TAX
CPA Firms Show Signs of Profit Weakness, Even as Fees Strengthen
The Numbers Explain Why 2026 Feels So Difficult.
By CPA Trendlines
Across every major metric, CPA Trendlines is finding the same pattern: Firms are doing more work and generating more revenue — but keeping less of it.
The dynamic was unearthed in gory detail by the Busy Season Barometer. fron-inr \isteb=ning from The Busy Season Barometer. The numbers through tax season didn’t break all at once. Instead, they had been drifting apart. READ MORE →
It’s Time to Start Marketing for Next Tax Season
Your ideas are fresh now.
By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide
Marketing takes many forms. Further, many accountants are not trained in marketing. I also know that while most CPAs want more business, they are too busy with what they have to be actively seeking new business. Additionally, marketing can be external, internal or retentive.
MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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External is where new clients are solicited. That takes effort, ingenuity, time and maybe even some money.
READ MORE →
K1x Secures $175 Million for Private Markets AI Tax Tech
As demands for private market tax reporting and compliance surge.
Tax Season Leaves Accountants Drained, Disappointed
The Busy Season Barometer Shows Exactly When—and Why.
By CPA Trendlines
After starting near historic highs, sentiment among tax professionals fell more than 30 points by April, as workload, client behavior and system failures overwhelmed expectations.
MORE Busy Season Barometer | Join the survey. Get the results
The 2026 tax season began with confidence.
By December, sentiment among tax professionals had climbed to a positive 29.8—the strongest reading in the CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer cycle. A majority expected better conditions. Few anticipated what came next.
By April, that optimism had vanished.
Accountant attitudes closed the season slightly negative, around -1 to -1.8, marking a swing of more than 30 points in four months.
It was one of the sharpest same-season reversals in the Barometer’s 24-year history, and it followed a pattern practitioners have seen before: expectations rising in the fall, then breaking under the weight of the season itself.
The difference in 2026 was the speed—and the causes.