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.

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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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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.

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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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Why Tax Clients Fire Their Accountants

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Portrait of an angry man yelling on the phone

Here are 21 complaints. What could you be preventing?

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Clients have many choices, including the choice of a tax preparer. Every new client an accountant gets is because that client left – fired – their previous accountant.

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So why do clients leave?

Here are 21 good reasons why they should: READ MORE →

Get Your Fees Faster This Tax Season

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Be sure to provide details.

By Ed Mendlowitz
Tax Season Opportunity Guide

Accounting is a business and businesses need to be paid.

It’s harder to justify prices when providing services rather than products. Products are usually priced before delivery while many times services are priced after delivery, i.e. performance.

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Many accountants price tax returns before they are worked on, usually basing the fee on last year, or a rate schedule. Sending a bill with the return establishes the relationship that you should be paid promptly for the work done.

It shows that you run a business and also provides a courtesy to the client in that they can immediately evaluate the cost and value of what was done.

But just as importantly: READ MORE →