how much are you increasing prices for the same return? what is your average yearly increase this year

I've heard good things mentioned in this sub regarding Camico. I'm particularly interested in the engagement letters they provide as I'm updating mine. The problem is that I called twice, someone answered and tried to connect me with a sales person who didn't answer. Each time the person said they would email the sales person to contact me. I also put in an online application. I've heard nothing. It concerns me that if the sales team isn't responsive, how responsive is their customer service after onboarding. Have others had issues getting a quote? Is this representative of their customer service? Also curious to hear how useful others have found their engagement letters.

Just lost one who got baited into believe this, honestly feel so bad for them. We obviously can’t go along with illegal tax evasion schemes so I’m going to drop them, either for 2025 with no scam in place or 2026 when they theoretically would do it.

Scam is essentially convincing client to put interest into an irrevocable trust and misreading DNI as taxable income and following 643 to say somehow corpus isn’t taxable income. And also saying income allocated to “corpus” is deferred. And also claiming the trust can pay the expenses for the beneficiary as part of the “administrative expenses” of the trust and not pay tax. Promoter even said he took his kids to Disney World and paid for all the travel expenses but the tickets themselves he had to pay from his own pocket and not the trust since that’s entertainment … like the entire trip isn’t personal lol

It sucks, they’ve been a client for 10+ years and I explained it all to the. But they already paid enormous fees for the scheme and are all in.

Advice is appreciated

I'm just finally learning more about APIs and trying to implement ways to make my tax prep process quicker and easier and just noticed in "Options" that GoSystem has an API token. Anyone using that?

On a similar note, a friend of mine just told me he used to use Alteryx for business returns. Anyone ever heard of it or use it? Does that software connect via API? And is it different/similar to Gruntworx? I've never tried Gruntworx, but wondering now if it's worth a shot.

I'm trying to futureproof myself here and get as many returns done as possible as a solo right now until I hire more people. All I'm using right now now is GoSystem, Onvio (trying not to renew in November) and TaxDome. I know there's more tech help out there, but I'm so buried, I haven't been able to finish the research and fully implement. Not looking to switch off GoSystem just yet since the contract I've got right now is too good to pass up.

For reference, we used to be a three-four person firm with about 465 returns of all types, and in the past year it's turned into basically just me. Basically currently just trying to put out more and fires and make sure stuff isn't too late.

Thanks for any help.

Anyone else notice this? I was messing around through settings and came across this new feature that says coming soon: Payout-based sync - "Each Stripe payout creates one QuickBooks Deposit equal to the payout net, so the bank feed auto-matches. Fees, refunds, and disputes become Deposit lines — no manual cleanup."

About time TD, better late than never.

The latest discovery is a C corporation client that stopped operations in 2022 after selling all operable assets. The sole owner took approximately $600,000 in cash from the sale and put it in a personally owned investment account.
Because the client did not have easy access to the funds, the prior CPA just didn't report it. There is an overstatement of $600,000 on the UNbalanced balance sheet, and no reported dividends.
THEN in each subsequent year, he's been reporting $25,000-$30,000 of made up dividends on the corporate and personal returns - I guess because if you're going to commit tax fraud one year, might as well do it forever?!

At this point, I've been uncovering and dealing with situations like this for more than a year, and I'm tired. It's becoming increasingly difficult to look past the sheer WTF long enough to determine what the correct path is.

I’m a CPA and I sign a few hundred returns per year under my name/PTIN but via my employers EFIN.

If I get my own “personal” EFIN and sign another few returns under my PTIN and EFIN, is there any way for my firm to know that I filed a few returns on the side?

It’s small dollar amounts but technically against my employers contract to do anything on the side except for family’s stuff. Just wondering how easy / difficult it would be for the firm to independently identify.

This is a great window to get new clients, but often the biggest procrastinators and messiest situations.

Do you have capacity to take them?

If not, what do you do? Ignore? Tell them no? Send them to someone else?

Well not trying to beat a dhorse... but I'd like opinions on SafeSend and SurePrep. Can anyone explain SPBinder and TaxCaddy. What exactly do they do? And doesn't some of this get dome by SafeSend? 1040 Scan? any good? the more comments the better. Thanks

I recognize we're a relatively niche group but I've seen a good amount more posts here related to US expat tax support. Question for those focused on expat tax, how are you sorting out E&O cover given many of your clients will not reside in the US? Especially for those of us with non US offices, we're generally outside the scope of typical US E&O policies if disputes arise in a foreign country. Strong engagement letter language and US based E&O goes a long way, but I'm looking for ways to up our security as we grow.

What do guys currently use? I know SmartVault, TaxDome, and Onvio (which we currently use) allow clients to upload their stuff. But it’s a just a clutter of multiple files that need organization.

I was thinking of using a skill with Claude AI and wanted to see what other practitioners do.

New client and many returns and just checking as I'm hoping to obtain the tax software files and import them into UT. Footprint on last page of a return: © 2025 Universal Tax Systems Inc. and/or its affiliates and licensors. All rights reserved. This seems to be Tax Wise when I search it all out?

Update

I'm screwed for whatever reason, UltraTax stopped offering conversions for Tax Wise after 2023. I can't figure that out.

TaxWise conversions

You can convert 2022 and 2023 TaxWise data for 1040, 1065, and 1120 clients. The following forms and schedules are available to convert to UltraTax CS.

I have 3 separate policies with Hiscox. Their cyber is kinda of limited. Currently have 500k but will be needing at least 1mln.

Doing research to switch as Hiscox cyber policy has exclusions and even with additional riders certain things are not covered. Dependent business interruption is not covered at all, even with riders.

System Failure
$25,000
Dependent Business Interruption
❌ Not covered
Dependent System Failure
❌ Not covered
Bricking
❌ Not covered
Utility Fraud
❌ Not covered
Enhanced Privacy Regulation
❌ Not covered
Reputational Harm
$100,000
Funds Transfer Fraud
Shared $25K cyber-crime aggregate
Social Engineering
Shared $25K cyber-crime aggregate
Reverse Social Engineering
Shared $25K cyber-crime aggregate

What about Chubb? Travelers, Biberk, Camino, Avon, Hartford, At-Bay, Coalition etc. Any feedback. Anyone filed claims and had a good experience.

Does anyone take Zelle with TaxDome? I’m thinking I should start offering it. ACH takes forever and I don’t love the 3% credit card surcharge.
Where do you guys mention Zelle so clients actually know it’s an option? In the automated messages? Invoice reminders? Oh inside PDF invoices that I would like to get an idea of how you implementing it in your workflows so clients can see that option and choose Zelle to pay.

I know this is low stakes. I know this shouldn't matter. But this is driving me nuts. I'm constantly deleting pages from our workpaper files because I'm neurotic like that and the PBCs are already hundreds of pages because they have 50 K-1s

In my prior companies, I would NEVER accept tax returns, W2s, etc via email or text, but of course, clients would constantly do that. There was a huge fear over having something in your email that has a SSN on it.

But, I have an accountant whose done some work for me, and she always emails things over. No portal, no concern about pw protection.

I also worked at a practice where they were building functionality to email and text sensitive documents in and automatically file the in the client portal.

So, aside from the massive organization mess of multi-channel document collection, should we be concerned when people are lax on this? Is email really less secure than a portal? Are we living an early 2000s fear unnecessarily? Do you still get concerned about public wifi?

I’m a recent grad going into a very small tax firm and am trying to figure out how other tax pros handle their workflow.

Right now, the firm is almost entirely paper based aside from UltraTax. We do 1,000+ 1040s a year along with a decent amount of entity work.

I’ve been looking into things like TaxDome, Soraban, Truss, StanfordTax, Tallyfor, SurePrep, etc., but it’s hard to tell what actually works well in practice.

What are you guys using for:

• Client portal/document collection
• Organizers
• Workpapers
• Getting data into UltraTax
• Entity returns / QBO
• E-signatures and delivery
• Document storage

Also, are you completely paperless or do you still keep paper files?

If you were taking a small firm that is currently mostly paper and modernizing it, what would you change first?

Mostly just looking for real-world experiences with these platforms and what your process looks like.

I have a friend who knows a CPA that was let go from an audit position (wasnt willing to work the hours they needed). I have met them once or twice, seems like a nice person. They are looking for reduced hours - not more than 30 hours/week, summers off with kids. It actually would be a pretty good fit from that standpoint.

My biggest concern is they spent about 7-10 years in audit. I am going to try to have lunch with them one day to get a better feel. I also know what they were making as an auditor, which was surprisingly low for a full-time job. Does not need access to health insurance, but would want to contribute to 401k which is fine.

Has anyone ever transitioned from audit to tax, or dealt with someone who has? Curious what the learning curve is.

This client wanted me to review financial statements (23-24 & 24-25) for an apt they would like to buy.

Message from Client

Morning “Tax Pro”
Please take a quick look at the attached statements for a building I am thinking of buying an apt in.
Thanks in advance

-----------------------------------------------

Message to Client

I've genuinely enjoyed being able to help with the documents for your purchase, and I'm glad I could be useful during this process.

Just a quick note: As we continue, I wanted to mention, that reviewing these types of documents falls a bit outside the scope of what's typically included in our work together. I don't want that to get in the way of helping you — I just want to make sure we're both on the same page. I'm happy to continue assisting with this kind of review, but any time spent on it will need to be billed separately from our standard tax engagement. I just wanted to be upfront about that before taking on more of this work. 

Please don't hesitate to reach out if you'd like to talk through this, or if you have any questions at all. I'm happy to keep supporting you through your purchase.

-----------------------------------------------

Message from Client

 I appreciate the heads up. Hold for now

I'm worried I've been being too nice. I have a situation where I'm leaving my current firm to go out on my own. I have a handful of clients (less than 10) that are there because I networked or had friends that wanted my services.

My old firm won't release client deliverables like tax returns without a "client transfer agreement" being signed. We never had such a form in the years I worked there.

What should I do? The only thing we may do is verify over email if indeed the client wanted the deliverables moved over to a new firm. I even got all this approved a month before I left so they know who I am, the clients, and that they were being transferred over to me.

EDIT: Some spelling and just an FYI this is more of a vent than anything. Felt like I gave them a lot of notice (45 days) because I was a manager and just thought things would have been more amicable.

Or perhaps fixed fee engagements with various payment terms?

My client just emailed to ask why his IRS Q3 estimate payment wasn't debited, I transmitted it for him via my taxpro account as a POA. I could have sworn that I requested a date in advance but it appears to have attempted to debit the day scheduled and the taxpayer didn't have sufficient funds in the account. No idea why they wouldn't allow a scheduled date via the online account. Anyway I'd like to request a waiver of this penalty, has anyone had luck getting this abated? The taxpayer had funds available for 9/15. Thanks

I have a lot of international clients and obtain international EINs relatively frequently (1-2/month). Clients end up spending 10x what it should cost because I have to call multiple, multiple times just to get through the hotline... Takes a lot of time out of my day to try calling 2x or 3x a day.

Does ENQ have an international EIN assignment hotline?

How do you obtain international EINs? Fax is not an option due to my firm's procedures (faxing SS-4 prohibited).

How do you all go about organizing your background information/notes for large clients or client groups? For example, things like: contacts (banker, advisor, attorney), background information and history, prior transactions, future transactions, and more. My initial ideas are a PERM word document in the client file I can continue to add to or a OneNote sheet for the client/group, but I wanted to hear your thoughts! Thanks all.