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Cultivate a positive client experience with these strategies

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A poor client experience is the reason why 49% of consumers left a brand in the past 12 months. Improving the client experience can lead to happier clients who may be less likely to switch firms.

For a moment, think about your favorite restaurant. If you frequent the location often, the waitstaff may know your name, your favorite dish and where you like to sit. All of these elements create an experience, which, when the food is excellent, keeps you coming back time and time again.

You likely even recommend the restaurant to other people you know, driving more business to the eatery.

The same idea applies to accounting firms.

Client experience is something every accounting firm must work on. Why? An experience that clients enjoy leads to:

  • Brand loyalty;
  • Deeper client relationships; and,
  • Increase in referrals and revenue;

Your clients have options, and the experience you offer can make and keep you the clear choice. I’m going to show you how to create the ultimate client experience for your firm using a simple, step-by-step approach.

First map out your client journey

Every client your firm has will have a journey that they go through. If you don’t know what your clients are experiencing, you can’t focus on improving it. You might even be so busy managing your firm that there’s been a cultural shift that you overlook.

What can you do to map out the journey?

Sit down and ask:

  • Why do clients need your services?
  • Why was your firm chosen over others?
  • Where are clients finding your services?

Once you have these key pieces of information, you need to understand the client’s experience from onboarding to your service delivery. If you don’t have answers to these questions, send surveys to your clients and work with your team to gain these insights.

Next, it’s time to review your tech stack, which many firms need to do to stay relevant.

Review your tech stack

If your technology is outdated or causes any level of friction, it will impact the client experience. Let’s say your firm offers online communication and a portal to upload documents. If you end up asking the client to print and sign a contract, it will look like you’re a bit dated.

Why print, scan and send documents when you can send contracts with e-signatures?

Clients want convenience. 

You need to look at what technology they’re interacting with in your marketing efforts, when signing on as a client, while they’re utilizing your services, and even when they are offboarded. Your team also needs to use the right tech stack to boost productivity and efficiency, which leads to better client experience.

Ideally, you’ll review your tech stack annually because behaviors change, and expectations evolve, often growing higher.

For example, consider the client experience around tax organizers. Firms often struggle during tax season because clients do not complete tax organizers. Your team will spend excessive time contacting the client and filling in the “blanks” in the information the client sends over.

Low completion rates are often due to tax organizers being clunky, frustrating and time-consuming, and requiring clients to print documents

With the technology available today, your tax organizers shouldn’t ask clients to print and bring papers to the office. Integrating the right tech stack and software can streamline the entire experience and increase completion rates.

For example, StanfordTax’s personalized client questionnaires are designed to focus on the client experience by skipping over irrelevant questions. By integrating with your tax filing software, it can use prior-year data to determine what questions to ask and what questions aren’t necessary.

Even form reminders are sent automatically, alleviating many of the mundane tasks that accountants waste time on.

Your tech stack needs to simplify processes, reduce errors and hold clients accountable when working with your firm, all of which contribute to a better overall client experience.

Multiple areas of your tech stack may need to be improved, and once you’ve identified these weak links, you can pivot into client communication.

Communicate, communicate, communicate

Communication is often at the heart of client complaints. Clients can easily become frustrated if they don’t receive a timely response or their accountants don’t take a proactive approach to communication.

Having a clear policy can help create the ultimate client experience. Make sure your clients understand:

  • When they can expect a response (one business day, two business days, etc.), even if it’s just to let them know that you need more time. 
  • How often they will hear from you. Will you touch base every month, week or quarter?
  • Which channels you use to communicate. Will you touch base via email, in-person, Zoom calls, phone calls or some other way?

Communicate your policy during onboarding so that clients know what to expect right from the start. 

Request and utilize client feedback

To create an amazing client experience, you need to know what’s working, what’s not working and what clients want or need that you’re not delivering on.

The best way to get this information is to implement a feedback loop into your client workflow. 

Gathering feedback doesn’t have to be complicated. You can request it at a cadence that works for your firm and your deliverables. It could be monthly or even yearly after you complete their taxes.

The simplest way to request and gather feedback is through email. You may even want to include a net promoter score to track how clients feel about your firm.

Your feedback request can also include important questions, like:

  • How can we be most helpful to your business?
  • What’s going well in your business?
  • What’s not going so well in your business?

If you want to keep things simple, send a personalized message asking each client about their satisfaction with your services.

Requesting feedback is half the battle, but when you do get it, make sure that you put it to work and start improving your services.

Final thoughts

Creating the ultimate client experience will take time, effort and a solid plan, but it’s worth it. Happy clients stick around and may even send referrals your way. Great experiences can also lead to positive reviews from clients, which can bolster your reputation and help you attract more clients. 

Remember, 50% of consumers trust reviews as much as recommendations from family and friends, so make it a priority to deliver the best possible client experience using the tips above.

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AICPA wants Congress to change tax bill

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The American Institute of CPAs is asking leaders of the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee to make changes in the wide-ranging tax and spending legislation that was passed in the House last week and is now in the Senate, especially provisions that have a significant impact on accounting firms and tax professionals.

In a letter Thursday, the AICPA outlined its concerns about changes in the deductibility of state and local taxes pass-through entities such as accounting and law firms that fit the definition of “specified service trades or businesses.” The AICPA urged CPAs to contact lawmakers ahead of passage of the bill in the House and spoke out earlier about concerns to changes to the deductibility of state and local taxes for pass-through entities. 

“While we support portions of the legislation, we do have significant concerns regarding several provisions in the bill, including one which threatens to severely limit the deductibility of state and local tax (SALT) by certain businesses,” wrote AICPA Tax Executive Committee chair Cheri Freeh in the letter. “This outcome is contrary to the intentions of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which is to strengthen small businesses and enhance small business relief.”

The AICPA urged lawmakers to retain entity-level deductibility of state and local taxes for all pass-through entities, strike the contingency fee provision, allow excess business loss carryforwards to offset business and nonbusiness income, and retain the deductibility of state and local taxes for all pass-through entities.

The proposal goes beyond accounting firms. According to the IRS, “an SSTB is a trade or business involving the performance of services in the fields of health, law, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, investing and investment management, trading or dealing in certain assets, or any trade or business where the principal asset is the reputation or skill of one or more of its employees or owners.”

The AICPA argued that SSTBs would be unfairly economically disadvantaged simply by existing as a certain type of business and the parity gap among SSTBs and non-SSTBs and C corporations would widen.

Under current tax law (and before the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017), it noted, C corporations could deduct SALT in determining their federal taxable income. Prior to the TCJA, owners of PTEs (and sole proprietorships that itemized deductions) were also allowed to deduct SALT on income earned by the PTE (or sole proprietorship). 

“However, the TCJA placed a limitation on the individual SALT deduction,” Freeh wrote. “In response, 36 states (of the 41 that have a state income tax) enacted or proposed various approaches to mitigate the individual SALT limitation by shifting the SALT liability on PTE income from the owner to the PTE. This approach restored parity among businesses and was approved by the IRS through Notice 2020-75, by allowing PTEs to deduct PTE taxes paid to domestic jurisdictions in computing the entity’s federal non-separately stated income or loss. Under this approved approach, the PTE tax does not count against partners’/owners’ individual federal SALT deduction limit. Rather, the PTE pays the SALT, and the partners/owners fully deduct the amount of their distributive share of the state taxes paid by the PTE for federal income tax purposes.”

The AICPA pointed out that C corporations enjoy a number of advantages, including an unlimited SALT deduction, a 21% corporate tax rate, a lower tax rate on dividends for owners, and the ability for owners to defer income. 

“However, many SSTBs are restricted from organizing as a C corporation, leaving them with no option to escape the harsh results of the SSTB distinction and limiting their SALT deduction,” said the letter. “In addition, non-SSTBs are entitled to an unfettered qualified business income (QBI) deduction under Internal Revenue Code section 199A, while SSTBs are subject to harsh limitations on their ability to claim a QBI deduction.”

The AICPA also believes the bill would add significant complexity and uncertainty for all pass-through entities, which would be required to perform complex calculations and analysis to determine if they are eligible for any SALT deduction. “To determine eligibility for state and local income taxes, non-SSTBs would need to perform a gross receipts calculation,” said the letter. “To determine eligibility for all other state and local taxes, pass-through entities would need to determine eligibility under the substitute payments provision (another complex set of calculations). Our laws should not discourage the formation of critical service-based businesses and, therefore, disincentivize professionals from entering such trades and businesses. Therefore, we urge Congress to allow all business entities, including SSTBs, to deduct state and local taxes paid or accrued in carrying on a trade or business.”

Tax professionals have been hearing about the problem from the Institute’s outreach campaign. 

“The AICPA was making some noise about that provision and encouraging some grassroots lobbying in the industry around that provision, given its impact on accounting firms,” said Jess LeDonne, director of tax technical at the Bonadio Group. “It did survive on the House side. It is still in there, specifically meaning the nonqualifying businesses, including SSTBs. I will wait and see if some of those efforts from industry leaders in the AICPA maybe move the needle on the Senate side.”

Contingency fees

The AICPA also objects to another provision in the bill involving contingency fees affecting the tax profession. It would allow contingency fee arrangements for all tax preparation activities, including those involving the submission of an original tax return. 

“The preparation of an original return on a contingent fee basis could be an incentive to prepare questionable returns, which would result in an open invitation to unscrupulous tax preparers to engage in fraudulent preparation activities that takes advantage of both the U.S. tax system and taxpayers,” said the AICPA. “Unknowing taxpayers would ultimately bear the cost of these fee arrangements, since they will have remitted the fee to the preparer, long before an assessment is made upon the examination of the return.”

The AICPA pointed out that contingent fee arrangements were associated with many of the abuses in the Employee Retention Credit program, in both original and amended return filings.

“Allowing contingent fee arrangements to be used in the preparation of the annual original income tax returns is an open invitation to abuse the tax system and leaves the IRS unable to sufficiently address this problem,” said the letter. “Congress should strike the contingent fee provision from the tax bill. If Congress wants to include the provision on contingency fees, we recommend that Congress provide that where contingent fees are permitted for amended returns and claims for refund, a paid return preparer is required to disclose that the return or claim is prepared under a contingent fee agreement. Disclosure of a contingent fee arrangement deters potential abuse, helps ensure the integrity of the tax preparation process, and ensures compliance with regulatory and ethical standards.”

Business loss carryforwards

The AICPA also called for allowing excess business loss carryforwards to offset business and nonbusiness income. It noted that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act amends Section 461(l)(2) of the Tax Code to provide that any excess business loss carries over as an excess business loss, rather than a net operating loss. 

“This amendment would effectively provide for a permanent disallowance of any business losses unless or until the taxpayer has other business income,” said letter. “For example, a taxpayer that sells a business and recognizes a large ordinary loss in that year would be limited in each carryover year indefinitely, during which time the taxpayer is unlikely to have any additional business income. The bill should be amended to remove this provision and to retain the treatment of excess business loss carryforwards under current law, which is that the excess business loss carries over as a net operating loss (at which point it is no longer subject to section 461(l) in the carryforward year).

AICPA supports provisions

The AICPA added that it supported a number of provisions in the bill, despite those concerns. The provisions it supports and has advocated for in the past include 

• Allow Section 529 plan funds to be used for post-secondary credential expenses;
• Provide tax relief for individuals and businesses affected by natural disasters, albeit not
permanent;
• Make permanent the QBI deduction, increase the QBI deduction percentage, and expand the QBI deduction limit phase-in range;
• Create new Section 174A for expensing of domestic research and experimental expenditures and suspend required capitalization of such expenditures;
• Retain the current increased individual Alternative Minimum Tax exemption amounts;
• Preserve the cash method of accounting for tax purposes;
• Increase the Form 1099-K reporting threshold for third-party payment platforms;
• Make permanent the paid family leave tax credit;
• Make permanent extensions of international tax rates for foreign-derived intangible income, base erosion and anti-abuse tax, and global intangible low-taxed income;
• Exclude from GILTI certain income derived from services performed in the Virgin
Islands;
• Provide greater certainty and clarity via permanent tax provisions, rather than sunset
tax provisions.

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Accounting

On the move: HHM promotes former intern to partner

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KPMG anoints next management committee; Ryan forms Tariff Task Force; and more news from across the profession.

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Accounting

Mid-year moves: Why placed-in-service dates matter more than ever for cost segregation planning

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In the world of depreciation planning, one small timing detail continues to fly under the radar — and it’s costing taxpayers serious money.

Most people fixate on what a property costs or how much they can write off. But the placed-in-service date — when the IRS considers a property ready and available for use — plays a crucial role in determining bonus depreciation eligibility for cost segregation studies.

And as bonus depreciation continues to phase out (or possibly bounce back), that timing has never been more important.

Why placed-in-service timing gets overlooked

The IRS defines “placed in service” as the moment a property is ready and available for its intended use.

For rentals, that means:

  • It’s available for move-in, and,
  • It’s listed or actively being shown.

But in practice, this definition gets misapplied. Some real estate owners assume the closing date is enough. Others delay listing the property until after the new year, missing key depreciation opportunities.

And that gap between intent and readiness? That’s where deductions quietly slip away.

Bonus depreciation: The clock is ticking

Under current law, bonus depreciation is tapering fast:

  • 2024: 60%
  • 2025: 40%
  • 2026: 20%
  • 2027: 0%

The difference between a property placed in service on December 31 versus January 2 can translate into tens of thousands in immediate deductions.

And just to make things more interesting — on May 9, the House Ways and Means Committee released a draft bill that would reinstate 100% bonus depreciation retroactive to Jan. 20, 2025. (The bill was passed last week by the House as part of the One Big Beautiful Bill and is now with the Senate.)

The result? Accountants now have to think in two timelines:

  • What the current rules say;
  • What Congress might say a few months from now.

It’s a tricky season to navigate — but also one where proactive advice carries real weight.

Typical scenarios where timing matters

Placed-in-service missteps don’t always show up on a tax return — but they quietly erode what could’ve been better results. Some common examples:

  • End-of-year closings where the property isn’t listed or rent-ready until January.
  • Short-term rentals delayed by renovation punch lists or permitting hang-ups.
  • Commercial buildings waiting on tenant improvements before becoming operational.

Each of these cases may involve a difference of just a few days — but that’s enough to miss a year’s bonus depreciation percentage.

Planning moves for the second half of the year

As Q3 and Q4 approach, here are a few moves worth making:

  • Confirm the service-readiness timeline with clients acquiring property in the second half of the year.
  • Educate on what “in service” really means — closing isn’t enough.
  • Create a checklist for documentation: utilities on, photos of rent-ready condition, listings or lease activity.
  • Track bonus depreciation eligibility relative to current and potential legislative shifts.

For properties acquired late in the year, encourage clients to fast-track final steps. The tax impact of being placed in service by December 31 versus January 2 is larger than most realize.

If the window closes, there’s still value

Even if a property misses bonus depreciation, cost segregation still creates long-term savings — especially for high-income earners.

Partial-year depreciation still applies, and in some cases, Form 3115 can allow for catch-up depreciation in future years. The strategy may shift, but the opportunity doesn’t disappear.

Placed-in-service dates don’t usually show up on investor spreadsheets. But they’re one of the most controllable levers in maximizing tax savings. For CPAs and advisors, helping clients navigate that timing correctly can deliver outsized results.

Because at the end of the day, smart tax planning isn’t just about what you buy — it’s about when you put it to work.

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