For many accounting firms, the busy tax season can be both an opportunity as well as a stressful time. The weeks leading up to the self-assessment deadline regularly deliver a surge of new last-minute enquiries and the tight turnarounds can put extra pressure on teams to get everything done accurately and in full. Tax season is often thought of as a period where long hours and constant urgency are unavoidable, with accounting firms having a duty towards existing clients and your own staff. Burnout can become a real risk and a healthy work/life balance for those working in accounting can sometimes feel out of reach, especially for smaller firms.
On top of the usual pressures, Making Tax Digital (MTD) for ITSA starts to roll out from April 2026, putting even more demand on clients and accounting firms and potentially resulting in another four mini ‘tax seasons’ to contend with, thanks to the new reporting requirements for those who complete self-assessment returns.
Ensuring that everyone has the support needed to navigate tax season successfully and calmly is a real challenge!
The good news is that preparing now helps to not only set your firm up for success in the next UK tax season, it can also help put in place the foundations for smoother and more easily managed operations all year round. Our practical and actionable tips aim to help your firm manage your workload, maintain morale and deliver a consistently excellent client experience through tax season and beyond.
Jump to
In theory, the UK tax season refers to the period between the end of a tax year in April and the 31st January deadline for self-assessment tax returns. We say ‘in theory’ because all accountants know that while clients do have several months to prepare, it’s often the case that the majority of the work needed is condensed into the final couple of months of this cycle.
For those in accounting, the run-in to the deadline often involves:
The rollout of the first phase of MTD for ITSA in 2026 will significantly increase the admin workload for sole traders, landlords and partnerships, which in turn will mean more for accountants to do over a longer period of time, with the single annual return now being supplemented by required quarterly updates. This means:
Tax season as we know it is evolving, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be really busy spells for accounting firms to deal with. If anything, there will be more pressure than ever, over four new deadlines. This makes getting ready for tax season now a priority, as it’s a great opportunity to streamline processes, explore ways to increase capacity and implement scalable solutions. This will help futureproof your accounting services to not only manage periods around deadlines effectively, but also set you up for improved operations at all times.
These strategies can help your accounting firm to stay organised, manage workload and avoid team burnout during the busiest times of the working year.
One of the biggest challenges in tax season is client readiness. To minimise last-minute requests:
A good timeline sets expectations, reduces friction, and gives your team a predictable structure. It also encourages clients to be proactive and gives you a justification to push back on avoidable late submissions.
A busy tax season will highlight inefficiencies in the way you do things currently, but getting ahead of this can avoid unnecessary stress next time the team is under pressure. Along with speaking to all of your staff to find out what they found the most challenging last time, you can:
If only one or two people understand a process, you're setting your firm up for bottlenecks at the worst possible times. Clear documentation, repeatable workflows and consistency make it easier to scale and ensure everyone is singing from the same song sheet during busy periods.
Cloud accounting tools make collaboration easier, provide real-time information whenever it’s needed and can reduce the risk of losing important data. Some of the key cloud-based systems include:
Cloud-readiness isn’t optional in the MTD for ITSA age, it’s a necessity! Embracing good digital processes in all areas now will help to make future transitions much easier for clients and your internal team.
During the busiest times of the year, it’s tempting (and sometimes expected) for accounting staff to work long hours, skip their breaks and neglect other tasks in order to get things done by the deadline. However, this approach isn’t sustainable and can easily lead to burnout and high staff turnover at the worst possible times for the business. Long-term productivity needs a more disciplined approach that helps teams to find a better balance.
Some options include:
It’s important that this is modelled at all levels. If senior staff are emailing at evenings and weekends, it’s sending the message that this is what is expected. In reality, a well-rested team is more productive and makes fewer errors.
It’s simply unrealistic for everyone to perform at 100% capacity every day throughout tax season. You can help to reduce pressure by:
Sometimes, saying “no” or offering a later deadline is the best thing you can do for your firm’s overall output.
Every member of a team has different strengths and tax season is a great time to make the most of individual skills that benefit everyone. For example, you’re likely to have team members that excel in areas like:
If you organise and allocate tasks based on where and how people work most efficiently, it can really boost morale, speed up turnaround times and reduces the amount of rework needed.
Being unable to take on new business or service high value clients effectively because of capacity during tax season can really put the ceiling on accountancy firm growth and these effects can be long-lasting. Outsourcing to a trusted partner can bring benefits including:
Outsourcing isn’t about replacing your internal team. It’s about supporting them with the resource needed so that they can focus on high-value work and building stronger client relationships instead.
Taking time to reflect after the next tax season can bring important learnings about what worked and didn’t, so you can refine things for next time. Some areas to consider include:
Busy periods in the run up to deadlines will always be demanding, but they don’t need to be chaotic. Now is the ideal time to strengthen your firm’s capacity and resilience and put in place the right internal and external support to use tax season as a springboard for the future.
If you want to find out more about how outsourcing can help your team to scale sustainably year-round, increase capacity, reduce pressure and grow your firm, we’d love to talk. Book a call with our team today.
