Tax season can turn even the most devoted spouses into “tax widows.” Tax season puts immense pressure on tax firms and accounting practices; long hours, endless deadlines, and late nights make everyone (even families of employees) feel the crunch.
As tax deadlines loom and workloads surge, many firm owners and partners delay hiring seasonal tax staff in an effort to control costs. While this may seem practical at first, waiting too long to add support often creates hidden expenses that impact revenue, staff retention, and client satisfaction.
Robert Half’s 2025 Accounting Hiring Report found that nearly seven in ten accounting firms are facing critical staffing shortages as the busy season begins, a significant jump from the prior year.
Couple this with data from AccountancyAge stating that eighty-three percent of senior leaders report a shortage of accounting professionals, with 10% saying the situation is worsening. Meanwhile, 67% of CFOs expect to hire staff accountants in the coming year, increasing competition for a limited supply of qualified candidates.
There are many reasons delaying the hiring of seasonal tax professionals can cost your firm more than expected and why proactive staffing is a smarter approach.
Missed Revenue During Peak Tax Season
For tax firms, capacity directly affects profitability. When your team is stretched thin, you’re forced to:
- Decline new clients
- Delay return preparation
- Push extensions that could have been avoided
And it’s not just employee perception of being stretched thin, the problem is both measurable and compounding. Between 2019 and 2024, the average number of forms required for a moderately complex business tax return increased by 23%, significantly expanding the scope of work for tax firms. According to research by Mentally.ai, the average accounting firm loses 340 hours every January. That’s roughly two employees’ worth of work. Tax credits that were once niche, such as the R&D tax credit, have become mainstream strategies, bringing with them documentation requirements that didn’t exist in most small business workflows just five years ago. All of this means the time cost to do the same process is growing exponentially.
Managing that with the same staff means operating over capacity and turning away business or pushing back deadlines. Each missed return represents lost revenue and potentially a lost long-term client. Understaffing actually means walking away from money.
Planning and hiring seasonal staff helps firms handle higher volumes, improve turnaround times, and allows you to maximize revenue during the busiest months of the year.
Increased Errors and Rework from Overloaded Teams
The financial consequences of accounting talent shortages are becoming increasingly visible. Heavy workloads and tight deadlines coupled with manual processes increase the risk of mistakes. When tax professionals are overworked, even small errors can lead to:
- Time-consuming rework
- Client dissatisfaction
- Compliance and liability concerns
Understaffed teams and reliance on overextended or less-experienced employees can lead to reporting errors, inefficiencies, and rising labor costs.
A review of recent earnings reports shows that these issues are occurring more frequently and intensifying year over year. When left unaddressed, such errors can result in serious repercussions, including shareholder lawsuits, reputational damage, and diminished confidence in a company’s financial stability.
Hiring seasonal tax professionals helps distribute work more evenly, allowing your core team to focus on accuracy and review instead of rushing to meet deadlines.
Staff Burnout and Higher Turnover Risks
One of the most overlooked costs for tax firms is burnout. Long hours and sustained pressure during tax season can lead to:
- Reduced productivity
- Lower morale
- Employees leaving after the season ends
According to an Intuit QuickBooks Accountant Technology Survey, while 69% of accounting professionals report being satisfied with their jobs overall, nearly one-third (32%) say they are dissatisfied with their job’s stress level. That stress is widely recognized across the profession as 93% of accountants identified tax season burnout as a major challenge to attracting and retaining talent. In addition, two in five accounting professionals reported dissatisfaction with their current workloads, underscoring how capacity strain continues to impact firms during peak season.
Replacing experienced tax professionals is far more expensive than hiring seasonal support. Accounting practices that invest in seasonal staffing protect their full-time team and reduce long-term turnover.
Slower Client Response Times Hurt Retention
Clients expect timely communication during tax season. When firms are understaffed, response times suffer:
- Phone calls go unanswered
- Emails are delayed
- Returns take longer to complete
Even if the work is accurate, slow service can negatively affect client retention. Bringing in additional temporary administrative staff during busy periods is a proven operational strategy for tax and accounting firms. Industry resources recommend adding roles such as project coordinators or temporary admin personnel to handle document preparation, client follow-ups, and workflow management, freeing accountants to focus on billable and high-value tasks.
Fewer Hiring Options When You Wait Too Long
Delaying staffing decisions often means trying to hire when demand for tax professionals is highest. At that point:
- Qualified seasonal tax staff are harder to find
- Onboarding becomes rushed
- Productivity ramps up more slowly
According to the AICPA, approximately 75% of CPAs were eligible for retirement by 2020, and The Wall Street Journal reports that more than 300,000 accountants exited the profession between 2019 and 2021. Meanwhile, accounting student enrollment has declined for six straight years, limiting the pipeline of new talent entering tax and accounting firms.
Accounting Today notes that the Big Four are collectively seeking to hire over 12,000 professionals before January 15, further tightening an already limited talent pool.
Accounting practices that plan ahead gain access to better talent and have more time for onboarding and workflow integration. Those who wait risk losing the best talent and spending even more money to win over employees due to the talent shortages.
The True Cost of Delaying Seasonal Tax Hiring
When tax firms add up the real costs, lost revenue, staff burnout, rework, and client attrition, it becomes clear that waiting to hire seasonal tax staff is not a cost-saving strategy and is actually costing your firm money.
Firms that chose to augment with seasonal staff and hire early are better positioned to:
- Increase tax season capacity
- Maintain quality and compliance
- Protect their teams
- Strengthen client relationships
Final Thoughts: Seasonal Tax Staff as a Strategic Advantage
For tax firms and accounting practices, seasonal tax professionals and additional admin support are not just temporary help, they are a strategic investment. Proactive staffing allows firms to operate efficiently during peak season without sacrificing quality, bypassing revenue, or negatively impacting your employees’ wellbeing.
It's not too late...
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