You Cannot Negotiate with Gravity: Why the IRS Is Shifting the Work to Tax Pro's

“You cannot negotiate with gravity — change is here.”
That came straight from Derek Gantor, IRS Stakeholder Liaison, and he wasn’t exaggerating. He was talking about online tax pro accounts, IRS staffing, and what the landscape may look like this upcoming tax filing season.

If you’re an older firm owner staring down your last tax season, the changes hitting the IRS matter more than ever. Because they don’t just affect how you practice today — they affect what your firm is worth tomorrow.

• Workforce down 25% from retirements, workforce reduction, and attrition.

• Professional hiring freeze.

• The 4,800 new hires scheduled before filing season? They’ll be answering basic taxpayer questions, not practitioner calls.

Translation: tax pros are on their own.

• More work shifted onto practitioners. If you were planning to “coast” into retirement, the IRS just made that harder. Clients will expect you to navigate portals, teach them logins, and monitor accounts.

• Technology gap becomes a value gap. Buyers want firms that are modern, systematized, and tech-competent. If your firm still runs on faxes and paper CAFs, your valuation drops.

• Your clients need continuity. Walking away without a successor leaves them facing an IRS that is less accessible than ever. Selling to the right buyer means you hand them off to someone prepared for the new landscape.

• Short horizon (1–2 years): Start documenting your processes, especially around IRS interactions. A buyer will pay more for a firm that isn’t just “in your head.”

• Medium horizon (3–5 years): Shift clients and staff into tech-driven workflows (Tax Pro Account, transcript monitoring). This improves value and reduces your day-to-day burden.

• Any horizon: Begin succession planning or buyer investigations now. Each season gets harder; waiting reduces both options and firm value.

1. Document your IRS-facing processes (CAF, notices, transcripts).

2. Modernize workflows to include Tax Pro Account + 8821 monitoring.

3. Investigate succession — whether that’s a sale, merger, or grooming a next-gen partner.

Wrap-up:
As Derek Gantor, IRS Stakeholder Liaison, put it: “You cannot negotiate with gravity — change is here.”

If you’re nearing the end of your career, the real decision is whether you’ll exit on your terms — or let the ground shift under your feet first.

👉 Did this hit a nerve? You’re not the only one thinking about what your last tax season might look like.

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Because the truth is, none of us get out of this profession without a plan — and gravity doesn’t wait.