TAX SEASON

21 Hard-Earned Lessons from Tax Season 2026

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And What 20 Years of Data Say Comes Next

By CPA Trendlines Research

There is a ritual to tax season. It begins with anticipation dressed as control.

Practitioners tally the risks — the IRS, the law, the clients who will not deliver on time — and tell themselves this year will be different. Then the season starts. And it isn’t.

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The CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer tracks that ritual across waves of surveys from September 2025 through April 2026 with more than 300 respondents.

The data show not a profession in crisis, but a profession under stress. Where pressures no longer arrive one at a time but stack up on each other. Where external shocks have been absorbed, and internal limits have come into view.

Tax season is full of noise, chaos and confusion. But a close look at the Busy Season Barometer from this year – and going back more than 20 years – can cut through the fog for the patterns, trends, insights and, most of all, the tough lessons learned.

Tax season 2026 gives us at least 21 essential takeaways.

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Red Flag Warning: Accountants Lose Faith in the Economic Outlook

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A turn for the worse: Accountants’ outlook on the economy takes a tumble with the end of busy season. (CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer)

Two-thirds now see tough times ahead.

By CPA Trendlines Research

After processing hundreds, if not thousands, of tax returns for wage earners and small business owners, U.S. accountants’ confidence in the nation’s economy is in a state of collapse, according to the latest CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer.

While practitioners entered the winter with relatively stable expectations, the reality of “busy season”—which provides a granular look at the financial health of American businesses—has apparently triggered a sharp reversal.

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MORE Busy Season

With the end of the 2026 filing cycle, roughly two-thirds of CPAs are predicting that national business conditions will worsen over the next 12 to 18 months, a startling increase from the beginning of the cycle, when only half held a negative outlook. Conversely, the number of optimists dwindled to about 18%, down from nearly 30 points from earlier in the year.

“We’re looking at higher costs and too much uncertainty for our small-business clients,” one sole proprietor noted in the survey, shifting his rating to “much worse.”

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Eight Tips for Delighting Tax Clients

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Portrait of a mature businesswoman giving a binder

Do they feel important?

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Clients are our customers. They pay our salary and enable us to make good livings. Do what you can to accommodate them and make them feel important – as important as they believe they are.

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Also be user-friendly – do not make it difficult to work with you. Clients don’t know how smart we are. They think we are great, but they measure us by the small things – the good and bad.
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 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)
Join the survey. Get the results.

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.

For More Busy Season Trends and Strategies: Join the survey. Get the results.

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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Tell Your Tax Clients about These 40 Other Services

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Woman and man shaking hands across a desk

BONUS: A checklist to use for additional client services.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

The following listing can give you ideas of additional services clients might need.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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This list is not complete, but it is a good start for you to start thinking about what types of additional services you can offer to your clients!

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