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Tax season is breaking accountants
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I share the 4-5 most important accounting that actually matter. I scroll so you don’t have to.
So grab your coffee, take a quick break, and lets catch up.
Number of the day, 15
That’s the percentage of Americans who say they’d be willing to take a job where their direct supervisor is an AI program. We’re not sure if that says more about how good AI has gotten or how bad American bosses are.
Today’s Ledger:
IRS overtime jumped as staffing fell.
Tax season is beating accountants up.
Heinz is betting its comeback starts with ketchup.
WTF of the Day🤯
IRS Workers Are Putting In More Overtime While the Staff Shrinks
The IRS had a weird 2025. Its workforce dropped by about 25%, but overtime went up 12%. That is basically what happens when a smaller team still has to answer phones, process returns, handle taxpayer letters, and clean up the mess when the work does not slow down. TIGTA said overtime costs rose from $198 million to $225 million from January through September, while regular work hours fell 14% because of resignations, retirements, and terminations.
Most of the extra hours came from the people taxpayers actually deal with. The Taxpayer Services division made up 87% of all IRS overtime, and contact reps and tax examiners alone logged 4.3 million overtime hours. Those same jobs had been cut hard, with nearly 6,000 fewer contact reps and 4,000 fewer tax examiners. The backlog got worse too, with key processing inventories jumping from 1.5 million to 2 million by December. TIGTA also flagged 476 questionable overtime claims, including 14 employees who reported working 20 or more hours in a single day. Translation: the IRS is trying to do more with less, and the cracks are showing.
Question for you all
So I've been thinking about launching a paid version of Ledger Lowdown.
Don't worry, the free newsletter isn't going anywhere. You'll still get your daily dose of what's happening in accounting.
But I want to build something deeper for firm owners and partners who want an edge.
Every week, I'd break down a real accounting firm:
- How many people they have and how they're structured
- What services they actually offer (tax, advisory, audit, bookkeeping)
- How they price, how they make money, and what's working
- Their tech stack, their clients, their growth moves
- Their employee breakdown and who's who on LinkedIn
- Their website, client flow, and how they bring people in the door
Think of it like legally spying on your competitors. The stuff you'd kill to know but would never get to see otherwise.
Would you pay $10/mo for that? |
What’s poppin in accounting🍿
Tax Season Is Beating Accountants Up
A new survey of 438 U.S. accountants found that 78% came out of tax season worse off in some real way. Not just “busy” or “a little tired.” The survey measured stuff like sleep, caffeine, client chaos, missed personal time, and deadline panic. The average accountant scored 55.6 out of 100, and anything over 50 means tax season came with a measurable cost.
The numbers are pretty rough. Half slept less than six hours a night. Two thirds woke up at least once a week thinking about a client return. 58% said more than half their clients sent documents after February 15. Half hit stress levels of 8 out of 10 or higher in the final 72 hours before April 15. And 70% admitted they caught errors or near misses in the final 48 hours. The big lesson is simple: this is not just an effort problem. Bigger firms scored better than smaller firms, which means the real issue is systems. Tax season will always be hard, but for a lot of firms, it is harder than it needs to be.
Weekly Trend Chart 📊
Heinz Is Bringing Back the Glass Ketchup Bottle
Heinz is bringing back its old glass ketchup bottle for the first time in about 10 years. You know the one. The thick glass bottle you had to smack on the bottom while your fries got cold. It is rolling out at Walmart for a limited time because Heinz is turning 157, and apparently nothing says birthday like making Americans work for their ketchup again.
But this is not just a nostalgia play. Kraft Heinz needs sauces to carry the business. The big 2015 Kraft and Heinz merger was supposed to create a $45 billion food giant, but sales have mostly been stuck in the mid $20 billion range for years. The company even looked at splitting off its slower grocery brands from the faster-growing sauce business.
Now the new CEO says the problems are fixable, and he is putting $600 million into marketing, sales, and R&D. Makes sense. Sauces, spreads, and condiments are already 45% of Kraft Heinz sales, so if there is a comeback story here, it probably starts with ketchup.
Meme of the Day😂
I dont do public math 😂