What’s it Going to Take to Get Through Tax Season?

Let’s face it, the last two tax seasons have been rough on tax professionals and a lot are burnt out.  In fact, some are considering leaving the business all together. 

For 20 years I was the Senior Tax Partner for a firm where the philosophy was to take any client they could.  We would charge $750 for a business tax return, and $250 for a personal return, no matter the complexity. This created a book of business of 2000 clients and I would kill myself to get all this work done. I missed my kids growing up, I missed holidays, I can even remember working on Christmas.

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Further, when you take on any client you inevitably have the problem clients.  You have the clients that are needy, and don't want to pay for your time. You have the jerks, you have the cheapskates, you have people that just think you just fill out forms and you get disrespected and think you have to take it. 

If I went out of town I was still working.  One day in the middle of tax season I was asked by the majority partner to do something unethical.  I slept on it, went into his office and said I wouldn’t do it. Two days later, in the middle of tax season, I was fired. 

The good part was that most of clients knew only me.  So, the next day I set up a virtual office, and sent an email to all my clients telling them what happened and that I had left.