Brandon Hall: Firms Try to Make Too Much on Tax Prep CPA Trendlines Podcasts

Try for a 10-15% margin.The DisruptorsWith Liz FarrBrandon Hall says that the reason accountants have such long and grueling busy seasons is that “firms try to make way too much money at tax prep.” Firms don’t have enough capacity to deliver on services, so everyone – including the partners – ends up working a ton of hours. 14 MORE TAKEAWAYS: Brandon Hall show notes hereMORE: DisruptorsMORE CPA TRENDLINES PODCASTS and VIDEOS: James Graham: Drop the Billable Hour and You'll Bill More | Karen Reyburn: Fix Your Marketing and Fix Your Business | Giles Pearson: Fix the Staffing Crisis by Swapping Experience for Education | Jina Etienne: Practice Fearless Inclusion | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Jason Deshayes: What We're Doing Isn't Working | Heather Satterley: You've Got To Meet People Where They Are | Bill Penczak: Stop Forcing Smart People to Do Stupid Work | Sandra Wiley: Staffing Problem? Check Your Culture | Because partner pay isn’t included in payroll, the margin on tax prep is likely much worse than the 30-35% that shows up on the income statement. Hall’s target for the 2024 filing season is just 10-15% margin on tax prep. To eliminate tax season, firms should overhire, “set a lower margin target for tax prep,” and “create a flywheel of services and businesses that our tax preparation clients can utilize. And we’ll make our money there.”