Category: Profit Boosters

How to Turn One-Time Tax Resolution Clients Into Year-Round Recurring Revenue

You close the case, the client shakes your hand, and you walk them straight to the door with nothing in your other hand.

Think about the last resolution case you finished. You got the client into an installment agreement, or you closed the offer, or you knocked the penalties off and the account finally read zero. The client was thrilled. You did hard, skilled work that most tax professionals cannot do. And then what did you offer them for the next? Be honest. Most of the time the answer is nothing. You handed a client you already earned back to the wild, where the next tax pro picks them up for free.

Come on. You know better.

The resolution pros making real money do not do that. They keep the client on a leash they can both live with, and they get paid every month (or quarter or year) to do it. The centerpiece of that is account monitoring, and it is the most natural recurring service a resolution practice will ever sell. This is exactly the kind of practice-building we drill inside Tax Resolution Academy®. In this post I am going to show you how account monitoring works, why it belongs in your practice, how to price it, and how to stack tax return prep, bookkeeping, and payroll services on top of it so the relationship pays you all year instead of once.

Account Monitoring: The Recurring Service Built For Resolution

Here is what account monitoring actually is. After the case closes, you revoke your POA and add a Form 8821, Tax Information Authorization, on file for that client. That single form lets you pull the client’s IRS account transcripts on a schedule, month after month, without the client lifting a finger or signing anything new. You are not waiting for a problem to walk in your door. You are watching the account so you see the problem forming before the client does, and long before the IRS mails a letter about it.

Read that again. You get to see trouble coming. The client stays compliant, the resolution you fought for holds, and you get paid a monthly fee to be the one watching. That is a service, not a favor.

What are you actually watching for when you pull those transcripts? Real events that wreck a resolution client:

  • A new balance posting. A new assessment shows up on the account and you catch
… Continue reading

How to Raise Your Fees Without Losing Your Best Clients

Every year you hold your price steady, you quietly give your clients a raise out of your own paycheck.

When was the last time you raised your fees? Not “added a line item.” Not “charged the new client a little more than the last one.” I mean actually went back to your existing book of business, the people you’ve carried for years, and told them the number was going up.

For most of the tax professionals I coach, the honest answer is “I can’t remember.” Three years. Five years. If ever! One guy told me he was charging a client the exact same $200 for a return he first quoted in 2014. Same client. Twelve years. Same two hundred bucks.

Read that again. Twelve years of inflation, twelve years of harder returns, twelve years of your time getting more valuable, twelve years of expenses increasing and the price never moved.

You are not running a practice. You are running a charity, and you’re the donor.

Here’s the promise. In this post I’m going to walk you through exactly how to raise your fees without watching your best clients walk out the door. The math behind why you have to. The real reason you haven’t. The script, almost word for word. And what to do with the handful who push back. This is the same kind of practice-building work we teach inside Tax Resolution Academy®, and the willingness to send one letter is the only thing it costs you.

The Math You’ve Been Avoiding

Let me do the arithmetic out loud, because the numbers are uglier than you think.

Say you’ve held a client at $400 a return since 2019. Feels loyal. Feels like good service. Now run the inflation on it. To have the same buying power as that 2019 $400, you’d need to charge somewhere north of $500 today just to stand still. So you didn’t “hold your price.” You gave that client a raise every single year, out of your own pocket, without them ever asking.

Now stack it. Say you’ve got 200 clients and you’ve been underpricing the book by an average of $150 each. (Your numbers will vary. These are illustrative, not a promise.) That’s $30,000 a year. Gone. Every year. Not theoretical money, not “potential.” Real revenue you earned the right to and chose not to collect.

And here’s the part that should sting. That $30,000 isn’t sitting in a … Continue reading

Two Simple Ideas for Creating Recurring Revenue in Your Tax Practice

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you had a great day with your family!

It is late when I am sending this email. I wanted to send you this quick note.

By the time you are reading this, it is the Friday after Thanksgiving. Most of you know it as Black Friday. The day that brings most retailers from being the red financially into the black. Again, most of you know that as a profit.

Well, we did not want you to not see a Black Friday deal from us.

Many of you are always looking for some way to make more money in your practice without trying to find a new client. There aren’t many ways to do this, but I have one (well actually two) for you.

1) Sell an Audit Protection service to your existing tax prep clients. This is where they pay you in advance some amount (from $29 – $249 (or more)) each year. This fee covers the risk that they either get a notice or selected for an audit by the IRS (also works for the many of you with state income taxes). They bet that they will get a notice or selected for audit. You bet they don’t. If you sell this for $50 per client for a clients, that is $5,000. 500 clients? That is $25k extra in your practice for this year. I bet that would help pay some bills, wouldn’t it?

2) Sell IRS Account Monitoring service. You sell this to your tax resolution cases (you could also offer this to your tax prep clients). This is where you pull their IRS transcripts quarterly and send them a report that your ES payments are made, your Installment Agreement payments are posted, and your tax return hit the transcripts, so your OIC is still good. This can be sold for $250-1,000 (or more) per year.

Yes, is this easy to do and create. Sure! But will you do it on your own. Well, why recreate the wheel when you don’t have to?

We have a toolkit to help you do just that. It is called…

Audit Protection Plan & POA Monitoring Service Toolkit

Normally we sell this for $495. Well, starting now, you can have it for 50% off. But please know this expires at midnight (EST) on 11/30/21. This is a very limited time offer and may not be offered at this price again.

To purchase this … Continue reading