Tax Preparer: “An underrated consequence of poor IRS service is a lot of clients will end up leaving good tax preparers because the IRS screwed something up and then took forever to fix it, and the client thinks it’s the pro’s fault when in reality the pro did everything they could.”

Me: “There’s a simple solution. Position as a fixer, not a preparer. Clients already sense what the numbers confirm: the IRS lost more than a quarter of its workforce last year, its most experienced service staff took early retirement offers, and correspondence that used to get answered in weeks now sits for months. Yet the collection notices still go out right on schedule. The service side of the agency has been hollowed out while the enforcement machine runs on automation. Fairness to taxpayers has not been repealed. It has been left unstaffed. A preparer who understands this stops apologizing for the government and starts advocating within it.”

Tax Preparer: “We have a client for which we are getting a penalty removed, multiple letters have been sent, client is now (justifiably) mad because she got an intent to levy notice. And we look like absolute chumps being like “hey we did what we could, sorry the IRS is about to raid your bank account.””

Me: “You did not do all you could and that is the good news. An intent to levy notice is not the end of the road; it is the trigger for your client’s Collection Due Process rights. She has 30 days to request a hearing, which generally stops collection and moves the case out of the correspondence void and in front of an Appeals officer with actual settlement authority. This is the forum where that stalled penalty abatement can finally be heard by a human being. This is the paradigm shift: letters into an understaffed agency are the old model. Invoking the rights the law still guarantees, on deadline, is the new one. Position the notice as the start of a deeper and more effective client relationship: “We cannot control what the IRS does. But the taxpayer protections built into the system still work. They just no longer work by default in the way that we expected. We need to consider the big picture impact of government’s mess on our cash flow, business decisions, and asset management. All rights must be invoked, both within and outside of the tax system, and that is exactly what we can do.”

I understand the transition in business positioning is not easy. We know this crisis in government is painful and expensive for all. But this is what clients need from their tax pro now. The government’s service failure is not a reason to apologize. It is the reason your clients need an advocate to step forward.

(The dialog is modified from a real social media communication today).