Using Audit Protection Plans & POA Monitoring to Boost Bottom Line Profits

Chances are you’ve already heard of this offering, but perhaps never given much thought to it. It goes by various names, such as “Audit Defense Service”, “Audit Protection Plan”, and probably the worst possible name, “Audit Insurance”.

Quick tip: Do NOT call it insurance. State insurance regulators will have a field day with you.

Pricing for this service can range all the map, from as little as $30 through services that Block and TurboTax offer, to $200 and up from bigger audit protection plan companies and bigger CPA firms.

What exactly are we talking about? Audit Protection Plans.

Firms have been offering some variation of audit defense, either packaged and sold directly with tax return preparation or as an add-on, since at least the early 90’s. Typically, an audit protection service offered along with return preparation applies to that return only, and provides a certain amount of work that will be done on the client’s behalf in the event they are chosen for an IRS or state examination of the return. Plans typically impose one or more limitations, such as to the number of hours of representation that are included, or excluding certain credits such as EITC.

By offering audit protection plans to all or most of your tax preparation clients, you are essentially spreading the cost of audit representation for whomever needs it across a large number of people, akin to an insurance program (but again, never call it insurance!). Since the IRS audits less than 0.5% of all tax returns, the overall odds of being selected for examination are about 1 in 200. Additionally, over 70% of examinations are correspondence audits, meaning that the representation work is actually done asynchronously (not in real time with an IRS employee), making it far easier to schedule such work around the rest of your day.

If you have 200 tax prep clients that each paid $99 for an audit protection plan, just as an example, that’s an extra $19,800 coming in to your practice from your existing clients. If only 1 in 200 requires audit representation, on average, then you can easily see that just offering the protection plan becomes ones of the most profitable services within your practice. In addition, you can charge different prices based actual audit risk. For example, since Schedule C filers get audited at a higher rate, your audit protection plan rate for that kind of return … Continue reading

941 Marketing Challenge Day 14

In yesterday’s challenge task, we discussed the two most important places that you need to be “showing up” digitally in order for your 941 tax resolution services to be found.

Today, we’re going to talk about the one place you need to show up physically.

If you’re already a subscriber to The Profitable Accountant, you saw me write heavily about this in the November issue.

Where do you need to physically appear?

Ready for it?

On your feet, standing in front of your target market.

“Nooooooooooooooooo!” I hear you scream.

Yep, I’m talking about public speaking.

You already know that you need to be niched. I’d like to think that I’ve sledgehammered that point home enough around here.

And now I’m telling you that you really, really need to be the person standing in front of groups of people in that niche, lovingly talking to them about payroll taxes.

Today’s challenge is, therefore, pretty straightforward: Call ONE business or organization in your niche than you know does events, meetings, or seminars, and ask to be on the program.

It doesn’t matter if they can give you 5 minutes or 5 hours.

It doesn’t matter if you have a presentation prepared.

It doesn’t matter if you’re scared to death of public speaking.

That can all be sussed out later.

Today, just make the call. Go speak at a seminar, trade show, or other industry event. Go speak in front of the only four people that show up for the Western Valley Independent Gift Shop Association annual meeting. Whatever your niche B2B industry is, find a thing, any one thing, and call somebody to arrange to speak at it.

Don’t think. Don’t fret. Just call.… Continue reading

941 Marketing Challenge Day 13

In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. -Desiderius Erasmus (1500)

Translated into marketing-speak: She who bothers to be even slightly better than average wins the business.

Since we now live in a world where average equals mediocrity, it doesn’t take much effort to be better and do better than your peers. A lot of people are very uncomfortable with this assessment, but I stand by it.

Another way of looking at it, through the lens of another common expression, is that “80% of success is showing up” as Woody Allen put it.

So that’s what we’re looking at for the next few days. Take an inventory sometime:

  1. Where do you show up now?
  2. Where should you be showing up?
  3. What are some things that YOU do in your practice that makes you better than average?
  4. What else can you do in your practice move beyond being seen as “mediocre”, e.g., just another practitioner?

For the next few challenge tasks, I really want to focus on that second one: Where should you be showing up?

Even better, let’s break it up into a few more pieces:

  • Where should you be seen digitally?
  • Where should you be seen physically?
  • Where should you be seen in media?

Let’s start with your digital footprint. Again, if you’re not showing up in the right places, then the right people won’t be able to find you. Since we’re talking about 941 work, there are certain places online that you should be.

First among them is probably LinkedIn. Have you looked over your LinkedIn profile lately? Is it complete? Do you have a photo? Do you have a bio describing the kind of client you’re looking for, and an offer for a lead magnet? Are you posting occasionally? Do you write articles on the LinkedIn “blogging” platform?

Take a few minutes to spruce up your LinkedIn profile today. Don’t end the day without at least a photo and a link back to your website in your bio. While you’re on there, post a single status update offering a lead magnet to your B2B connections that might have 941 problems. For what it’s worth, your elevator pitch makes a great bio or status update item.

The other place that you absolutely, positively need to be seen online is Google Maps. I guess more appropriately it would be Google My Business. At this moment, there is no more important … Continue reading