Today is March 31, meaning there are 18 days left to file (198 days if you followed your CPA’s recommendation to kick the can down the road with an extension) and it is not the time to be shopping for a tax preparer. Add to that — and this bit is for any taxpayers who aren’t tax preparers reading this — this tax season in particular has been rough for clients. Nearly all of #TaxTwitter is finally setting boundaries, chopping problematic clients, hiking fees, and not taking new clients.
The utter lack of professionals accepting clients right now didn’t stop this guy from going on local TV and telling taxpayers to Google preparers and call around to see if any of them are accepting clients. In March. Almost April, actually.
OH HEY, we know of someone taking clients if you can’t find an EA or CPA.
Although the Wall Street Journal has only recently dedicated several articles to the issue (here, here, here, and the most recent one here), the Great Shrinkening of Accountants™ has been known for years (example: this 2021 article I wrote about the accounting pipeline problem, a problem that was historically called the “talent shortage” and has been going on for years). The AICPA noticed a concerning gap in accounting graduates and CPA exam candidates as early as 2014, and we’ve known for a few years now that accounting enrollments were dropping off from a peak in 2015-16. All that to say, anyone who needs an EA or CPA to help them file for the 2022 tax year should have been Googling for one a long time ago, not 18 days before April 18th. It’s not their fault and we know local TV stations don’t read fringe accounting tabloids but still…too little too late, my guy.
Good luck to them I guess.
