Prior Year Rescue.
An app idea for tax preparers.
A referral service and simple intake form that lets an independent preparer hand off messy back-tax clients to a vetted preparer network for a flat fee, with no client poaching.
What the search found
- Who pays
- Independent tax preparer who refers the client
- The problem
- Preparers get clients with missing years, IRS notices and unfiled returns, and those jobs eat time they do not have in season. They turn the client away with nowhere to send them.
- The gap
- The results show free volunteer help (AARP Tax-Aide), big chains (H&R Block), and expat specialists (Greenback), but no neutral referral network where one independent preparer hands a messy back-tax client to another for a flat fee with a no-poaching rule.
- Already out there
- AARP Foundation Tax-Aide aarp.org
Free tax help from volunteers, February to mid-April, for people who qualify. Not a paid referral network and not for complex back-tax work.
- H&R Block hrblock.com
National chain with offices. Not a peer referral network between independent preparers.
- Greenback Expat Tax Services greenbacktaxservices.com
Specialist firm for expat returns. Serves its own clients, not referrals from other preparers.
- AARP Foundation Tax-Aide aarp.org
- People asking for it
- Preparer never filed taxes reddit.com
Client describes a preparer who never filed and is now avoiding them.
- Preparer forgot to submit 2023 taxes reddit.com
Long-time client says the preparer failed to file their 2023 return.
- Preparer did not file 2024 taxes reddit.com
Client paid a preparer who did not file the return.
- Preparer never filed taxes reddit.com
- The big assumption
- Preparers will trust a network enough to hand over a client and pay a flat referral fee without losing the client.
- Test it this week
- Ask ten independent preparers how many messy back-tax clients they turned away last season, and whether they would pay a flat fee to send those clients to a vetted preparer.
Check your own market first.
This idea was checked for tax preparers in general. Your city, your contacts and your buyers change what is open. Run the free search to see the gaps that fit you, or book a call to talk it through.
More ideas for tax preparers
From the same search. See the full report, including the ideas we dropped because they already exist.
- Gap found
Client Question Triage
A shared inbox built for small tax offices that logs client questions from text, WhatsApp and email, tags each one to a return, and shows who still owes an answer before filing day.
- Gap found
Client Document Chase
A simple tracker that shows which clients still owe documents, what is missing, and who has been reminded, so the office stops chasing the same people by hand.