Making money *after* tax season

It’s been a hard push the past few months.

There’s one day left to go in a jam packed tax season. You’ve made plenty of cash to last for a while. You’re exhausted, and you’re just ready for it to all be over.

Sure, you’ll have some extensions to work on. But it’ll be the life of leisure after this week, right?

For most tax professionals, that statement couldn’t be further from the truth.

Now, if you’ve configured your life in such a manner that you can live on your tax season revenue for the remainder of the year, then I applaud you.

For most tax pros, however, it couldn’t be farther from the truth. The stark reality for most of our colleagues is that tax season is the time when you have enough money to finally catch up on bills, pay your own taxes, pay off the Christmas credit cards, catch up on the mortgage they were two months behind on, pay the kid’s next tuition bill, and on, and on.

Even though we make good money during tax season, it’s not that hard for it to suddenly all vanish, and then we’re struggling again for the rest of the year.

Here’s how you break out of that boom and bust cycle: Have multiple revenue sources within your practice to even out the peaks and valleys of seasonal business. Specifically, I suggest having three solid revenue sources within any practice, and my favorite happens to be IRS collections representation.

There are a number of issues impacting all professional service providers, including CPAs, attorneys, and EAs alike. Consider the following info from the legal world, while bearing in mind that similar trends exist in the accounting space:

  1. Smaller Pie – As the New York Times recently pointed out, “Legal forms are now available online and require training well below a lawyer’s to fill them out.” In other words, the Internet is decreasing the public’s reliance on attorneys for simple matters. The same phenomenon has been see for CPAs and EAs with the rise of QuickBooks, consumer tax software, and IRS Free File.
  2. More Mouths to Feed – The number of attorneys continues to grow: We saw 6,694 new attorneys passing the bar last year in California alone. Worse, a lot of the larger firms are laying off, and when those layed off attorneys can’t find work, they start their own practices, creating more competition. Business
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This Is Your Tax Resolution Competition

Lest you think the days of unscrupulous tax debt resolution companies are behind us… Think again. Check out this short piece of investigative journalism broadcast last week on a Los Angeles TV station…

If you want to read the extensive consumer complaints, check out their Yelp page.

See all those complaints on Yelp? People that paid $3,200…$3,300…$2,300… Those are real tax resolution case fees, for people that really needed help — and had the money to pay the fees.

These folks are out there, waiting for YOU to enter into their lives. So, why aren’t you?

Tax prep season is winding down, and tax resolution season is winding up. You’re probably tired of me saying it, but truth is truth: Second tax season can be more lucrative than first tax season.

Now is the time to be revving those engines for tax resolution season. If you’re ready to come out of the gates running, then please join me in Atlanta on May 5 and 6 for the 2015 Tax Resolution Leadership Conference.… Continue reading

Resolving IRS Payroll Tax Debts (941 Liabilities)

The majority of federal tax liens filed, and the majority of monies owed to the IRS, are made up of payroll taxes. In addition, because of the fact that payroll tax deposits fund the day to day operations of the federal government, these tax liabilities are the highest enforcement priority for the SB/SE Collection Field Function (CFF).

In this video, you’ll learn the basics of resolving 941 tax debts. We will cover 941-specific penalties, resolution options specific to only this tax type, Appeals options, and a brief overview of the Trust Fund Recovery Penalty (TFRP).

Payroll tax liabilities represent the biggest opportunity for growth in your tax resolution practice. Learning the ins and outs of representing these lucrative clients can create a significant boost to your bottom line.

Note: This video was recorded on March 17, 2015 and therefore reflects tax code and IRS procedures in effect at the time. This webinar replay is not eligible for CPE credit.

Unedited Transcript

Note: This is a raw, unedited transcript of the recording that was produced with an automated transcription tool, not a human transcriptionist. It’s provided merely for reference and to help you find specific sections of the video you might want to jump to.

(00:00:00):
Today is March 17th, 2015, and I’d like to welcome you to this webinar on resolving 941 tax debts. My name is Jason Bowman from tax marketing hq.com. And for the next 15 minutes, we’re going to be discussing the special situations involved in resolving 941 tax liabilities. Why these abilities are such a huge enforcement priority for the IRS and exactly how you can go about helping your clients with these employment tax problems. So we’re also assessing some specific penalties and some appeals options. And of course we cannot discuss the 941 landscape without also talking about the trust fund recovery penalty. The trust fund recovery penalty itself as a topic worthy of, of, of an hour or two of its own. But again, it’s, it’s impossible to discuss the employment tax liability resolution without delving into the, the trust fund world. So we will be covering that. There are, there are a lot of trust fund items that are outside the scope of specifically what I’m going to be talking about today. And so in the future, I will be doing another webinar specifically on trust fund issues, because there’s just so much to cover within that.… Continue reading