questions and answers on selling a practice to staff members

by ed mendlowitz
a
uthor ofimplementing fee increases

i received two related questions, which i’ll answer together.

first question: i am nearing retirement and want to sell my practice to two longtime staff people, but they don’t get along, and i’m afraid to sell to them. what should i do?

second question: i have a large individual tax practice, but also have an audit practice that is handled by different staff in my firm. how do i sell this practice? none of the larger buyers want the tax clients and none of the smaller buyers want the audit clients. read more →

what to think about before you start thinking about merging your practice

plus: key considerations in evaluating a practice continuation agreement

by ed mendlowitz

question: what i should do about merging? i need a specific answer.

answer: i can’t give you an easy answer. i can give you a process to follow that should provide an answer. actually, this works pretty well and i’ve gotten good feedback from many colleagues. i’ve also rethought it many times, and still think this is the way to go about it.

read more →

worst tax season ever? “it’s supposed to get better!”

hoisted from comments.

in this article, ed mendlowitz takes issue with worst tax season ever and suggests five strategies for continuous improvement year after year.

barry melancon, ceo of the aicpa, and tom hood, ceo of the maryland society of cpas, both said that they heard this was the worst tax season ever.

i don’t know if it was or wasn’t.  for us it wasn’t that bad.  this raises a thought.  it’s supposed to get better – if not, then why do it, or why not make a serious effort to change what you are doing so it gets better?  i am reminded by a remark by jack nicholson in “as good as it gets.”  he said, “maybe this is as good as it gets!”  i don’t buy that.

here are five things that should be done to make tax season (and the rest of your practice or any business) better. read more →

worst tax season ever?

…“it was the most bizarre tax season. not the worst… just the strangest.” and in an article hoisted from his comments, ed mendlowitz suggests five strategies for continuous improvement year…

the right time to raise billing rates

by ed mendlowitz

question: i haven’t raised my fees in three years.  how do i suddenly go about it now and how much should i raise them? also, i have many business clients where the individual returns are done as part of the yearly service with extra billing.  how can i start charging for this?

read more →

12 good reasons for obtaining extensions

those who know ed mendlowitz, author of the 卡塔尔世界杯常规比赛时间 tax season opportunity guide, know that he doesn’t like extensions.  however, there are valid reasons for extensions.

ed grudgingly admits to 12:

  1. you did not receive k-1s or 1099s or other documents with information that you need to report.
  2. you did not receive letters confirming charitable contributions that are required to be in your possession by the due date of your tax return.
  3. there is pending litigation and reporting certain transactions might prejudice your position, or you are awaiting resolution that might cause or affect an adjustment or estimate made for last year. read more →

terrible service and failure of management

this time, i have a question for you. but i’ll start with a story.

last sunday evening my wife and i went into a reasonably upscale restaurant and we had terrible service from everyone we interacted with.

when we were seated, the table wobbled and we asked if they could do something or move us to another table. ten minutes later someone showed up with a wad of napkins that made it worse. five minutes later they asked if we were okay, and put us at another table. ten minutes after that they took our order, but we asked for some drinks right away, which we only got after we complained to the manager. read more →