Preparing for Next Tax Season Starts Now
Take control of your business; do not let it control you!
October 15th just passed a few days ago; however, the 2026 filing season will be here in approximately three months. The time for making changes is now.
After taking some well-deserved time off, please do an honest tax season review. Memorializing experiences now helps promote real change for the next tax season.
Here are items to consider in your review:
Acknowledge Successes. What parts of the tax season process went really well? Can you expand upon those successes?
Process Pain Points. What parts of the tax season process could have gone better this year? How can you improve them? Do they need to be reimagined?
Identify Staff Successes and Challenges. In what areas did the staff excel? In what areas is improvement needed? What continuing education or other skill training is required to get them to where they need to be?
Commit to Disengagements. Which clients were rude, abusive, or refused to observe firm rules (for example, emailing documents with sensitive information? Which clients made you sit in your office at 8:00 pm on October 15th because their procrastination led to a last-minute filing? Send them a disengagement letter now to make space for ideal clients.
For employees whose firms are not committed to a healthy work environment or professional growth, it is time to leave. Professionals should not support firms that do not support them or abuse them to increase their bottom line. I genuinely believe that a business that puts its employees and clients first will reap the financial dividends; there is no need to put the screws to people to make a profit.
There is no better time to start a tax business without the baggage and bad practices of the industry, as the demand for tax professionals is high. Do not fear the unknown; wholesale change is not possible without some risk.
What Does Change Look Like?
I’ve seen some advocate for a permanent tax return deadline change to solve the overwork problem. However, changing how we work and view our businesses will do far more to alleviate that problem than adding time to tax season. Firms that overwork will use the extra time to onboard more clients; this frequently occurred during the pandemic postponements in 2020 and 2021.
You can develop an ideal client base and appropriate pricing to create a healthy work-life balance year-round. An ideal client base considers the total number of clients and the types of clients. In addition, the right tech stack (i.e., the collection of integrated technologies used to build, run, and grow your business) can increase efficiencies so that you can focus more on your clients and less on administration.
Many of you want to help as many people as possible, so you don’t want to increase prices and turn clients away. But are you really helping them? The increasing complexity of tax returns and the increasing need for advisory services make a high-volume practice not ideal. Does the extreme workload cause you to make errors or miss opportunities for your clients? Is simply getting the return off of your desk the primary goal all too often? Is any of that in the client’s best interests?
Don’t forget your health: you can’t help anyone if you are dead, sick, or incapacitated. You deserve restful sleep and time with family and friends from January through April. Early in my career, I was diagnosed with leukemia, and it made me realize that I wanted and needed to work on my terms so that I could recover and thrive in a lower-stress work environment. Read 2025 Tax Season: Protect Your Health, which I wrote earlier this year.
Implement Different Services
Historically, tax professionals could justify the extreme workload of January through April by taking off the rest of the year. That isn’t feasible anymore in today’s tax environment: clients get IRS and state notices, refunds and return processing are delayed, and clients need help navigating a host of IRS and state issues. Clients also need ongoing advisory and representation services — they may not ask for it, and they may not realize they need it, but your advice and assistance can have a positive effect on their tax situation and overall financial health.
Tax professionals can offer high-value, higher-priced services year-round to meet revenue goals, thus allowing fewer tax return preparation engagements during the January through April period. It also provides staff year-round, consistent work.
I started my career doing tax controversy representation, and I still love it. My tax practice is intentionally small and now focuses on doing IRS representation work using a monthly subscription model. This can be a significant revenue stream for the off-season (and during tax season as long as you devote the appropriate amount of time). It is easy to start with small cases after you get proper training. I recommend the National Tax Practice Institute (NTPI), offered by the National Association of Enrolled Agents.
Offering comprehensive tax planning services for new or existing clients on a monthly payment model is another excellent way to avoid high-stress tax preparation. Working with clients throughout the year makes the tax preparation process much smoother, and you can find quantifiable tax savings to show them the value of your services.
You may think your current clients may not need this level of planning — but if they are searching TikTok for tax savings advice because you do not provide it, then they want it. The other option is shifting your ideal client to someone who wants ongoing tax planning services. I recommend American Institute of Certified Tax Planners membership and training to learn how to add these services to your firm.
Commit to Change
Change is scary. It involves risk, but without risk, there is no reward. I would like you to commit to doing something in the next few months to improve your business next year, no matter how small. You can do it!
Share Your Thoughts!
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I’m in the midst of retooling for next year so this is very timely. Over the past few months I’ve gone from desperately looking for ways to reduce the ever-increasing time it takes to properly prepare and review tax returns, to accepting that the problem isn’t necessarily with my processes, that doing good work takes time and, this is OK as long as the time is spent meaningfully and not on unnecessary busy work.
So the challenge now is to find the right staff to do the work that I don’t have time to do any more and then paying for them!