Logan Graf: Build a Modern Accounting Business, Not a Job | The Disruptors

“People don’t want to work themselves to death for a third of the year.”

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The Disruptors
With Liz Farr
For CPA Trendlines

The Break-Through Blueprint for Revolutionizing the CPA Firm Business Model

Logan Graf, owner of The Graf Tax Co and founder of the Counter community, is proof that there’s a better way to run a tax firm. Last tax season, after restructuring, hiring a manager, and implementing a tax scheduling system, neither he nor his manager worked more than 40 hours a week. He believes accounting firms should operate like modern businesses. “We don’t have to look at what’s been done in the past and copy them,” he says.

Graf, who launched his own firm in 2020, took mental notes of what he liked and what he didn’t like at the firms he worked at. At his last place of employment, Scott & Aderholt near Austin, TX, he was given an unusual level of autonomy. “I was basically running a firm within a firm,” he recalls.

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In addition to technical work, he also handled client onboarding, return preparation, review, billing, workflow design, and documentation, all of which made going out on his own easier. “It was like a seamless transition,” he says. The extra money as a firm owner was a welcome surprise. “I was basically making double the amount of money and working the same amount of hours, if not less,” compared to his prior jobs.

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The Top Tip for Reviewing Tax Returns

What would you say?

By Ed Mendlowitz
202 Questions and Answers: Managing an Accounting Practice

Question: I know you have a lot of advice on how to review tax returns. What’s your single best tip?

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Response: I had never thought about this until this question was asked.
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Bradley Burnett: ERC Trap Threatens Thousands of Taxpayers

Bradley Burnett

While cases stall, the right to sue could expire.

By CPA Trendlines Research

Thousands of business taxpayers still battling Employee Retention Credit disallowances could lose their right to sue the IRS in 2026 because the two-year refund-suit deadline keeps running while cases sit in IRS examination or Appeals, a risk tax attorney Bradley Burnett calls part of a “colossal mess” of statute traps, litigation risks and unresolved audits.

The National Taxpayer Advocate estimates roughly 28,000 taxpayers may be affected, prompting the IRS to roll out a special Form 907 extension process for certain ERC claimants approaching the deadline.

CPE WEBINAR

Covid ERC in 2026: Picking Up the Pieces: Which Are Ticking Time Bombs?

With Bradley Burnett, J.D., LL.M.

Thursday, June 18, 1-4 p.m. ET

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“What is left … a colossal mess,” Burnett tells CPA Trendlines Academy attendees. “Some of those broken pieces out there may be time bombs.”

The filing window has closed. The refund fights have not.

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Ten Tax Issues That Add New Revenue

Plus four “how much” questions you can put numbers to.

By Ed Mendlowitz
How to Build a Stronger Tax Practice

As you see each tax prep client you should keep a list of additional services you can offer them. Also, continue this list when you review each return.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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I prepare a list of follow-up items during a tax season on my Microsoft Outlook task list. These items are entered as the issue or idea arises. It is simple, quick and very satisfying. The next job will be to make the time to follow up with the client, and do your “good deed.”
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