Tax Season 2008: This Time It’s Personal

CPAs reveal top competitive strategies for 2008. Get the secrets. Join the study.

by Rick Telberg
At Large

Tax season is right around the corner, so what are tax professionals doing to add value to the service they bring to clients? The answer is simple: They are getting personal.

Jon Neal, managing member of Greenfield, Wis.-based The Neal Group, says he offers “personal attention with explanations and advice on how to make things better.”

Neal is not alone, and many would likely argue that that’s a good thing. Recent research indicates that there’s room for improvement when it comes to tax preparers promoting the value they bring to small-business clients. A National Federation of Independent Business survey found that 88 percent of businesses with fewer than 250 employees used tax professionals to prepare their most recent federal tax returns. However, only about 5 percent of all small businesses, including 3 percent of those with more than 20 employees, said it’s a more cost effective move compared with handling the taxes in-house.
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