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Tax Season for Bookkeepers and Preparers: Managing the Crunch
More than half of the returns tax professionals file each season arrive in its last five weeks, and the practices that stay calm in April are the ones that move documents, not people, earlier in the year.
At a glance
- The crunch is the five weeks before the April deadline, when, in 2025, tax professionals e-filed 38.0 million of their 72.5 million returns for the season, about 52%, according to IRS filing season statistics.
- Staffing follows the same curve: payroll employment in tax preparation services ran from about 142,200 in February 2022 to about 62,300 in August, Bureau of Labor Statistics data show.
- For an illustrative practice with 400 individual returns, moving 15% of the season's documents ahead of mid-March cuts the late-season workload from 104 to 75 hours a week.
- The calendar is fixed by the IRS, so the levers a practice controls are the organizer date, the document deadline, the extension policy and the order in which returns are worked.
Part 1 | The season's shape is set by when documents arrive
Most preparers describe the season by its deadlines, March 15 for calendar-year partnerships and S corporations and April 15 for individuals and C corporations, but the workload is set by when clients deliver their paperwork. The IRS's weekly filing statistics show the pattern for the profession as a whole: by February 14, 2025, tax professionals had e-filed 13.4 million returns; by March 14 the total was 34.5 million; and by April 18 it had reached 72.5 million.
The inner voice in late March says We just need more hands for three weeks. Extra hands are hard to find in that window, since every other practice is hiring too, and BLS data show the industry's employment already peaks in February. A practice that brings in half its documents before March 1 changes its own curve without hiring anyone.
Part 2 | Five moments that decide the season
The organizer in December. Send organizers or document checklists in December with the engagement letter, so clients know what to gather before their W-2s arrive. Under IRS Publication 509, employers had to furnish 2025 W-2s by February 2, 2026, because January 31 fell on a Saturday, so many individual clients can have their wage forms in hand by early February.
The document deadline. Set a date, such as March 1, after which documents are worked in the order received and returns may go on extension. The IRS allows an automatic six-month extension of time to file with Form 4868, but an extension of time to file is not an extension of time to pay, so clients on extension still need an estimate of what they owe by the April deadline.
The business returns first. Partnership and S corporation returns are due March 15 for calendar-year entities, and their K-1s feed individual returns, so working those first unblocks the April queue.
The portal check. A weekly report of clients with missing items, sent as a short message listing exactly what is missing, gives each client one clear task instead of a general request to send their documents.
The review queue. Track returns by stage (waiting on client, in preparation, in review, waiting on signature, filed) so the bottleneck in April is visible on Monday morning rather than discovered on Friday night.
| Individual returns per season (Assumption) | 400 |
|---|---|
| Preparation and review hours per return (Assumption) | 2.5 |
| Total season hours (Calculated (400 × 2.5)) | 1,000 |
| Share of documents arriving March 15 to April 15 (IRS pattern for tax professionals, 2025) | 52% |
| Late-season hours per week over five weeks (Calculated (1,000 × 52% ÷ 5)) | 104 |
| Productive hours available per week (two preparers) (Assumption) | 90 |
| Weekly shortfall (Calculated (104 − 90)) | 14 |
| Late-season hours per week if the late share falls to 37.5% (Calculated (1,000 × 37.5% ÷ 5)) | 75 |
Illustrative example; replace every assumption with your own numbers.
General information, not legal/tax/financial advice; talk to a licensed professional about your situation.
Part 3 | The document request, in the practice's own words
The message that moves documents earlier is specific, dated and short. A version to adapt:
"Hi [first name], your 2025 tax organizer is ready in your portal. To have your return finished by March 31, please upload these by March 1: your W-2s, any 1099s, your 1098 mortgage statement and last year's estimated payment dates. Documents received after March 15 will be filed on extension, and we'll send you an estimate of any balance due before April 15. Reply here with any questions."
And the checklist for the week the season opens:
- Confirm that every engagement letter is signed and every organizer has been sent.
- Run the missing-items report and send each client their own list.
- Put business returns with K-1s at the top of the queue.
- Block review time on the calendar every day, not only at the end of the week.
- Decide now which clients will go on extension if documents are late, and tell them.
How you compare
- Your arrival curve: count the share of your returns with complete documents by March 1. The profession as a whole had filed less than half of its returns by mid-March 2025, so a practice above 50% by March 1 is well ahead.
- Your staffing curve: BLS data show tax preparation employment at its highest in February and about 56% lower by August; compare your own staff hours by month.
- Your own baseline: note this season's late documents by client, so next year's organizer and deadline go first to the clients who arrived last.
Questions to ask this week
What share of last season's documents arrived after March 15? Your practice software can usually show the upload or receipt date.
Which clients were late two years running? Those clients get the earliest organizer and a personal call.
Is our extension policy written down? Clients accept a firm, early rule more easily than a late surprise.
Before December, write your document deadline into the engagement letter and set the organizer send date, so next season's curve starts moving earlier.
About this research: This article draws on IRS weekly filing season statistics for 2025, IRS guidance on due dates and extensions, and Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data for tax preparation services (NAICS 541213, which excludes CPA offices and self-employed preparers). The worked example is illustrative and assumes the practice's document arrivals follow the national e-filing pattern.
Sources
- Internal Revenue Service. Filing season statistics for week ending April 18, 2025. Also the weeks ending March 14, 2025 and February 14, 2025.
- Internal Revenue Service. Publication 509, Tax Calendars.
- Internal Revenue Service. When to file.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Employment in tax preparation services averaged 95,000 in 2022. The Economics Daily, April 2024.
Related reading: How Bookkeepers and Tax Preparers Can Raise Their Rates · What Doing Nothing Really Costs a Law, Tax or Bookkeeping Office · Cutting Missed Appointments at Law, Tax and Bookkeeping Offices · Staffing for Seasonal Peaks: Temporary Help, Overtime and Cross-Training
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We help bookkeeping and tax practices move the season's work earlier, from the organizer and document deadline to the missing-items messages and the review queue, so April brings steadier weeks, fewer late nights and clients who know exactly what to send and when.
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