BUSY SEASON MANAGEMENT

Tax Prep Billing Rates Lift Busy Season 2026

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Busy Season 2026 sets up a year of tough decisions about monumental transformations.

Busy Season 2026: Billing rates for tax prep and planning are increasing at a 10.8% year-over-year rate, rushing past the average tax and accounting fee increase of 4.5%.

By CPA Trendlines

Busy Season 2026: Tax professionals struggle to improve systems and metrics, with “much worse” beating “much better” by three to one.

As tax season 2026 comes to a close, new data show that price hikes for tax prep and planning are running at double-digit rates, even as billing rates for most other accounting services are flattening out, according to new CPA Trendlines research in conjunction with the annual Busy Season Barometer.

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Tax practitioners are finishing the season as a divided profession, with fewer than 6% reporting a “much better” year, against almost three times that many reporting a “much worse” year.

Coming out of tax season, many firms are facing major decisions in the coming months driven by new artificial intelligence investments, a fundamental shift in staffing models, and private equity disruptions.

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Tipping Point: Accountants Scramble for AI-Enhanced Tax, GL, and Workflow Apps

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New workflow systems expected to cut labor problems and shore up profit margins.

Coming out of tax season, more than 55% of firms are looking for new artificial intelligence solutions, up 10 points from before the season. The scramble for practice management and workflow solutions has almost doubled. (CPA Trendlines Research)

By CPA Trendlines Research

The CPA Trendlines Busy Season Barometer shows accounting firms are already planning changes to their technology and workflows, aiming to address the same pressures that defined this year’s busy season.

The research points to a profession broadly aligned with what needs to change, but much less aligned with how quickly those changes can be put into practice.


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Firms across the spectrum, whether reporting a better or worse tax season, identify similar priorities: improving efficiency, reducing manual work and making better use of technology.

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Eight Tips for Delighting Tax Clients

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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)
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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.

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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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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.

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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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