TAX SEASON

Make Tax Season More Fun

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four young happy office employees

Twelve ways it can be better.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Tax season presents exciting opportunities for accounting firms and their staffs. Every moment should be enjoyed and appreciated.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz

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Following are 12 reasons:

1. Tax season is profitable and accounting is a business where we try to maximize our earnings. Sure, there is a great concentration of work in a short period with occasional pressure, but if handled properly, the work can be managed sensibly with tensions at reasonable levels. I also believe much of the pressure is self-induced by poor scheduling, inadequate quality control and the lack of uniform systems that are followed by everyone in the firm, particularly the partners.

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K-1 Chaos: IRS Throws Rocks at Hornet’s Nest

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Don’t get stung. Here’s how.
“It’s the taxpayer and preparer that get stung.”
By CPA Trendlines
CPA Trendlines Academy
Burnett

 

Bradley Burnett doesn’t start his 2025 Form 1065 program with a code section. He starts with a warning.

“Throwing rocks at a hornet’s nest,” says Burnett, JD, LLM, is what the IRS is doing to tax preparers. And then he delivers the line that drives the room quiet: “IRS has the bug spray, not us.”

2025 Forms 1065 and K-1s: IRS Throws Rocks at Hornet’s Nest with Bradley Burnett, J.D., LL.M
Full webinar on demand (any time, any device): Learn more | Buy now

The metaphor isn’t about audits. It’s about penalties. The practical risk of partnership returns has less to do with aggressive positions and more to do with incomplete disclosures, mismatched coding and mechanical errors. The danger is not interpretation. It’s the process.

“If the preparer does not do everything that IRS asks us to do,” Burnett warns, “it’s the taxpayer and preparer that get stung.”

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Recognize When You Need to Recharge Before You Burn Out | ARC

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Paying attention to personal stress signals can help professionals recharge before fatigue turns into burnout.

Sponsored by True Advisor: The Definitive Success Guide for Client Advisory Services by Hitendra Patil |
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The step-by-step operating guide for firms building, pricing, and scaling advisory services that clients value—and pay for.

Accounting ARC
With Liz Mason, Byron Patrick, and Donny Shimamoto
Center for Accounting Transformation

In accounting, exhaustion does not always look dramatic. 

Sometimes it looks like irritability. Sometimes it looks like staring at a spreadsheet that suddenly makes no sense. Sometimes it looks like mental fog, poor focus, a mild headache, or the sense that even small decisions take too much effort. 

MORE Accounting ARC: Valuing More Than the Balance Sheet | Accounting’s “Untalked-About” Frontier | Why Happiness is Hard-Fought for High Achievers | The Fastest Way to Lose Talent Is “Dick Leadership” | Post-Holiday Fatigue Isn’t a Failure; It’s a Signal | OCR, Research Bots & Meeting Assistants: What Actually Helps Now | Return Season is the New Stress Test | Small Firms May Have the Biggest Advantage in 2026 | Downgraded: What the DOE Said About Accounting | Savage: Using Your License as a Megaphone |  Baker: Interpreting Pricing Psychology | Don’t Get Fired by Your Own Automation | What Amazon Doesn’t Tell You | Royalties, Residuals, and Reality Checks | ARC-SLC 

In the latest episode of Accounting ARC, hosts Donny Shimamoto, CPA.CITP, CGMA; Byron Patrick, CPA.CITP; and Liz Mason, CPA, take on a subject that lands close to home for many professionals, especially during demanding stretches of work: how to recharge when the pace is relentless and the pressure does not let up.

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How Much Do Your Clients Need You?

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Three questions to ask.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Know your value to your clients. Better, understand your business and what you really do and what you add to the client’s life.

MORE by Ed Mendlowitz
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I had a group of gastroenterologists as clients who were going to get into a business of inserting a gastric bubble into people’s stomachs. There were a number of issues to this.
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Tax Prep Wages and Salaries Hit 4-Year High

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Even as DIY returns cut into pros’ market share.

By CPA Trendlines

Wages for accountants and tax preparers are rising far faster than hiring as the 2026 filing season begins, even as early filing volumes trail last year’s pace.

Average hourly earnings in the accounting and tax preparation sector rose roughly 4 percent to 6 percent year over year, pushing pay for many accountants above $45 per hour, while employment across the tax and accounting sector is increasing only a few tenths of a percent.

MORE Busy Season

If current trends hold, the accounting industry will process about 150 million individual tax returns in 2026 — roughly 0.4 percent more than last year — with nearly the same number of workers..

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