I recently came across this post on the r/taxpros subreddit:

$900,000 in revenue split between your dad and you, with only $200,000 in overhead.

The catch is you’re working 7 days a week, 11 hours a day, for 2 months. But the rest of the year is “pretty relaxed.”

January: Get everything ready
February: Crank out tax returns
March: Crank out even more tax returns
April: Sprint to 4/15
May–December: Chill

They make running a tax mill sound kinda appealing.

Would I do that?

I don’t think it's a firm I would enjoy running, but it does sound like it could offer a nice quality of life outside tax season.

The only way I would consider running a tax mill is if it was truly only work 4ish months out of the year.

The problem is that I don't believe the “May–December: Chill” part is quite that simple.

You have to stay up to date on tax laws. Extensions. Emails.

You also have to say no to work, something we accountants are notoriously bad at.

So would I sacrifice a hellish 2 months, which in reality is probably a hellish 2.5 months?

I would highly consider it if I only had to work 5 hours/week for the rest of the year.

Cause if there wasn’t that downtime, there’s no way to recover from that.

I've spent my entire career in public accounting, and I don't think I've ever worked an 80 hour week.

80 hour weeks would change my rhythms dramatically.

No family time, no sleep, no working out, no seeing friends, no hobbies.

Now that I’m thinking about it, I would pass. I just couldn’t give up the above for 2+ months straight for more money and free time during the summer.

Would you do this?

If this is your situation, I’d love to hear how you do it!

Thanks for reading!

Logan

I wanted to give y’all a little tease and let you know that I’m working on a podcast with a buddy. We’ve recorded some episodes so far, and I bet we’ll be launching by mid-September.

I recently published a video breaking down tax workflow software. Check it out if you're trying to figure out which system makes the most sense for your firm.