Episode 65: Tax Planning Services - the Gateway to Change and Value Conversations with Clients
In Episode 65, we explore this pivotal question for our fellow Tax Accountants: What if tax planning was the starting point in your engagement process with clients, instead of a rushed add-on service at the end of the year?
Tax planning is the key to starting the ‘value’ conversation with your clients. The perfect place to drive new products and non-compliance services in your business. To act as a training ground for staff to have robust conversations with clients and collaborate with other service providers.
The accounting industry has been talking about the need for advisors to become more proactive in how we service clients for a long time now. This concept is a crucial part of solving this elusive puzzle.
Listen to an excerpt
What we cover in this episode
How tax planning is a safe and efficient way to start the value conversation
Getting clear on what clients want and where their gaps may be
The mindset shift for accountants required in this journey, to undertake this concept effectively
The true definition of tax planning
Empowering clients with knowledge around their tax structures, which leads to being able to do more business with them in the long run
Valuing ourselves as professionals and our own knowledge
Sam’s practical tips to start the ball rolling, including a script
Quotes
“Have you ever just simply asked your client what they know about their tax and what keeps them up at night around this? If you seriously want to start shifting to a more proactive advisor, stop talking about what makes us more efficient in delivery, and start asking clients what they want. This requires a significant mind shift and we also need to do things differently”.
“Tax planning is the safest way to start reframing this conversation, it’s because we actually understand the technical side of it, so it gives us safety.”
“When I really thought about it, I started to think about what tax planning really is, even though we use the word planning, it’s actually quite reactive the way we do it – a lot of stuff has already happened to the client throughout the year, and we’re just getting the tax deductions right, so they can minimise their tax. But that’s actually not planning. Planning should start before everything happens.”
“Tax planning is not just about how to minimise the current years’ tax….but also how can we make it better going forward. It’s also around planning what the client understands their tax position to be, and what keeps them up and night. And do they actually understand their structures and should we be planning around the education of that?”
“Remember, the value to our clients is in the conversation itself and not necessarily in the direct tax results or savings, where we tend to think the value is”.
“The goal is to have the conversation and to engage with client in a way that we wouldn’t have otherwise engaged. If you had a nice conversation, that in itself is success.”
“Don’t consider the next three months the tax planning [season], consider every single opportunity you have with your client as a tax planning conversation. It’s not just about minimising tax, it’s about looking back – planning their education, planning their knowledge, planning their future, planning their other structures. There’s a whole lot of planning here. It’s also about us planning our businesses as well”.
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