You are writing your tax season story in the next 6 weeks. That is who are you going to serve, what are you going to serve them and what’s the price and payment plan.
If you don’t want to repeat tax season (insert tax season pit in the stomach) then you will want to read this newsletter. If you want to know why accounting team members put in their resignation letters in early May, again, read this newsletter.
We accountants suffer from tax season amnesia. We are motivated to forget since addressing the issues is too scary, feels like too much work or you "just can’t find the time."
Wilco (alt country band) has a great line from their song, "Box of Letters" , "I just can't find the time to write my mind the way I want it to read, well, you'll come back again."
This line resonates with us (multiple decades of helping accountants take the sucks out of tax season) when thinking about accountants and their tax season cycle.
We have heard it all in our working with firms.
"If I raise my prices we will lose revenue." The average price increase was 11.5%, and 6.2% of predominantly insanity clients left as a result.
"I can’t find the time." It’s a chicken or egg and priorities deal. The definition of insanity is doing the same things over and over expecting a different result. 24 hours in the next 6 weeks could save hundreds of hours of stress for you and your team over the tax season. We can lead you to the water (see Renew Your Tax Season download in this newsletter) but we can’t make you drink.
"We are buying new tech (insert product) that we are hoping will help with efficiency." This is bologna. Doing the wrong things right doesn’t improve your condition. Tech is great once you address the most pressing questions.
Many of the firms that come to us want to fix their tax season problem. BTW, no matter how nice your clients are or how long you have served them.. they aren’t thinking about you when you can’t make your kids recital, soccer game or have to work Sunday afternoon during tax season. They aren’t bad people, they, like most, are focused on their own lives.
Many firms walk right back into at Renew what we call the Insanity Zone. Same clients. Same missing information. Same 70-hour weeks. Same ask of your team. Also, better to not ask your team how their fitbit or Apple health stats look during tax season.
On the other hand, if you want a different tax season, now is your window.
Here are the 5 reasons your tax season sucks. Yes, pricing is on the list twice.
That's not a typo.
Accountants are pricing apologists. We price to win the work, not to win.
A prospect asks for a number, and we give the one we think they'll accept. An existing client grumbles (or asks for advice), and we hold the price for another year. Then we wonder why the hours never pay for themselves.
The fear is always the same: "If I raise prices, clients will leave." Some will. Across all 2026 Renew submissions, the average price increase was 11.5%, and 6.2% of predominantly insanity clients left as a result. That's a better client mix, and fewer returns to push through in April. Yes, I’m aware I repeated this line.
Also, most Renew firms collect 50% upfront for 1040 work. This helps you know who is coming back so you can plan your season and improve cash flow. You don’t get what you don’t ask for.
Renew’s goal average hourly charge rate (revenue/billable hours) is $250+. Most firms aim at nothing and hit it with amazing accuracy.
Ask most firm owners who their target client is and you'll hear some grumbling and then word salad. That isn't a target. That's a door with no lock.
If you can't define who you serve, you can't define how you serve them. And you'll never know who to say no to. So you say yes to everyone, and tax season fills up with work you never should have taken. We call this the Insanity Zone.
Renew positioning:
We only take on clients that we work with year round.
If you are price shopping or looking for the best deal.. we aren’t your firm. We are selective and only work with those that have year around needs.
Download the Stop the Tax Season Sucks Program
Your clients think they bought a relationship, and they think it's all-inclusive. Every call, every question, every "quick look" at a letter from the IRS. You think you sold a tax return. That gap is where your margin and firm's self worth goes.
Make the intangible tangible. Move to packaged pricing, year-round, with planning and check-ins built in. Spell out what's included and what isn't.
Then lead. Don't hand clients and prospects a menu and hope they pick well. Tell them which package to take. They hired you for your judgment. Use it.
There's more noise than ever. Tax workflow software. Practice management platforms. A new AI tool every week that promises to solve all your business problems.
Some of it is good. None of it fixes the model. If your pricing, your clients and your services are wrong, technology just helps you do the wrong things faster.
Doing the wrong things efficiently doesn't fix the model. Fix the model first. Then buy the tools that support it.
It's back because it's the one that costs you the most.
The only way to recover from a bad price is work more. It is endemic to our profession and hasn’t worked out well. Again, when do accounting team members put in their resignation letters? Typically early May.
You can help fix this.
No minimum price. Without one, every small, messy, once-a-year transactional client gets in, and every one of them lands in your busiest 10 weeks. The Model Firm target for clients under $1,000 is 0%. Legacy clients are not a lifetime sentence.
Free work everywhere. Phone calls. Tax meetings. Chasing information for weeks. Adjusting journal entries in March because you only see them once a year. None of it priced and as a result valued. All of it done.
Not extending enough returns. Extending isn't failure. Cramming incomplete returns through in April because you won't adhere to the boundaries you set. Remember, only work with clients who work with year around.
Underneath all of it, you need to Make the Firm the #1 Client. You don't dictate the terms of the relationship, so your clients do. They decide when the information shows up, what's included and what they'll pay.
Tax season is when you have the most leverage. Most firms give it away.
Tax Season doesn’t have to Suck.
Some quick Renew vid testimonials Here:
https://www.renewgroup.com/success-stories
Tax season isn't something that happens to you. It's the result of what you do with the next 6 weeks. Book a Call.
Download the Stop the Tax Season Sucks Program
Text us at 317.496.2192
if you want to talk it through.
