When I started my business, referrals and testimonials were not on my mind. Like most entrepreneurs, my crucial motivator was to have freedom of time for my family, to expand my skill set, and to remove the cap on my earnings potential. When I got my first client as a side hustle, my referral source was a board member who knew my skills very well and recommended me to the non-profit he served as treasurer. In December 2018, a prospect asked me for referrals, and I had no idea what to say. There was only a little besides my resume and employer as a reference. Then I thought, hey, I have my non-profit client, and I asked my client whether they would speak with this prospect and answer any questions they had, and they agreed. That’s when I realized the power of referrals and testimonials.
Worrisome Messages Subtly Delivered Via Recent Tax Developments
Tax professionals are inundated with tax developments from all branches of the government and from all levels of government on a daily basis. Our technical tax knowledge expands weekly. Given the immensity of tax law changes in P.L. 119-21 (July 4, 2025), informally named the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), and the guidance we’ll continue to get over the next few years along with non-OBBBA updates, we might run out of time and bandwidth to step back and ask what additional relevance this guidance, as well as various reports issued by the government every day, mean for the well-being of our tax system. This article unpacks select tax law changes and government documents to offer four subtle messages within them. Generally, the messages don’t bode well for an effective tax and revenue system. The article ends with some suggestions on what can help improve our tax system.
