A Day in the Life of a Tax Professional

What does a tax professional do after April 15th? Gauging by my clients, not much. Let me explain.

Once tax season is over I get deluged with phone calls and emails. More than half my work hours are consumed by the phone and email. Today alone I received 67 emails and 17 phone calls. This doesn’t include spam email or sales calls. If each phone call takes fifteen minutes and each email 3 minutes, I am over seven and a half hours into my day before I get any work done.

I answer every email and phone call. Sometimes it takes a while as the numbers above are for a normal day. Mondays are heavier with weekend requests thrown in.

How to approach me on a tax issue: with patience. I handle the small items first to clean by desk off as much as possible and slow down the repeat phone calls. Then I dig into the larger questions and issues I am able to complete immediately. Then I focus on research to answer the remaining emails and phone calls. This can take a few days, depending on the amount of work on my desk. I take work home every night and over the weekend. This is a seven day a week job.

After six to seven hours of phone and email a day, I need to complete real work. To get the work done requires 75-85 hours per week. And I do have a family I like to be with a few hours a week while they are awake.

What not to do: I had a client call Jeff recently and inform me he would keep calling every ten minutes until I took his call. Needless to say he is no longer a client and he will get nothing from me. Rudeness never works.

Am I ranting? Yes. I want the work done as bad as you. I plan my day to complete the most amount of work possible. I hate it when work piles up and nothing gets done.