The Ambitious Bookkeeper Podcast

165 ⎸ Tax: Should you offer it?

• Serena Shoup, CPA • Episode 165

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In this solo episode, I’m chatting about a question I got from one of you awesome listeners: should you add tax services to your bookkeeping biz? We’ll weigh the pros and cons, talk about building your own client base, and figure out if expanding your services is the right move for you.

In this episode you’ll hear:

  • building a personal book of business
  • advantages of hiring a tax specialist
  • benefits & drawbacks of offering tax services
  • my experience with tax services


Resources mentioned in this episode:



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Welcome to the ambitious bookkeeper channel. I am Serena Shupe your host. And today I'm talking about whether or not you should. Actually offer tax. And this is based on an audience question. So let's get to it. I had someone email me, asking you a question about offering tax. So I'm going to go ahead and read the question. and then I'll get into answering it. So this person emailed in hi Sarita. I really enjoy your podcast. And recently have been looking into your training options. Awesome. If you two are interested in my training options, you can find the links in the show notes or below where you're watching this episode. She says I'm a CPA and have been with a smaller firm for about 12 years. I worked from home and I love it. But the owner plans to retire in two years and is looking into options to sell in the past. We discussed the option of me taking over, but the firm does individual and corporate tax, which I do not have a ton of experience in. I do all the bookkeeping reports, sales tax, payroll, et cetera. My question to you is why have you not used taxes as an additional service for in your firm? Is there a podcast covering this? There is no. I would love to have my own firm of just accounting services, but I also don't want to leave my boss before he sells. I'm thinking of taking on some bookkeeping clients now on my own, and maybe I can slowly create my own firm. Any thoughts, I value your time and input and we'll keep tuning in for when I can purchase your BBA program. Thanks for all you do for us. Thank you. Thank you, listener. I promise to keep you anonymous. So, yes. Thank you so much for writing in and asking this question. And for any of those of you who are listening and have questions like this, or very different questions, you can always email us. support@ambitiousbookkeeper.com and just put in the subject line podcast question. All right. So let's get into this. There's kind of two parts of this question. I wanted to read the whole thing to provide some context, but I'm going to dive into a couple of different aspects of it. So basically what I would do if I was in your position, I would probably approach it like this number, a build your additional book of business with bookkeeping clients on the side, as a safety net, for two reasons. If you buy the firm and you want to merge the two, you have more recurring revenue to cover the sale price and operations. Number two in that of why is if you end up not buying the firm and one to exit, you have your own thing building. So either way I do believe. That. I'm not going to say you should build your own book of business on the side, but that's how I would approach it. Since you're already thinking about doing that anyway, it sounds like you want to, and you enjoy it. So, I'm here to give you a little boost and encouragement. If that's the case. Now number B if you buy the firm. You could, and like I said, this is kind of how I would approach it. By the firm hire attacks CPA or an enrolled agent. Someone who specializes in tax wants to do tax wants to manage that side of thing, but perhaps doesn't want to own their own firm and have them sign returns and manage that whole process. This is actually something that I have been wanting to expand into because like you, I do not have a strong enough background in tax nor do I enjoy doing tax, but I do see the value in having a full service firm because I have lost clients. That have gone with other firms that can do all of it. And that's kind of a hard pill to swallow. I also go back and forth with, but we specialize in bookkeeping or client accounting services, but I'm also a CPA. So it kind of like doesn't make sense that I don't offer tax in the mind of clients often. It makes sense to me. but it is something that I have to address on all my discovery calls that I don't provide tax. We do sales tax, but we outsource and refer the the income tax out at year end. so what I have been doing. because that is an ultimate vision for my firm is to grow a tax side of it is I'm constantly networking with other tax pros and building those relationships for when the time comes or when the time is right. I can either buy a book of business and bring the tax preparer on as a manager of that arm of the business, or have enough of a book of business by that time that. Would be, that my book of business would be willing. My clients would be willing to use us for tax. and so it would cover that tax person's salary. Even if it's just part-time. So here's the thing, like, you never know who might be. Out there a mom only wanting to work part-time but not run her own firm, but loves doing tax. I know she exists and if you're listening and that's you please email me. Um, It really all boils down to your ultimate vision. And what you want. So I hope this perspective helps. And I will, Definitely be waiting to hear back from anyone in the audience who thinks they're a perfect fit for joining my firm as the tax. The tax manager and being able to manage that whole side of things. but yeah. So thank you so much listener for, submitting that question. I hope this gives you something to think about and you also, whoever is listening or watching this, if you're on YouTube. I hope this gives you something to think about too, and you don't have to offer a tax that's. The other thing is like, I've been doing this for seven years. And I have not. I did offer tax at the very beginning and quickly realized that I did not like it. so out of the seven years, six of it, I have not offered tax and it really hasn't been a problem. I've only, I think I've only lost actually one client from it. So it's not a big deal. There was other factors as well. but. Yeah, it is something that I toy with and wish I could provide so that it was kind of all under one roof and easier to communicate with the tax preparer all that. But then there's the other side of it. The other dark side of it is building out, tax process. And building out the systems for that because our, backend system is not really built for preparing taxes. we are built like a boutique bookkeeping firm. and yeah, so there's different things you have to think of. And that would change our insurance because we don't offer tax and all that. And then kind of the level of like, okay, if it's my name on things, like who's actually signing the return and. who's ultimately responsible for. What happens with those tax returns? When, if that person is not an actual partner in the business. So there's so many things to kind of consider in that. But, I hope this helps. I hope, Let me know, comment below the video. If you're watching or shoot me a message on Instagram, I'm at ambitious bookkeeper. And if you found this valuable, please rate and review the podcast on apple podcasts. If you're watching on YouTube, subscribe to the channel, you're probably already subscribed because you're seeing this. So, thank you. Thank you for tuning in each week. I really truly appreciate. each and every one of you. And, honestly, the best thing you could do is share this with a friend. And, Talk to you next week.

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