Does AI Belong in Tax Practice?
Burnett Says Maybe — If You Know the Rules.
By CPA Trendlines Research
LIVE WEBINAR: Is AI Fit for Tax? with Bradley Burnet Mon, Dec. 29. Register | Learn more
TAX PRACTICE
When Tax Meets AI, Savvy Tax Pros Turn to ‘Tax Platforms 2026’
Your 2026 Roadmap for the Tax Tech Transformation
By CPA Trendlines Research
DOWNLOAD: Get the free ebook here
IRS Set for a Turbulent 2026 Season as TIGTA Flags Persistent Weaknesses
Busy Season Barometer: New code and an aging, understaffed IRS top practitioners’ worry lists.
By CPA Trendlines Research
New plans for tax season: Join the survey. Get the results.
Barometer: Firms Brace for a Tough Tax Season
Busy season 2026 clouded by regulatory shifts and client pressures.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Fewer than half of accounting firm leaders report entering the 2026 busy season in better shape than a year ago, according to the new CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer.
MORE Tax Practice | TaxPlanIQ Escalates the Battle in Tax Planning Software | How TaxDome and Juno Just Changed the Tax Tech Game | DOGE, Palantir and the IRS: What Could Go Wrong? | Five Million IRS Refunds Delayed by Staff Cuts | IRS Phone Stats Improve—Unless You’re a Tax Pro | ‘Kryptonite:’ IRS Buried under 8 Million Paper Returns | Mounting Delays Undermine Public Trust in IRS Refund Process | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients
The readiness gap, evident across firm sizes and specialties, sets the tone for a season overshadowed by heightened concerns about tax law changes and mounting pressure on margins.
TaxPlanIQ Escalates the Battle in Tax Planning Software
AI transforms tax planning, strategy, and client communication.
Logo |
Vendor |
Years in Market |
Flagship Features |
Pricing (Approx.) |
Fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
TaxPlanIQ |
2019–present |
Bulk 1040 upload, AI-scored strategies, ROI pricing, client proposals |
From $397/month |
Firms moving into advisory |
 |
Corvee |
2020–present |
1,500+ strategies, multi-entity modeling, annotated proposals |
Quoted ($499–$999/mo) |
Firms needing a broad catalog |
 |
Bloomberg ITP |
Longstanding |
Scenario projections, statutory updates, and audit-defensible |
Enterprise license |
Midsized and large firms |
 |
Holistiplan |
2019–present |
OCR return scan, advisor reports |
Subscription |
RIAs, small CPA and tax firms |
 |
FP Alpha |
2019–present |
Multi-document AI, tax/estate/insurance scenarios |
Subscription |
Wealth + tax advisory |
 |
Intuit Tax Advisor |
2025–present |
Embedded in ProConnect/Lacerte, generative AI plans |
Included in suite |
Small and midsize firms |
 |
Blue J |
2015–present |
Predictive analytics, Ask Blue J generative research |
$1,198–$1,498/user |
Authoritative research |
 |
CoCounsel (TR) |
2025–present |
Agentic AI integrated with Checkpoint |
$2,700/user |
Large firms |
 |
TaxGPT |
2023–present |
AI co-pilot, 1040 review agent |
$1,600/user |
Assistant-style workflow |
 |
Taxaroo |
2017–present |
Practice management + voice AI, client portal |
$790/yr or $99/mo |
Small practices |
 |
ZeroTax.AI |
2024–present |
Consumer AI Q&A, optional CPA review |
Free / $50 per review |
Households, small business |
 |
CPA Pilot |
2023–present |
Lightweight AI assistant, citations, draft comms |
$240–$2,388/yr |
Small firms; affordable AI |
Movers and shakers in tax planning automation
By Rick Telberg
CPA Trendlines Research
Once an add-on service for high-net-worth clients, tax planning is moving to center stage, powered by artificial intelligence and the profession’s accelerating shift to advisory from compliance.
Fresh evidence comes from TaxPlanIQ’s new partnerships with Liberty Tax and Elite Resource Team, which extend TaxPlanIQ’s reach from boutique firms to thousands of retail outlets and nationwide advisory networks. The deals show artificial intelligence transforming accountants’ handling of tax planning, strategy, and client communication.
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“I can’t imagine a better thing to do than support accountants in that endeavor,” says Jackie Meyer, founder of TaxPlanIQ and CPA Trendlines contributor, positioning her company’s mission personally. TaxPlanIQ’s pitches ease of use. Just upload a 1040, surface strategies, and deliver a branded proposal that quantifies return on investment.
With Liberty Tax, the reach is in the mass market. With ERT, the audience is higher-value clients served by coordinated advisory teams. TaxPlanIQ claims $5 billion saved by clients identified through its system. More than 1,200 firms already use the platform, before the new partnerships,
Reaching for a $2.5 billion prize
The promise of the next evolution of tax planning is enticing, and the field is becoming more competitive by the month. The tax planning software market is projected to grow at a rate of 8% to 13% annually from 2026 to 2033, with the total market size expected to surpass $2.5 billion globally and $25 billion for the broader online tax software segment.
Business-Owner Tax Incentives You Might Be Overlooking
Help entrepreneurial clients use government programs to lower tax bills while creating jobs and wealth.
By Blake Christian
As many CPAs know, a wide variety of federal and state tax credits and other incentives are readily available but often overlooked by businesses and their tax advisors.
MORE: Entity Choice in Light of Estate and Gift Tax Rules | 11 Tax Client Questions for Year-Round Billings
Exclusively for PRO Members. Log in here or upgrade to PRO today.
While the vast majority of tax planning efforts are focused on the timing of taxable income and tax-deductible items (temporary or timing differences), there are literally hundreds of federal tax incentives (permanent differences) that encourage taxpayers to invest in certain equipment, hire certain types of employees, operate in certain regions or invest in certain industries. READ MORE →
How TaxDome and Juno Just Changed the Tax Tech Game
TaxDome unveils AI-driven workflow to Challenge Aiwyn, Canopy, Karbon.
By CPA Trendlines Research
TaxDome and Juno are launching the accounting industry’s first fully integrated, end-to-end tax workflow solution, an automation-powered platform uniting proposal to payment under a single login.
MORE in Tech | Aiwyn Enters Race for the All-in-One Practice Management Platform | Is Practice Management Having Its Moment?
The rollout lands at a pivotal moment in a fiercely competitive practice management software market, where venture capital, artificial intelligence and consolidation are redrawing the digital map for tax and accounting firms.
Can DOGE and Palantir Fix the IRS with a ‘Mega API’?
And what about data security and privacy?
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Internal Revenue Service is developing a Unified API Layer intended to consolidate access across its fractured legacy systems, a move that could transform the agency—if executed with transparency, speed, and user needs in mind.
MORE IRS | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill |IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
The project gained momentum–and sparked controversy–this year with the Department of Government Efficiency and Palantir Technologies aiming to build a comprehensive API system.
Five Million IRS Refunds Delayed by Staff Cuts
Still, better than 21 million in 2022 pandemic.
By CPA Trendlines Research
| 2025 Filing Season by the Numbers | |
|---|---|
| Individual Returns Received | 140.6 million |
| Refunds Issued | 86.1 million |
| Total Refund Dollars | $253 billion |
| Average Refund | $2,942 |
Issuing $49 billion more in refunds than last year, the Internal Revenue Service processed over $253 billion in refunds during the 2025 filing season, with 86.1 million refunds issued and an average check of $2,942, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate’s 2026 Objectives Report to Congress.
MORE IRS | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill |IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
In 2022, the IRS faced a substantial backlog, with over 21 million delayed refunds, primarily due to pandemic-related challenges and a surge in paper filings. By 2023, improvements in processing systems and staffing helped reduce the backlog to approximately 1.9 million delayed refunds. However, in 2025, delayed refunds rose again to over 5 million, slowed by headline-making staff cuts and an uptick in identity theft cases requiring additional verification.
IRS Phone Stats Improve—Unless You’re a Tax Pro
What “Priority Service”? Only 61 percent of practitioner calls get through.
IRS Phone Line |
Level of Service |
|---|---|
Accounts Management |
87% |
Practitioner Priority Service |
61% |
Installment Agreement / Balance Due |
35% |
Identity Theft |
29% |
Critical support lines remain overwhelmed.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Internal Revenue Service reports significant improvements in its phone service, but the gains mask critical shortfalls in other high-demand lines, frustrating taxpayers and practitioners alike.
MORE IRS | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill |IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
Despite improvements in certain areas, such as the Accounts Management lines achieving an 87 percent Level of Service with average wait times dropping to 3 minutes, other critical lines experienced significantly lower service levels. For instance, the Identity Theft line had an LOS of just 29 percent, and the Installment Agreement/Balance Due line stood at 35 percent.
However, performance plummets for other phone lines. The Level of Service on the Identity Theft line was just 29 percent, and on the Installment Agreement/Balance Due line, it was 35 percent.
The Practitioner Priority Service line, heavily used by professionals, managed just 61 percent, well below the standard for acceptable support.
‘Kryptonite:’ IRS Buried under 8 Million Paper Returns
2025 season leaves 8.2 million unprocessed returns and a backlog of 750,000 correspondence cases.
Return Type |
Scanned by April 18 |
|---|---|
Form 1040 |
~1% |
Form 940 |
~9% |
Form 941 |
~13.5% |
Far behind digital processing goals.
By CPA Trendlines Research
Despite modernization efforts, the IRS is drowning in paper, which the National Taxpayer Advocate calls the agency’s “kryptonite.”
MORE Tax | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill | IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
During the 2025 filing season, the IRS scanned fewer than 1 percent of paper-filed Forms 1040, falling drastically short of its Paperless Processing Initiative goals. This continuing reliance on paper adds months to the processing cycle. In addition to return delays, it clogs the system for identity theft resolution, amended returns, and refund claims, each requiring manual review. For tax professionals, the paper problem means longer timelines, more uncertainty, and higher support costs.
Mounting Delays Undermine Public Trust in IRS Refund Process
Get ready for more unhappy clients and tougher conversations.
| Identity Theft Victim Assistance (IDTVA) Workload | |
|---|---|
| Pending IDTVA Cases | 387,000 |
| Average Resolution Time | 602 days |
| Percent of Affected Taxpayers Below 250% of Federal Poverty Line | 69% |
Pending cases and processing delays stress hundreds of thousands of taxpayers financially.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Internal Revenue Service is taking an average of 20 months to resolve identity theft cases, leaving hundreds of thousands of taxpayers in financial limbo, disproportionately harming low-income households and straining the resources of CPA firms and tax professionals.
MORE Tax | Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill | IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
For tax professionals, the stakes are high and the immediate need is clear: Set client expectations, document communication with the IRS, and explore hardship cases that might qualify for expedited handling. At the policy level, the delays are fueling calls for funding, automation, and clearer transparency metrics from the IRS.
“Victims entitled to refunds are waiting nearly two years to receive them,” Collins says. “These delays disproportionately affect vulnerable populations dependent on their refunds to meet basic living expenses.”
Brace Yourself: IRS 25% Staff Cuts Mean Big Trouble for Tax Pros and Clients
A hobbled agency could have trouble meeting revenue goals and basic taxpayer services.
By CPA Trendlines Research
The Internal Revenue Service is reeling from massive Trump Administration staffing cuts, which have left the agency knee-capped with nearly 26,500 fewer employees, raising red flags for tax professionals about service quality, enforcement consistency and case resolution delays.
MORE Tax | What to Watch in the One Big Beautiful Bill | Quick Tax Tip | IRS’s Big Annual Report: Already Out of Date as Agency Grapples with Chaos and Cuts | Busy Season Barometer Stats: Who’s Responding and How They’re Doing | Accountants Reporting a Pretty Good Year | Tax Season Faceplant: Accountants Overrun by Late Chaos
The IRS has lost 25.9 percent of its workforce since Jan. 25, 2025, with headcount dropping from 102,113 to 75,702 as of June 4, 2025. Most of the cuts come from voluntary separation incentives rather than layoffs, according to the National Taxpayer Advocate 2026 Objectives Report to Congress.
Yet, the result is the same: fewer agents, auditors, and call center staff, just as tax complexity and demand for support are expected to increase.