Resources for Tax Professionals

Adapt or Die

Tax Preparation Industry Titans’ Latest Initiative
Spells Opportunity For Visionary Tax Preparers

Just as the pandemic introduced us to All Things Virtual, from meetings to entertainment to parades, its now brought us the advent of the latest tax industry initiative – “Virtual Tax Preparation.” Do a little research and you’ll find that not only are the national tax prep chains H&R Block, Jackson-Hewitt, and Liberty Tax offering their professional tax services “virtually,” but all major online filing companies are offering their DIY customers the option to “chat with a tax professional” for live assistance and for completing their tax returns. And don’t think for a minute that your (our) clients haven’t seen the ads.

So right about now you (assuming you’re an indie tax preparer) are probably wondering…”Does this mean I’m toast?” To which I would reply “Yes, eventually, if you don’t adapt to the demands of the market.” After all, you saw what computers, tax software, and electronic filing did to preparers who failed to adapt.

Do a little more research to learn how the tax prep chains and online filing companies are actually enabling “Virtual Tax Preparation” and you’ll see an approach that’s very similar to the service you’ve been offering your remote clients for years:

1) Touch base with your remote client either via letter, email, or phone call
2) Instruct remote client on what documents you’ll need to prepare their taxes
3) Instruct remote client on options for securely sending their tax information to you
4) Prepare remote client’s tax return(s)
5) Communicate with remote client during and upon completion of the tax preparation process
6) Send completed tax forms and documents securely to remote client for signatures and filing
7) Make arrangements for payment from remote client
8) Provide year-round support to remote client

If this sounds like your typical approach to serving remote clients then you too can hop on the industry bandwagon and call yourself a “Virtual Tax Preparer,” right? Not quite. While you’ve earned the “Tax Preparer” part of your job description, there are a few more features and enhancements you must add to your approach before you can officially include “Virtual” in your hip new designation:

Web Cam Video. All virtual events include a visual component, and so must your service. Not that you actually must prepare the tax return with your client watching, but there must be a way for you and your client to communicate visually should that be preferred by your (prospective) client. If you’re concerned about the cost or setup requirements of video-enabling your place of business, we’ve done the preliminary research for you and are happy to share our findings with you at https://chatnow.direct. Inevitably you’ll discover that the cost and setup for video-enabling your workplace is negligible.

Secure Document Exchange. From secure portals and email to fax to overnight mail, you must offer your clients a variety of document exchange methods to choose from since they all have their own personal comfort level. You’re familiar with the old standbys fax, overnight mail, and snail mail (believe it, still the most popular method of document transfer), but I’m sure in recent years you’ve been getting more sensitive info emailed to you which, if not encrypted, is a security risk. If you’re looking for a secure and simple way to satisfy your (prospective) clients who wish to send and receive sensitive information digitally, then consider our own HyperFiles service, where you can satisfy your digital clients with a no-registration filedrop url, private messaging, secure email, and more for as little as $69 per year.

Marketing. Look again at the eight-step tax preparation process in the previous section, which you must present to your remote client in a concise and orderly manner. There’s no better way to achieve this than by using a web page. Not only can the web page introduce yourself and describe your new “virtual” approach, but it can also provide your visitor with links for video chat, secure portals and email, and more. See our own page here for example. Not only is there a link to this page from our company’s homepage, but we’re also emailing the link to all of our remote preparation clients while asking them to forward the link to anyone else they know who could use our services.

Want To Add Virtual Tax Preparation To Your Own Practice?

If you have your own website:

Read our tutorial at chatnow.direct to get started, and if it’s beneficial to your practice, in addition to the knowledge you’ve gained here, a gratuity is greatly appreciated
Need Chat Room redirection implemented? Contact us using the Gratuity Widget at the bottom of the chatnow.direct page leaving your email address in the comment section
Need a Secure Filedrop with Private Messaging, Download Notifications, and Secure Email? Sign Up for HyperFiles

If you do not have your own website:

Get in the game with our simple but informative one-page website featuring your own Virtual Tax Prep homepage
Establish your site name as a subdomain of 1040.live or virtualtaxprep.us i.e. https://1040.live/yourcustomsite
Edit your Virtual Tax Prep homepage to reflect your personal tastes, colors, images, descriptions, and of course contact info, chat url, email and upload links, etc
Bundle a HyperFiles subscription with your website to offer Secure Document Transfer, Private Messaging, and Secure Email at a generous discount
Purchase the four-page website option which adds our Chat Room Redirection Manager and Scheduler App