax targets people who want to file themselves without paying for federal filing, even with more complex returns. Intuit says this is a distinct product from the business it sold. The strategy gives it two ways to keep customers. Sell help to those who want it, and offer a cheaper route to those who don’t.
Read the article
Weekly Trend Chart 📊
Same Degree. Very Different Pay Bump.
Four years of classes, exams, and tuition bills. What does that buy you? In the U.S., workers with a bachelor’s degree earn 65% more on average than high school graduates. In Norway, the gap is just 6%. Same level of education. A very different reward on payday.
Across all college degrees, South Africa has the biggest gap at 206%, versus 70% in the U.S. But a big gap doesn’t automatically make college a better deal. These figures compare full-time workers within each country, before tax. Tuition, student debt, and years spent out of the workforce aren’t on this chart. The bigger paycheck is only one side of the college calculation.
Your Client Made a Killing. You Get the Body. 💀
“WE CRUSHED BLACK FRIDAY.”
Cool, Steve. Now explain why the payouts don’t match.
Fees. Refunds. Mystery transactions. Your client gets champagne. You get 19 tabs open and a twitch.
Let’s fix that before December eats you alive.
Join Webgility’s Ecom After Dark for accounting horror stories and automations that could cut reconciliation time by up to 90%.
Oct. 28 • 9 AM PT / Noon ET • 60 minutes
Meme of the Day😂
Every day 😂
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