Key takeaways:

• • • Stability is the story 鈥� The OBBB’s main value has been predictability for business planning, not sweeping new rules 鈥� a sharp contrast to the disruption of prior major tax legislation like the TCJA.

    • Section 1202 is a live opportunity 鈥� The expanded QSBS exclusion has reopened planning conversations around corporate structuring that had cooled in recent years.

    • Plan for both today and tomorrow 鈥� Practitioners should help clients capitalize on current certainty while preserving flexibility, and they should help clients build tax positions that can hold up to increasingly AI-powered IRS scrutiny.

When major tax legislation lands, the instinct is to brace for upheaval. But one year after the passage of the (OBBB) Act, the consensus among practitioners is notably different: The OBBB didn鈥檛 rewrite the rules so much as confirm them, and that distinction has mattered more than it might sound.

Certainty over seismic change

Unlike the (TCJA) 鈥� which was passed in 2017, mostly took effect the following year, and forced practitioners to relearn much of the code 鈥� the OBBB’s significance lies less in what it changed and more in what it settled. It gave businesses a stable set of rules to plan against, rather than a moving target to which to react.

“From a purely tax lens, it was… easier to unpack than in prior years because there are fewer seismic changes,鈥� says , Partner at Plante Moran, reflecting on the past year under the OBBB. 鈥淚t was providing a lot of clarity that just [meant], at least for the next several years, we had the rules.”

That clarity is not a small thing. Multi-year business decisions 鈥� around such big-ticket items as entity structuring, capital investment, and succession planning 鈥� depend on practitioners being able to tell clients that the rules will hold. Thus, OBBB’s real contribution was buying back that predictability.

Section 1202 comes back to life

If one provision captures the OBBB’s practical impact, it’s the revitalization of 鈥� the qualified small business stock (QSBS) gain exclusion. The expansion of this program has done more than simply adjust a technical detail; indeed, it has reopened a whole category of planning conversations that had gone quiet.

“The action around the qualified small business stock gain exclusion… has really reinvigorated the Section 1202 planning conversations,鈥� Eckert explains. 鈥淯ltimately, what we got was an expansion of the program. So, what that has done is reinvigorated those conversations around planning into corporate structures.”

For founders, investors, and the tax advisors who serve them, that means is back on the table 鈥� and often earlier in a company’s lifecycle than before, since the incentive to structure correctly from the outset is now more valuable.

A new kind of advisory opportunity

Of course, stability doesn’t mean passivity. If anything, the OBBB has expanded what tax professionals can offer clients. With a known set of rules, advisors can move beyond compliance and into genuine strategy by helping clients maximize their position under current law while still preparing for the fact that today’s certainty has a shelf life.

That balance 鈥� seize the moment, but don’t get comfortable 鈥� is a concept that isn鈥檛 lost on many tax specialists. “Maximize your opportunities today but also have a long-term view while having flexibility and preserving flexibility wherever you can, and knowing and anticipating that there could be future changes,” Eckert says, framing this moment as a broader opening for the profession, not just a technical one.

Legislative clarity, he argues, gives practitioners a reason to go deeper with clients than simply processing the next filing. “From a practitioner lens, I think [legislative changes] are a huge opportunity… giving us an opportunity to really bring value to our clients and to also get to know our clients better,鈥� he notes. 鈥淚t’s been, in a certain sense, a great opportunity to just build deeper relationships.”

In other words, the firms getting the most out of this environment aren’t the ones treating the OBBB as a compliance checklist; rather, they’re the ones using it as a reason to have a better conversation with clients about where they’re headed.

The IRS isn’t standing still either

The one area in which practitioners should definitely not get comfortable is enforcement. A smaller IRS workforce doesn’t mean lighter scrutiny 鈥� it likely means a different kind. As the agency leans more heavily on AI-driven tools, its ability to examine returns at scale is set to expand even as headcount contracts.

“I think across the board, we’re certainly aware of that and are counseling clients on the need to establish and build positions and think carefully about it,鈥� Eckert explains. 鈥淚n a world of AI-enabled tools, the scrutiny may actually increase, and the ability for the IRS to quickly and efficiently examine lots of data is something that could certainly exist.”

That means that tax advisors need to help their clients build positions that can withstand more sophisticated review, not less. Meticulous documentation and defensible reasoning matter more, not less, in an environment in which fewer human examiners can still cover more ground with better tools.

One year in, the OBBB’s legacy isn’t a story of dramatic reform, but rather it’s a story of tax firms and their clients finally getting room to plan. The tax advisors making the most of that room are the ones using it to build sharper strategies and deeper client relationships, all while keeping an eye on an IRS that’s quietly getting more capable of deeper examination.

You can find more of听our coverage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act听here

Key highlights:

• • • Employer-driven curriculum design 鈥� The director of the accounting program at The University of Central Florida (UCF) consulted with 16 leading accounting practitioners to learn what AI skills employers need today from graduates.

    • Critical thinking milestones for students 鈥� UCF developed an AI competency framework delivered through a fictional theme park case study that was woven across tax, cost accounting, and financial accounting coursework.

    • Human skills as a competitive advantage 鈥� Recognizing that AI cannot replicate certain capabilities, UCF鈥檚 Dixon School introduced six to eight professional skills workshops (per academic year) covering topics such as relationship management, project management, agentic AI, and critical thinking to ensure that graduates bring irreplaceable human value to the profession.

The accounting profession is at an inflection point as the level of generative AI (GenAI) already in the workflow continues to reshape how audits are conducted, data is analyzed, and decisions are made. Already, one-third of tax firms are already using GenAI in their work, with 14% specifically using听, according to the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 recent听2026 AI in Professional Services Report.

For accounting educators, the question is becoming how fast and how boldly are they responding to marketplace needs by embedding advanced AI technology into their curriculum?

Building a curriculum the marketplace needs

Most schools benchmark themselves against peer schools, but , Director of the Dixon School of Accounting at the University of Central Florida (UCF) is starting with practitioners and employers to uncover what curriculum innovation is necessary to prepare his future graduates. In fact, when Dr. Thibodeau arrived at UCF two years ago, he made a deliberate decision to be innovative in his approach to inserting GenAI into the curriculum.

Instead of starting with the faculty, however, he consulted with employers who are hiring his graduates. Over a series of a few months, he led a team of 15 professors and lecturers who leveraged formal research interviews with 16 accounting practitioners, who were responsible for recruiting and hiring for their organizations. Dr. Thibodeau鈥檚 goal was to understand what employers are demanding for new accounting graduates.

What he heard led to creative changes within the curriculum. Through this consultation process, he learned employers need undergraduates in accounting who can think critically听through听AI output, interrogate it, challenge it, and ultimately exercise independent professional judgment about it.

From those conversations, Dr. Thibodeau and his team developed an AI competency framework which includes a “critical thinking milestone staircase” approach to measure progressive levels.

For example, Dr. Thibodeau says that one of the milestones is effective prompting. While this skill is a table-stakes capability, it is the foundation to learning how to query AI purposefully to get useful output.

Next 鈥� and perhaps the most critical skill 鈥� is the ability to transition from AI user to AI evaluator. At this stage, students learn to interrogate AI output, cross-reference it against authoritative sources, and recognize when a fluent-sounding answer is wrong. As Thibodeau notes, hallucinations are becoming less frequent as GenAI technology improves, but the risks of uncritically accepting AI output in a professional setting remain unacceptably high.

The next milestone is strategic GenAI problem-solving, which involves knowing what AI tools are best for which specific tasks and how to deploy GenAI within a larger professional workflow. “What’s going to give them the expertise to be that exceptional human-in-the-loop is to operate independently of the GenAI tool,” Dr. Thibodeau adds.

The delivery vehicle for this framework is a comprehensive case study that was built around a fictional theme park that spans across tax, cost accounting, and financial accounting coursework.

Building faculty support for curriculum innovation

The project required assembling a team of faculty members who were motivated by Dr. Thibideau鈥檚 vision to both insert innovation within the curriculum while offering meaningful impact and scholarship opportunities for his colleagues. To gain buy-in from his colleagues, Dr. Thibodeau emphasized their legacy with the chance to demonstrate with personal satisfaction that this creative approach will prepare students for the accounting profession鈥檚 future.

For faculty with scholarship requirements, he emphasized that this project could produce publications in top educational journals. Now, that vision is paying off. Of the five papers his colleagues produced, one has been accepted and the others are in various stages of the review process at the Journal of Accounting Education. There also will be six presentations from colleagues at the American Accounting Association’s Global Connect meeting this summer. As a byproduct, every faculty member involved also immersed themselves and improved their own skills in GenAI along the way.

Lessons for accounting programs

Dr. Thibodeau is candid about the current difficulty in assessing growth in critical thinking skills. In fact, the accounting department at UCF is experimenting and learning as they go. For example, an early attempt to use AI to grade students’ qualitative reasoning responses did not work well, and the current approach of using outcome-based indicators as a placeholder is imperfect, he acknowledges.

In spite of this, Dr. Thibodeau offers strong guidance for other accounting professors, which includes:

Keep studying how to teach developmental skills and evaluate judgment 鈥� Dr. Thibideau knows that this is a universal challenge at the moment at every university and for every organization that depends on the apprenticeship model. The routine tasks that built junior-level judgment organically are increasingly being absorbed by AI, and no one has figured out with certainty how to replace that developmental experience.

Require a CPA pathway 鈥� To close the gap on the technical side, the Dixon School has embedded a CPA review course directly into the master鈥檚 in accounting curriculum across all semesters to ensure students graduate with both the technical depth needed to challenge AI output and a clear path to passing the CPA exam.

Offer opportunities to develop skills that AI cannot replicate 鈥� On the human skills side, the school now runs six to eight professional skills workshops, which include relationship management, project management, agentic AI, and critical thinking. Indeed, these human skills were deemed necessary by the research done by the Dixon鈥檚 schools accounting practitioners, chiefly because AI cannot replicate these skills.

For other accounting programs watching from the sidelines, Dr. Thibodeau’s model offers a clear lesson on how to remain relevant in the age of AI. Indeed, proximity to practice is not optional. The schools that will produce the most sought-after graduates in the AI era will be the ones engaged in continuous, structured dialogue with the employers who hire them.

Further, curriculum innovation at this pace requires an institutional culture change that treats change as an opportunity rather than a threat. The curriculum must improve with it because continuous evolution is a baseline requirement. The schools that understand this now will produce the professionals who can best shape the AI-enabled future of the accounting profession.

You can find out more about how tax firms are managing their AI technology here

Key takeaways:

• • • The wash sale loophole is likely closing 鈥� For clients that have been harvesting crypto losses and immediately repurchasing the same asset should know that 鈥渨ash sale鈥� strategy may soon work exactly like it does for stocks 鈥� with a mandatory 30-day waiting period.

    • Non-compliant holders have a potential off-ramp 鈥� A proposed voluntary disclosure program would let clients that haven’t properly reported digital asset income to get into compliance with reduced penalties 鈥� but it鈥檚 only available for a limited time.

    • Staking and mining income treatment is changing 鈥� Proposed legislation would allow taxpayers to elect to defer recognizing newly minted digital assets as income, which could be a meaningful planning opportunity for active miners and stakers鈥� or a trap, depending on their situation.

Walk into any conversation with a cryptocurrency-owning client right now and you’re navigating the same awkward reality: The rules are genuinely unclear, have been unclear for years, and yet the IRS has increasingly expected compliance anyway. Now, however, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee is trying to resolve that tension.

And crypto legislation is one piece of a much larger shift reshaping the tax profession and potentially impacting clients right now. The recent 2026 State of Tax Professionals Report from the 成人VR视频 Institute maps the challenges and opportunities defining the profession this year, including AI adoption, advisory pricing, talent constraints, and the growing gap between what clients want and what firms are charging for it.

Add to that list now, the changes coming for crypto asset owners and their tax, audit & accounting advisors.

New legislative changes for crypto owners

The package of crypto legislation 鈥� a collection of seven separate bills 鈥� currently under consideration by Ways and Means is serious enough that their tax advisors need to start thinking now about what it means for clients.

Some of these new proposals include:

The wash sale rule: A strategy that may be changing

Of all the provisions in the package, extending wash sale rules to digital assets will have the broadest practical impact. Currently, crypto investors can sell at a loss, immediately buy back the same position, and still claim the deduction 鈥� a strategy unavailable to stock investors. The proposed legislation would change that, applying to digital assets the same 30-day before-and-after window that governs stock transactions.

For clients with active portfolios, this isn’t just a planning consideration 鈥� it’s a recordkeeping one. Every transaction would need to be evaluated against a rolling 60-day window across potentially multiple wallets and exchanges. The change to this rule was hardly unexpected 鈥� the question was never really whether the wash sale rule would come to crypto, but when. Tax advisors should begin their honest conversation with clients by acknowledging that.

Mining and staking: A choice with consequences

For clients who mine or earn staking rewards with crypto, the proposed gives crypto miners and stakers the ability to elect to defer income recognition, which would treat newly minted digital assets more like self-created property than an immediate taxable event.

In practice, the calculus is complicated. Deferring income means the cost-based question gets pushed forward, not eliminated. If the asset appreciates significantly before sale, a client who deferred income recognition could face a larger ordinary tax event later. If the asset depreciates, owners have lost the ability to recognize the loss in the year of receipt.

Making the right choice 鈥� with the advice of a tax professional 鈥� depends almost entirely on the client’s individual circumstances, such as their marginal tax rate, their expectations for the asset’s trajectory, and their liquidity needs. This is exactly the conversation that tax professionals need to be having with clients around this issue.

The voluntary disclosure program: A limited window

Perhaps the most immediately actionable provision for many tax advisors is the proposed one-time voluntary disclosure program, which gives taxpayers who haven’t properly reported crypto income the opportunity to get into compliance with reduced penalties and a clean slate.

The IRS has run these programs before, and the pattern is consistent 鈥� the best terms are early, enforcement pressure increases after the deadline, and clients that wait because they hope the problem will disappear tend to regret it.

Simplification and opportunity

Not everything in the package adds complexity. would exclude gains or losses on network fees and regulated US dollar stablecoins by removing a reporting headache that has made crypto compliance so cumbersome for everyday users. And the Charitable Deductions for Digital Asset Donations Act would eliminate the qualified appraisal requirement for donated digital assets when market prices are readily available, lowering the friction on a strategy that has always made good tax sense for clients that holding appreciated crypto with charitable intent.

The tax advisors that will offer their clients the most value in a post-legislation world are the ones already holding these proactive conversations, and reviewing which clients have crypto exposure, identifying which may have unreported income, flagging which miners and stakers should be thinking about the deferral choice, and identifying charitable giving opportunities before the appraisal requirement disappears.

In addition, the voluntary disclosure program is the clearest example of how proactive advisory work can pay off. Clients that have quietly hoped their unreported crypto transactions would stay below the radar need someone to tell them plainly that a window for clean resolution is likely opening 鈥� and that waiting for it to close is not a strategy. That conversation is uncomfortable, of course, but it鈥檚 also exactly what a trusted advisor is for.

Beyond compliance, the considered package of crypto legislation creates the need to have genuine planning conversations that didn’t exist before. For example, the wash sale question is time-sensitive, and the staking deferral election requires modeling. None of this requires tax advisors to wait for final regulations; rather, it requires they know their clients well enough to know which ones have exposure, which have opportunity, and which needs a conversation they haven’t thought of requesting.

Right now 鈥� in the space between a Congressional hearing and a presidential signature 鈥� that is the most valuable thing a tax professional can offer.

You can download a copy of the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚听2026 State of Tax Professionals Report here

Key takeaways:

• • • Almost two-thirds of tax firms expect revenue to grow in 2026 鈥� However, the top two revenue drivers 鈥� fee increases and organic client acquisition 鈥� both have natural ceilings. Sustainable growth requires moving beyond these transactional levers toward strategies that don’t plateau.

    • Advisory services are the profession’s most in-demand category and its lowest-margin one 鈥� This a pricing problem, not a demand problem. Firms that shift to value-based or fixed-fee pricing for advisory work, rather than billing it hourly alongside compliance, consistently report stronger margins over time.

    • More than half of firms are expecting leadership transitions by 2030 鈥� Succession is now a growth variable, not just an HR one. Firms that treat it as a strategic priority now are better positioned to maintain momentum through leadership changes.

The headline numbers from the recent 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 鈥�2026 State of Tax Professionals Report鈥� 鈥� which surveyed more than 600 tax professionals worldwide 鈥� are strong. Profit margins across tax, audit & accounting firms averaged above 30% throughout 2025, nearly half of all firms saw profits rise, and two-thirds expect revenue to increase again over the next 12 months.

For most firm leaders, this represents a genuine shift in conditions after years of talent pressure and compliance commodification.

However, a deeper dive in the data shows is that revenue growth and margin growth are not moving in the same direction for most tax firms. The gap between the two is where the profession鈥檚 real growth challenge sits and understanding it is where the more useful conversations start.

What is actually driving tax firm revenue growth?

The two biggest revenue drivers cited in the report are fee and rate increases (with 23% of respondents saying this) and organic new client acquisition (22%). Both are proven levers, and both have limits. Fee increases work until clients push back or competitors undercut; and organic acquisition stalls when capacity runs out. Neither of these methods on their own addresses whether firms are growing in ways that actually improve their long-term margin picture or are simply doing more of the same work at a slightly higher price.

The report flags this directly, noting that firms 鈥�see growth itself not as a strategy, but rather as a goal,鈥� and that the method chosen to fuel it 鈥渨ill determine the strategy necessary to achieve it.鈥� That distinction 鈥� between growth as a goal and growth as a strategy 鈥� is where firms that sustain momentum tend to separate from those that plateau.

Why are advisory services the lowest-margin work in the portfolio?

Almost three-quarters (74%) of respondents surveyed say most clients strongly want a trusted advisor relationship that goes beyond basic tax filing. And firms are responding 鈥� when asked which services their firm plans to start offering to clients in the next 12 months, almost two-thirds of respondents (65%) say their firm is either planning to offer or considering offering tax strategy advice.

Clearly, the pipeline for advisory work is being built, but the margin data tells a different story about what happens once those services are actually delivered.

The report鈥檚 diagnosis that the 鈥渁dvisory pricing gap is not caused by lack of demand 鈥� the root cause is lack of confidence in the value of the services provided.鈥� Firms using value-based or fixed-fee pricing for advisory work report stronger margins over time, with margins above 31%. Packaging advisory work into defined service tiers, rather than billing it hourly alongside compliance, makes the value more legible to clients and easier to price consistently.

Is talent shortages limiting firms鈥� growth potential?

More clients, more advisory services, and more complexity all require more capacity; and 40% of respondents say their firm鈥檚 capabilities are currently constrained or at risk because of talent issues. For midsize tax firms 鈥� those with between 4 and 29 professionals 鈥� that number climbs to 51%. This constrained capacity can severely limit which services a firm can offer, how many new clients can be absorbed, and how quickly advisory expansion can actually happen.

Hiring alone is not the answer. Those firms managing this challenge the most effectively tend to combine task reallocation 鈥� moving non-advisory work to junior staff 鈥� with structured internal development programs that build the type of advisors they need rather than trying to hire them.

Which structural decisions will determine growth through 2030?

More than half (51%) of respondents say it is likely or highly likely that one or more partners or firm leaders will retire or leave before 2030. Most expect to fill those roles internally, with only 27% thinking outside partner recruitment is likely. Firms are also genuinely split on whether they stay the same size and structure over the next five years, or change via mergers, acquisitions, or outside capital infusions.

These are growth decisions even when they don鈥檛 look like it. As the report notes, 鈥済rowth is not a universal imperative鈥� 鈥� indeed, some firms will deliberately choose resilience over scale, and that is a legitimate path. The firms that tend to struggle are those that have not made the choice explicitly and instead find it made for them by departing partners, capacity limits, or competitors that moved faster.

For tax, audit & accounting firms, the revenue conditions in 2026 are as favorable as they have been in years 鈥� revenue is up, clients want more services, and the profession has more tools available to deliver that expanded service.

Those tax firms that convert these current conditions into lasting growth will be the ones that have matched their ambition with a strategy that鈥檚 specific enough to act upon.

You can download a copy of the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 2026 State of Tax Professionals Report here

Key takeaways:

• • • Deploying AI and governing it are two different things 鈥� Most tax, audit & accounting firms are further along on deployment of AI than they are with setting up how it will be governed.

    • AI literacy and understanding will be key attributes 鈥� The skill that will define the next generation of auditors isn’t knowing how to use AI; rather, it’s knowing when to distrust it.

    • Risk assessment needs to be re-thought 鈥� The risk assessment gap is a structural problem, not a technology maturity problem. And no better model is going to fix it.

There is a version of AI adoption that looks like progress, but isn’t. It involves a pilot program that runs well, gains a positive internal review and a mention in the firm’s next thought leadership piece 鈥� and then nothing changes throughout the firm. The workflow that got automated stays automated, and everything else stays the same.

This pattern is more common than many tax, audit & accounting firms want to admit. The organizational work that scaling AI actually requires 鈥� such as deciding who owns the outputs, redesigning quality review, working out what happens when a model gets something wrong 鈥� doesn’t surface in a pilot. Instead, it surfaces in production. And those firms that have been running the same pilot for more than a year aren’t being cautious, they鈥檙e simply avoiding those decisions.

A recent survey by tech market research group International Data Corp. (IDC) of 1,005 audit and accounting professionals globally captures the gap precisely. The study showed that two-thirds of firms have AI embedded in strategy or underway in pilots, but only 7% . That distance between deployment and readiness is where most of the real work is hiding.

The audit profession is underinvesting in a key skill

Ask most audit firm leaders what skills their people need for an AI-driven practice, and the answers come back quickly: data analysis, AI literacy, and technology proficiency. Those aren’t wrong answers, but they’re incomplete in a way that matters.

The skill that will actually define audit quality in an AI-enabled environment isn’t the ability to use the tools; rather, it鈥檚 the ability to pressure-test what those tools produce. To read an AI-generated summary and identify what it might have missed, or to recognize when a flagged pattern in a data set is just noise rather than a red flag, or even to override a confident-sounding output when professional judgment says something doesn’t add up.

That’s closer to editing than accounting 鈥� and it’s a fundamentally different capability than simply being familiar with AI systems. Yet most re-skilling programs are building that familiarity, while it鈥檚 the understanding and judgment that separates auditors who use AI well from auditors who use it credulously.

Indeed, excessive trust in AI outputs is the specific failure mode the profession needs to train against 鈥� and that鈥檚 not getting enough attention.

The risk assessment problem is permanent

There’s a version of the AI-in-audit story in which every limitation is temporary 鈥� the AI models will improve, the training data will get better, the accuracy will increase. For most audit applications, that’s probably true, but for risk assessment, it isn’t.

Risk assessment requires professional skepticism: the trained disposition to question, probe, and not accept appearances at face value. AI models are trained to find patterns and produce coherent, confident output. Those two orientations are in direct tension. A model that identifies a pattern and presents it with confidence is doing exactly what it was designed to do. However, the problem is that professional skepticism sometimes requires distrusting precisely that kind of coherent, confident output 鈥� and then asking what the pattern is missing, who might be motivated to produce it, and whether the data behind it can be trusted.

That gap isn’t a technology maturity problem. It’s a structural problem. Nearly 80% of audit leaders in the IDC survey say they recognize the risk of algorithmic bias in functions like risk assessment and fraud detection 鈥� and that recognition points at something real. The right response isn’t to avoid AI in risk assessment entirely, of course, but it is to be clear-eyed about where AI’s role ends and where the auditor’s begins. Summarizing, flagging, and organizing are appropriate uses of AI, but the judgment about what the output means belongs with someone else.

Governance that actually means something

Most tax, audit & accounting firms have an AI policy; however, far fewer have built the infrastructure that makes it operational.

The two requirements that matter most are traceability and explainability. Traceability means that every AI output cites its source 鈥� if it can’t show its work, the firm shouldn’t rely on it. Explainability means the auditor who is reviewing the output can follow the reasoning and form an independent view of whether it holds together. Both of these concepts should be requirements, not preferences. The audit partner signing the report needs to be able to stand behind every conclusion in it, and that requires being able to read the chain from input to output.

Naturally, the more difficult governance question is what “human in the loop” actually means when the processes are operational. As a principle, everyone agrees that the “human in the loop” is critically important. However, as a set of design decisions 鈥� determining at which specific points in a workflow human judgment required, how does the interface prompt it, and who is accountable when it doesn’t happen 鈥� most firms haven’t worked that out. That kind of imprecision is where audit risk can accumulate quietly.

Where AI is genuinely earning its place

None of this is an argument against AI in audit, of course. Document extraction, first-draft writing, data summarization are all areas in which AI is delivering real value, and the gains aren’t marginal. Contracts that once took days to review can be turned around in hours. Workpaper summaries and client communications that traditionally consumed senior staff time are now being handled in the first-draft stage by tools that do it well. Those hours are going back to partners and managers, and their work is better for it.

The honest picture of AI in audit is not the hype version 鈥� transformational overnight, replacing roles, reshaping everything at once. Instead, it’s more incremental than that, more uneven, and more dependent on organizational decisions than technology ones. The audit firms making the most of it aren’t the ones that moved fastest; rather, they’re the ones that were clearest about what they were trying to solve, built governance structures that could handle the friction, and invested in the human judgment that AI can support but cannot replace.

That clarity 鈥� about what AI is good for, what it isn’t, and what it requires of the people using it 鈥� is where the real work is.

You can find more about the challenges facing audit service professionals here

Key takeaways:

• • • The 2027 end date is not a runway 鈥� The One Big Beautiful Bill sets a statutory de minimis end date of July 1, 2027, but its own legislative history explicitly preserves the president鈥檚 authority to restrict it before that date. Sellers banking on a two-year transition period are reading the headline, not the fine print.

    • The Supreme Court win didn鈥檛 save the refunds 鈥� The Supreme Court鈥檚 IEEPA decision was real, but the administration switched legal authority to Section 1321 and kept the suspension running. Combined with congressional cover from the One Big Beautiful Bill, the path to recovering tariffs already paid is genuinely uncertain 鈥� not just delayed.

    • The refund clock just reset 鈥� The lead test case for processing refunds through CBP鈥檚 KAPE system, Atmos, just settled, forcing the process to restart with a new test case. Sellers waiting on refunds are further back in the queue than they realize.

Most e-commerce merchants couldn鈥檛 have told you what de minimis meant two years ago 鈥� mostly because they didn鈥檛 need to. It was the invisible infrastructure of cross-border trade, the threshold below which imported goods pass through customs without duties or taxes. And in the United States, that threshold sat at $800. For small online sellers sourcing internationally, it wasn鈥檛 a technicality 鈥� it was their business model. Now, that model is over.

De minimis was deliberate trade policy built on simple logic: the cost of collecting duties on a $25 phone case exceeds the revenue it generates. Let low-value goods flow freely, the thinking went, and e-commerce would grow 鈥� and it did.

The Trump administration鈥檚 first moves targeted Canada, Mexico, and China on fentanyl-related grounds. Then came Executive Order 14324, suspending duty-free de minimis for all countries effective August 29, 2025. Sellers who had never filed a customs entry suddenly had to file informal entries for goods valued up to $2,500 鈥� and pay tariffs on every single one. Last count, that has meant $175 billion in tariffs paid annually, with small shipments accounting for roughly 63% of that.

The legal basis for Trump鈥檚 tariffs 鈥� the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) 鈥� went to the Supreme Court, which constrained presidential authority to pass these tariffs. Many sellers took that as a signal that tariff refunds were coming 鈥� they shouldn鈥檛 have.

Then came the legislative layer that changed everything. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) 鈥� H.R. 1, now law 鈥� codifies the end of de minimis under Title 19 with a statutory end date of July 1, 2027. Buried in the legislative history, however, is language explicitly stating that nothing in the bill limits the president鈥檚 existing authority to restrict de minimis before that date. The current suspension has congressional cover, meaning that any court challenge faces a much tighter call than it would have had a year ago.

What most sellers are getting wrong

What鈥檚 making matters worse, however, is that many small e-commerce merchants may not fully understand all the nuances of the laws and regulations they are trying to navigate. Indeed, there are certain aspects of the situation that many are getting wrong, including:

The 2027 date is a headline, not a lifeline 鈥� When the ne Big Beautiful Bill passed with a July 1, 2027, , many sellers assumed they had a transition period 鈥� time to adjust pricing, renegotiate supplier terms, and build a compliance infrastructure. Buried in House Report 119-106, however, is language explicitly stating that nothing in the bill limits the president鈥檚 existing authority to restrict de minimis before that date. Congress didn鈥檛 create breathing room; rather, it codified the end while leaving the accelerator fully intact. The 2027 date is when de minimis ends by law. Indeed, it could end sooner 鈥� and effectively already has.

The Supreme Court decision didn鈥檛 unlock refunds 鈥� The Court鈥檚 IEEPA ruling was significant, but the administration鈥檚 response was swift: reimposed the suspension of tariffs under Section 1321 authority as of February 24. The tariff meter never stopped; and now, with the OBBBA鈥檚 legislative history providing congressional cover, the 鈥� which specifically addresses whether sellers are entitled to refunds in the de minimis context 鈥� faces a much harder statutory construction argument than it would have a year ago. This may mean that the Supreme Court win was a legal victory that may not translate into money back.

The refund process just lost its test case 鈥� For sellers hoping to recover duties paid, the most practical path was through the KAPE system run by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) 鈥� a workaround allowing refund claims to feed directly into an听听for verification. The lead case proving out that process, , just settled. Now, the trade legal community has to start over with a new test case, and nobody knows how long that is going to take. Sellers who filed protests rather than complaints at the Court of International Trade (CIT) are in a particularly difficult position 鈥� protests have time limits, and the CBP is under court order to re-liquidate open ones. Which legal bucket your entries fall into matters enormously right now.

The bottom line

The de minimis era enabled a generation of small merchants to compete globally on terms that would have been unimaginable 20 years ago. Its sunset doesn鈥檛 mean the end of cross-border e-commerce 鈥� but it does mean the end of operating on assumptions. The 2027 date, the Supreme Court decision, the refund process 鈥� each looked like relief and turned out to be more complicated than the headline suggested.

E-commerce merchants impacted by these de minimis developments need to talk to a trade attorney 鈥� not for the basics, but to understand where your claims stand, whether your protest strategy is still viable, and what the Atmus settlement means for you.

The storm isn鈥檛 over 鈥� and it may be more complicated than most sellers have been told.

For more on this, please tune into the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 recent 鈥淐larity鈥� podcast, featuring , about the challenges facing small e-commerce merchants today

Key takeaways:

• • • Profits continue to be strong 鈥� Most tax & accounting firms saw revenues and profits increase in 2025 despite a chronic talent shortage and other systemic challenges.

    • Optimism around AI adoption 鈥� Tax professionals are generally optimistic about AI-enhanced technologies, and their firms are backing their optimism with unprecedented levels of investment.

    • Expansion of advisory services 鈥� Firms are expanding their advisory service offerings to clients in such areas as tax strategy and business consulting, fueling growth and providing opportunities for competitive differentiation.

Tax, audit & accounting firm professionals have been concerned for years that the one-two punch of do-it-yourself tax software and automation might eventually erode the value of 鈥攁nd demand for 鈥� their services. However, according to the 成人VR视频 Institute鈥檚 “2026 State of Tax Professionals Report”, which surveyed more than 600 tax professionals worldwide, firms of all sizes are adapting remarkably well to the current era of rapid technological change and political upheaval.

Indeed, tax professionals surveyed say that, in addition to traditional tax preparation, their customers want and need more advisory services, a trend that has been gaining momentum for several years. In response, many firms are continuing to expand their service offerings in the areas of tax strategy, business consulting, decision support, and financial planning 鈥� especially at larger firms with more abundant resources.

The result of this gradual shift in service offerings is that profit margins for tax & accounting firms worldwide averaged about 30% in 2025, with some firms registering profit margins of more than 40%.

Efficiency and growth were top strategic priorities

When asked about their top strategic priorities for the coming year, survey respondents cite efficiency and promoting firm growth as the top factors on the strategic agenda for 2026, even more emphatically than they did in 2025.

Further, they see that making more and better use of technology is still the most immediate path to greater efficiency, 听which is why introducing additional automation and AI 鈥� or just trying to get the most out of a firm鈥檚 existing technology stack 鈥� was also mentioned as an important focus for the upcoming year.

Still searching for solutions to talent challenges

Challenges still abound, however. An anemic pipeline of new talent and the ongoing retirement of senior personnel are among the top barriers to progress and profitability at many firms, the report indicates. The report also notes that the resulting competition for qualified candidates leads to overwork, skills gaps, and capacity restraints, all of which can impede a firm鈥檚 ability to compete and grow.

Many respondents say their firms are using multiple strategies to address these issues, including more targeted training, career development, outsourcing, task reallocation, and automation. Competition for top talent is intense, nevertheless; and the report shows that midsize tax firms may feel the talent squeeze harder than others, chiefly because larger firms can offer higher salaries and more career opportunities to retain top talent.

Another way firms are addressing their talent challenges is by automating more tax processes and workflows; however, the report also suggests that many firms have reached the point in their technological maturity at which it may be more difficult to identify additional processes to be automated. As a result, these firms find themselves in somewhat of a holding pattern, unable to advance technologically because of unyielding systemic and cultural impediments.

Meanwhile, many larger firms have already built the technological infrastructures they need to support more advanced forms of automation and data analysis. Now, the report reveals, these firms are shifting their focus to make better use of workflow-enhancing tools that can enable more efficient operations, expand their firm鈥檚 capabilities, and serve as a competitive differentiator.

Not surprisingly, the conversation around AI is heating up as well. While tax professionals may not be so interested in public chatbots such as Claude and ChatGPT, their attention is directed toward the many ways in which AI can enhance the tools they already use and how intelligent deployment of these tools can benefit their firms. Indeed, AI was the only category of technological investment which experienced year-on-year budget growth, the report shows.

Overall, the “2026 State of Tax Professionals Report” offers invaluable insight into where tax professionals see their firms and their industry now, shedding light on how the world鈥檚 top tax leaders are advancing the profession.

You can download a free copy of the full 成人VR视频 Institute 鈥�2026 State of Tax Professionals Report鈥� by filling out the form below:

Key takeaways:

• • • The supply hit is real, not just priced-in fear 鈥� Tanker insurance has collapsed, infrastructure is damaged, and volumes are physically offline. Some of this isn’t coming back quickly.

    • Tax policy is moving in five directions at once 鈥� Energy security incentives, BEPS 2.0 rollout, windfall tax rumblings 鈥� governments are improvising, and your effective tax rate is caught in the middle.

    • Your Evidence to Recommendations (EtR) guidance is probably already stale 鈥� If you haven’t stress-tested your EtR guidance against $100-plus per barrel oil and a multi-quarter disruption, you’re behind.

Let’s be direct: This isn’t a risky premium situation. When military strikes take out Middle Eastern infrastructure in the Persian Gulf and tanker insurers pull out of a corridor carrying 15% to 20% of global crude and liquefied natural gas (LNG), supply goes offline. That’s what’s happened.

At the time of writing, the price of oil continues to fluctuate. The recent release of the , which forecasts and analyze the global oil market, shows that more global markets are starting to say the word recession. And whether or not a recession actually materializes, the energy price environment has shifted in ways that will take multiple quarters, and maybe years, to unwind. For corporate tax departments, the question isn’t whether this changes their planning, it’s whether they’ve caught up yet.

Which scenario-modeling is most worth it?

Most ominously, nobody knows how this all ends, and that’s exactly why your tax team may need more than one base case.

The optimistic read is a short, sharp shock 鈥� prices spike, some flows resume, upstream books a windfall quarter, and consuming-country governments start muttering about excess profits taxes. Messy, but manageable.

The harder scenario is prolonged disruption: Hormuz remains constrained for months, along with repeated infrastructure hits with resulting rerouting that permanently shifts where profits land and which entities suddenly have a taxable presence for which they didn’t plan. Not surprisingly, transfer pricing and permanent听establishment听(PE) exposure get complicated fast.

Add to the mix, by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) that multinational corporate tax departments are still required to adhere to and now plan for how it may interact and intersect with the other two scenarios.

The policy environment is a mess, but in a very specific way

Here’s what makes this cycle different from 2008 or 2014: Governments are pulling in opposite directions simultaneously. The United States has pivoted hard toward energy dominance 鈥� domestic fossils, nuclear, extraction incentives. Meanwhile, BEPS 2.0 is still rolling out unevenly across jurisdictions, which means your organization鈥檚 effective tax rate in any given country depends heavily on where it sits in the implementation timeline.

Throw in 鈥� which historically shows up about six months after prices stay high and voters get angry 鈥� and you have an environment in which the gap between your statutory tax rate and your actual sustainable rate could widen fast if you’re not actively managing it.

5 actions tax team leaders can take now

Of course, none of these are new concepts; but in a fast-moving situation, the basics that get done quickly will beat the sophisticated that gets done late.

First, rebuild your EtR guidance around at least three commodity paths. Not as a theoretical exercise 鈥� as something your CFO can actually present to the board with a straight face.

Second, map out which legal entities are genuinely exposed to Hormuz-dependent flow volumes. Companies鈥� operations and trading teams often know this; but the tax team too often doesn’t until there’s a problem. Close that knowledge gap now.

Third, re-rank your project pipeline on a real after-tax basis. Updated incentive assumptions, global minimum tax, domestic versus cross-border production 鈥� run all the numbers again. Some projects that looked marginal six months ago may look very different now, and vice versa.

Fourth, build a windfall tax playbook before you need one. The data you’d need to defend your profit levels and capital allocation decisions takes time to pull together. Don’t leave that work until the week the legislation drops.

Fifth 鈥� and this is the one that gets skipped most often 鈥� make sure the company鈥檚 tax, treasury, and trading groups are talking to each other in real time. Hedging decisions, financing structures, physical flow changes 鈥� all of these have tax consequences, and they’re happening fast right now.

One final thought

Corporate tax departments that come out of this looking good won’t be the ones that predicted the conflict. They’ll be the ones who translated what鈥檚 happened into specific, actionable data and numbers for their leadership 鈥� presented quickly, clearly, and with their own company’s footprint in mind.

That’s the brief. Now go build it.

You can find more of our coverage of the impact of the ongoing War in Iran here

Key takeaways:

• • • Ways of achieving growth has changed 鈥� Sustainable growth now depends less on raw revenue and more on improving income per partner through smarter leverage, intentional service mix, and disciplined pricing.

    • Proactive firms will be better positioned 鈥� Firms that adopt data-driven pricing, bundled offerings, and subscription models will be better positioned to communicate value, raise fees confidently, and protect margins.

    • Differentiators are shifting 鈥� Leadership depth, culture, and succession planning are emerging as decisive differentiators as demographics shift, private equity reshapes the tax market, and next-generation partners step into control.

Tax, audit & accounting firms are still growing, but not all that growth is reaching the bottom line 鈥� indeed, 2026 is shaping up as a separate or be separated moment for many tax firm leaders. To sustain income per partner while the market shifts, firm leaders need to be far more intentional about how they grow, price, staff, and position their tax practices.

Here are five important ways that tax firm leaders can ensure their bottom-line growth keep pace with their top-line revenue:

1. Be deliberate about how you grow

Revenue is rising, but margins are under pressure. For example, for firms with revenue of more than $2 million, revenue grew 7.9%, yet income per equity partner (IPP) increased only 3.2%. This may imply that although firms are bringing in more money, the remaining profits available to distribute to equity partners isn鈥檛 growing at the same rate. This could mean that it鈥檚 costing firms more to generate more revenue possibly because expenses are eating into margins.

Meanwhile, 13.9% of total growth for firms whose revenue is more than $2 million now comes from mergers, and for firms with revenue of more than $20 million, more than one-fifth of growth is merger-driven.

For growth strategy, leaders should clarify their organic growth plans in light of this robust M&A drive, deciding when acquisitions are truly about capacity, specialization, or geography and when they are merely propping up lagging organic growth.

Leaders need to protect IPP metrics by focusing relentlessly on revenue per partner and revenue per person as primary levers, rather than chasing top-line growth for its own sake. Leaders also need to build optionality 鈥� with private equity, mega-firm consolidators, and independents all active, factors such as succession, capital, and ownership design have become core strategic decisions that can no longer be left to chance.

2. Treat pricing as a growth discipline

In the 成人VR视频 Institute’s pricing report for tax, audit & accounting firms, 64% of decision-makers said their firms saw revenue increases, but only 45% reported increased profits 鈥� a clear indication of margin compression. Further, just about 1-in-5 professionals said they feel 鈥渉ighly confident鈥� that their firm鈥檚 current pricing reflects the expertise of its professionals.

To be sure, key pricing work now involves moving beyond what the market will bear. While hourly billing still dominates (according to the report firms said over 40% of client engagements are billed on an hourly basis) 鈥� value-aligned methods such as fixed fees, subscriptions, and bundled packages are strongly associated with higher pricing confidence and a firm’s greater ability to raise fees.

To excel in this area, tax firm leaders need to use data rather than their gut. Although only 30% of respondents said their firm regularly benchmark their pricing against competitors, leaders overwhelmingly say better market intelligence would increase pricing confidence. Also, firms should expand subscription and bundle pricing options, since respondents form subscription-billing firms report significantly higher confidence that their pricing reflects value. Indeed, many firms using bundled packages have raised prices 10% to 24% or more over the past two years.

3. Build a capacity model that scales

The Rosenberg data is blunt: The fastest path to higher income per partner is not logging more partner hours 鈥� it is using smart leverage and stronger rates. Elite tax firms (those with IPP above $800,000) generate roughly $3.9 million in revenue per equity partner and maintain staff-to-partner ratios of around 17:1.

Several capacity dynamics matter in practice. Leverage drives profitability, for example, and those firms that have staff-to-partner ratios above 10 report IPP roughly double that of firms with ratios below 3, even though they may carry higher salary percentages.

Further, outsourcing has become mainstream. More than 4-in-10 firms (42%) with more than $2 million in revenue now outsource full-time equivalent (FTEs) employees, a figure that rises to 63% among firms with more than $ 20 million dollars. Interestingly, turnover has eased to about 11%, the lowest for the industry in years, but expectations have shifted as firms intentionally reduce average billable hours per staff member to prioritize sustainable workloads.

In fact, the key growth question is no longer Can we find the work? but rather Can we design a capacity model 鈥� onshore, offshore, AI-enabled 鈥� that supports higher rates without burning out our people?

4. Formalize strategy, marketing & service mix

Firms with written strategic plans earn about 4.5% more IPP than those without, according to the data, and firms with a formal marketing plan enjoy about 9% higher IPP. The most profitable firms are also more intentional about service mix, tilting toward advisory and financial services.

Growth-enabling practices start with written strategic and marketing plans. Firms that document these plans consistently outperform their peers, particularly when navigating private equity interest, AI adoption, and succession decisions. Many leading tax firms are deliberately shifting from compliance to advisory, reducing their reliance on commodity tax compliance and expanding into higher-value advisory work to drive stronger profitability. These firms are also packaging and communicating value more effectively by bundling compliance and advisory services into tiered packages, which in turn gives them greater ability to raise fees and justify premium positioning in the market.

5. Invest in leadership, culture & succession

Growth without leadership depth is fragile, especially in the tax profession in which the average partner age has remained high. Most recently, however, the average partner age has dipped slightly to about 52 years old as more retirements occur. And female partners now account for roughly one-quarter of partner groups overall, showing progress but also a persistent equity gap.

For many firms, succession remains a primary concern, and leadership-related growth priorities begin with treating succession as strategy, not an HR project. More firms are revisiting buy-in levels, which average around $133,000, and are experimenting with non-equity roles and alternative practice structures to create more flexible pathways to ownership. At the same time, leaders must protect and modernize their firm culture, recognizing that poorly managed PE transactions, rigid return-to-office policies, and underinvestment in technology-forward talent can quickly erode the very engines of growth they depend on.

Additionally, firms are elevating the managing partner role. In larger practices, managing partners鈥� chargeable hours are now meaningfully lower, reflecting an intentional shift toward having that role work on the business 鈥� strategy, talent, pricing, and M&A 鈥� rather than in it.

For tax firm leaders, these five considerations form a practical checklist for 2026 planning. Grounding each strategic initiative in data and taking visible action can help ensure that the next wave of growth shows up not just in revenue, but in sustainable, rising income per partner.

You can download a copy of the 成人VR视频 Institute’s pricing report for tax, audit & accounting firms, here

Key insights:

• • • Advisory is becoming the strategic core of tax practices 鈥� Tax firms are no longer treating advisory services as an add-on to compliance work but rather as a fundamental driver of business strategy, client relationships, and sustainable revenue growth.

    • Frequent client engagement drives measurably better outcomes 鈥� Professionals from firms that meet with clients quarterly or more frequently report significantly higher satisfaction across every dimension.

    • Technology and capacity are the keys to breaking through barriers 鈥� Firms are rapidly adopting automation to free up their professionals for advisory work, while addressing staff skills gaps through training and strategic hires.

For decades, tax firms built their practices around the predictable calendar of the annual compliance cycle, punctuated by occasional client requests for advice. Over the past five or more years, however, there’s been a seismic shift. Tax advisory services are emerging as the defining strategic function within successful firms, and it鈥檚 being driven mostly by an unprecedented convergence of regulatory complexity, technology capabilities, and evolving client expectations.

Jump to 鈫�

2026 Tax Firm Advisory Services Report

As a result, many firm leaders are fundamentally rethinking their business models, reimagining what a tax practice can be as they move from being transactional service providers to becoming more strategic advisors that can guide clients through complex financial decisions year-round.

To delve into this deeper, the 成人VR视频 Institute has published the 2026 Tax Firm Advisory Services Report, that clearly shows that as regulatory complexity and client expectations mount, firms that systematically invest in building advisory capabilities are outperforming their peers by significant margins 鈥� and the performance gap is widening.

From compliance shop to strategic advisor

For tax firm leaders, this transformation represents both validation and opportunity. The numbers tell a compelling story, especially for firms that are proactively leading the strategic elevation of their advisory capabilities. Among surveyed respondents from firms experiencing revenue growth, 88% report that advisory revenue is growing faster than compliance revenue and that advisory services now represent an average of 31% of total firm revenue.

Not surprisingly, many forward-thinking firms are backing this shift with concrete plans. Nearly 9-in-10 respondents say their firms are planning to expand their advisory services within the next year.

The engagement advantage

What’s driving this transformation? According to the report, the quality and frequency of client relationships have fundamentally recast what’s possible in tax advisory services. Firms that meet with clients quarterly or more frequently see dramatically different outcomes than those meeting clients just once or twice a year.

Tax professionals from firms with quarterly touchpoints rated their own satisfaction significantly higher across every dimension measured, such as knowledge of the client’s business, understanding the client’s industry sector, the overall strength of the client relationship, and the range of services the client uses. Even more compelling, almost 90% of respondents from firms with more frequent client engagement report that advisory revenue growth is outpacing compliance growth compared to just 65% of respondents from firms with less frequent client contact.

As the report underscores: This message is unmistakable 鈥� relationship depth directly drives revenue growth. Firms that use quarterly or more touchpoints with clients are more successfully converting compliance-only relationships into comprehensive advisory partnerships at substantially higher rates than their less-engaged competitors.

The challenging landscape

Despite the opportunities that abound in advisory services, many firms face real obstacles in expansion, the report shows. More than half (52%) of respondents cite staff skills gaps among their colleagues as their biggest challenge, followed closely by client resistance to paying for advice (47%).

These challenges create a reinforcement loop that can trap firms in their current state: Staff lack advisory skills, so they focus on compliance work, leaving no time to develop advisory capabilities or engage clients proactively. Then, clients don’t see the value of advisory services because they haven’t experienced them, and the cycle continues.

Breaking this loop requires intentional strategy and systematic execution 鈥� which is exactly what leading firms are doing differently, the report shows.

How strategic priorities are reshaping the profession

The ripple effects from this advisory transformation have dramatically reshaped strategic priorities for tax firms beyond routine concerns about service expansion. These new priorities represent fundamental shifts in how firm leadership view the purpose of their firm, its client relationships, and competitive positioning.

Interestingly, while revenue objectives dominate the top priorities, 13% of firm leaders cite developing more intellectually stimulating work for their teams as a key objective, the report shows. This speaks to a deeper strategic consideration 鈥� that advisory work itself offers the kind of challenging, engaging work that attracts and retains top talent in an increasingly competitive labor market.

Today, the opportunity is here for tax firms to capitalize on this momentum and operationalize their advisory services offerings through formalized processes, systematic client engagement, technology leverage, and value-based pricing that creates enduring competitive advantages.

As the report shows, tax advisory today is moving beyond simply offering occasional consulting services alongside compliance work. And with the strategic elevation of tax advisory services already underway, it鈥檚 those firms that move quickly enough to capture the opportunity that will flourish.

You can download

a full copy of the 成人VR视频 Institute’s “2026 Tax Firm Advisory Services Report” by filling out the form below: