SURVEYS & RESEARCH

 Busy Season 2026: Clients, Pricing, Staffing… CRUNCH

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CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer: Modest Gains, Mixed Outlook, Cautious Tech Upgrades Ahead

Top concerns: “The returns aren’t harder—they’re just later.” (CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer)
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By CPA Trendlines Research

The 2026 tax season shows some gradual improvement for certain firms, but most practitioners report conditions that remain largely unchanged from a year ago, according to the latest data from the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer.

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MORE Tax Season 2026

The good news is: 2026 hasn’t turned into the disaster some were expecting with a new tax law and diminished IRS. The bad news is: 2026 is turning into a relatively routine year — without the advances in workflow or the better margins from higher-value services that some were hoping for.

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Inside Tax Season’s Hidden Shift: Same Work, Fewer People, Higher Cost

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And that’s the good news.

Your mileage may vary: The tax and accounting workforce is churning out almost as many returns. But with rising labor costs. Is that a margin squeeze or the firm of the future? (Index = pro-filed tax returns, annualized payrolls, and headcounts)

By CPA Trendlines

New CPA Trendlines Research suggests that the much vaunted promises of AI-enabled efficiencies are still just that – promises.

MORE Tax Season

So far this year, firms are producing even fewer tax returns than at the same time last year, while salaries are increasing.

The problem gets worrisome when you notice that headcounts are flat to down. Or, are these the signs of a new paradigm?

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How to Choose a Specialty

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Woman's hand pressing words "ASK AN EXPERT"

Considerations that might not have occurred to you.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

Once you decide upon a specialization, you need to go about making yourself an expert. Read, join professional associations, take focused CPE, and try to write articles or give speeches. Accountants who are industry experts become industry thought leaders.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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Some specialties require obtaining designations or certificates of completion that require study and time – an investment you and the firm would have to make. There is no easy path to growing and establishing expertise, but it is a joyful ride.
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Brainstorm for Your Clients

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four people talking in office

What helps one might help others.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

We all use the cliché that we give the clients the best we got, but what does it really mean?

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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I’ve written about value-added services and efforts we can do on behalf of our clients, but here is a different approach I have used.
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Lessons Learned from a Small Firm

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Some growing pains never change.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Call Me Before You Do Anything: The Art of Accounting

“CPA Firm Grows Prosperous by Heeding Its Own Advice.” The Wall Street Journal published an article with that title in their May 18, 1981 issue about my firm, and this column describes some of what we did.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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The article began by stating there were about 28,000 CPA firms in the U.S., with about 19,000 being sole practitioners and many others with just two or three CPAs. These numbers are lower than now, so the profession and small firms have grown significantly in the last 40-plus years.
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