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Archive for June, 2010

Jun
30

Marketing a Tax Business: Traditional vs. New Media

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Television

How can TV advertising be used effectively by a tax business? We have used TV since I founded Peoples Income Tax in 1987. TV was very effective in creating awareness and brand recognition for us in the early years. TV worked for us because we had offices convenient to almost all of the viewing audience. But in recent years, mass media (TV & radio) has become fragmented and less cost-effective. We have also not been able to match the buying power of H&R Block and Jackson Hewitt. If you have used TV advertising, how did you go about producing your commercials and buying TV spots and was it effective?

Social Media

Has anyone obtained new clients through social networking? I have been dabbling in Social Media for about a year now and have gotten a few clients. Most of my activity has been on LinkedIn, although I also have accounts on Facebook and Twitter (@PeoplesTax, @TaxSchool). This blog is my latest adventure in Social Media and I am committed to making Tax Industry Talk a valuable resource to my friends and customers in the industry. I’d be very interested in learning how other tax professionals are using Social Networking to obtain new clients.

Categories : Growing Your Tax Business
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Jun
23

Preparing for the Enrolled Agent Exam

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What is the best preparation to become an EA?  They say there is no substitute for experience and I don’t know anyone who has passed the EA Exam without at least 2 tax seasons of tax preparation experience.  I’m sure there are people smarter than me who can pass by just studying, but will they be good tax preparers?  My belief is that both education and experience are needed to pass the EA exam.  One source of the education is the Chartered Tax Professional-CTP certificate program (link below) which consists of six 10-lesson (30-hour) courses in basic, advanced and small business tax preparation (180 hours).   If you employ tax preparers, do you provide access to professional education as a career track leading to the EA credential?

http://www.charteredtaxprofessional.com

Categories : Professional Education & Credentials
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Jun
16

Gaining New Clients with Your Website

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Does your website help you to generate new clients? Our tax business website, peoplestax.com, is still not much more than an electronic brochure. We would like the website to be interactive with our existing clients, while also developing new clients. We have lots of ideas, but we need to implement them. For example, before next tax season we plan to rebuild our website in WordPress, which we have done with our Income Tax School site. This will enable our staff to make updates quickly and easily without a programmer. We will also be able to launch a blog on the site like we have done with this blog which resides on our tax school site that has already been converted to Word Press.

What have you done to make your website a marketing tool for your tax business?

Categories : Growing Your Tax Business
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Jun
09

The New Rules for Paid Tax Preparers

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If you employ seasonal tax preparers how can you ensure that they are able to pass the IRS competency exam?  Many tax preparers rely too much on tax software and don’t have enough tax knowledge to pass the IRS exam.  We will make our tax preparers can pass the final exam of our Comprehensive Income Tax Course with a grade of at least 90%.  Those who do not pass our test will be required to take the 60-hour course, either in a live class or online this fall.  Employees who also prepare business returns will be required to either test-out of or take the Comprehensive Course plus our Small Business Level I course (links below).  What are your plans to enable your tax preparers to pass the IRS competency exam?

Comprehensive:  http://www.theincometaxschool.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=4

Comprehensive & Small Business I:

http://www.theincometaxschool.com/shop/shopexd.asp?id=116

Categories : Tax Preparer Regulations
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Jun
02

Pay Scale for Tax Preparers – The National Average vs. What You’re Paying

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As with many businesses, employee pay is a hot topic of discussion. Is it best to pay tax preparers a straight hourly wage, a wage plus a bonus, a wage as a draw against commission, or some other method?  We believe that a performance-based compensation plan is best to ensure that tax preparers are paid commensurate with their contributions.  We use a pay structure similar to Block’s, i.e., an hourly or salary rate as a draw against a percentage of the tax preparation revenue generated by the tax preparer.  The difference between commission earned and wages drawn is paid as a “bonus” in May.  We pay a higher commission for professional attainment, such as an EA (less for a CPA or Law Degree).

Categories : Operating Your Tax Business
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