New Tax Reforms Agreed with Small Business Owners Surveyed by Right Networks, with More than Half Calling their 2018 Tax Filing Experience Streamlined and Satisfying

Majority of small businesses plan to pocket their tax savings

HUDSON, N.H.--()--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.

Contacts

Julie Murphy
jbmurphypr@gmail.com
617-967-5426

Release Summary

Survey by Right Networks finds small business attitudes towards 2018 tax filing was largely positive; only 15% found process "stressful."

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Contacts

Julie Murphy
jbmurphypr@gmail.com
617-967-5426