Add services without adding staff.
Use 21 Century Tax to add the services your firm doesn’t offer, as the full service division behind your sales team, or as an affiliate you hand clients to. Your firm keeps the relationship. We do the work, the right way.
How it works
The partnership runs as a subcontract. Your client signs with your firm, and our team does the work.
Agree on the menu
We sign a partner agreement and decide together which services your team keeps and which ones we deliver.
Present to clients
Your sales team presents the services that fit, using our training and presentation guides, or our sales team presents them on your behalf. Either way, the sale is made in your firm’s name.
Deliver the work
Our professionals handle the work from intake to completion, including the setup and data entry clients can’t do themselves.
Get paid on every sale
Clients pay through your firm. Payments are tracked to each case, and you earn a coordination fee on every service sold.
Three ways to partner
Each one starts from a warm handoff. We build on the trust your firm already has with the client instead of starting cold.
Next Step services
Your firm keeps doing what it does today. We add the work you’d otherwise outsource or turn away, so every client on your books is worth more.
- Compliance, planning, and specialty services
- The work that holds cases up, like rebuilding a business’s books so returns can be filed
- Sold by your team with our training, or by our team on your behalf
- Your core resolution work and case strategy stay with you
- Your firm earns on every service sold
Service division
Your firm focuses on sales and the client relationship. We do the casework behind it.
- The full menu of 94 services, core resolution included
- Transcript review, filings, IRS negotiation, and follow-through
- Case notes and status kept in your case management system
- Your client relationship and brand stay with you
Affiliate
Your firm introduces the client. The client engages us directly for that work and stays your client for everything else.
- A warm introduction from your team to ours
- We handle the referred engagement from the first conversation
- Referral terms set in a written affiliate agreement and disclosed to the client
- We don’t offer your client services that duplicate yours
In the Next Step and service division models, clients pay through your firm and every payment is tracked to its case. In every model, our team handles the technology setup, data entry, and document gathering clients can’t do themselves.
How it works for your kind of practice
You keep the relationship you already have with the client. What changes is which of our services fill the gap in your practice.
Tax resolution firms
- Next Step compliance and planning work after every case
- Rebuilt books and back returns that unstick stalled cases
- Full casework behind your sales team, core resolution included
Usual fit: Next Step services or service division
CPA and EA firms
- Payment plans, offers to settle, levy defense, and payroll tax problems
- Back returns and missing-records rebuilds when volume spikes
- Owner salary studies, S-corp reviews, and other advanced planning
Usual fit: Next Step services or affiliate
Attorneys
- The tax side of divorce, bankruptcy, and estate matters
- IRS representation and collection defense for your clients
- Tax terms for the trusts and operating agreements you draft
Usual fit: affiliate or Next Step services
Debt resolution companies
- A qualified team for clients whose largest debt is owed to the IRS or a state
- Tax relief on settled or forgiven debt when the client was insolvent
- Back returns and payment plans so clients can finish your program
Usual fit: affiliate
Financial advisors and insurance professionals
- Tax problems resolved so planning and coverage conversations can move forward
- Retirement income, cost basis, and charitable giving tax planning
- Business owner planning: entity choice, owner pay, and retirement plans
Usual fit: affiliate. We don’t sell investment or insurance products.
Bookkeepers and payroll providers
- Back returns, IRS letters, and penalty removal for clients who fell behind
- Payroll tax catch-up and personal liability defense
- Your books and payroll stay with you. We don’t pitch what you already provide.
Usual fit: affiliate or Next Step services
Credentials and client data
Your clients’ information is your reputation. Here is how we handle it.
Credentialed representation
Clients are represented before the IRS only by practitioners authorized under Circular 230 and named on the client’s Form 2848 power of attorney.
Consent before sharing
Tax return information moves between your firm and ours only after the client signs a consent that meets Internal Revenue Code section 7216.
A written security plan
Client data is handled under a written information security plan, as the FTC Safeguards Rule requires, with multi-factor authentication and encrypted file transfer.
Need-to-know access
Only the professionals working a case can open its file.
Fees disclosed in writing
Coordination and referral fees are disclosed to the client in writing, alongside the scope and the flat fee for the work.
Nothing sensitive through the website
Our website form never asks for client tax information. Case documents move only through secure transfer.
Our sales standards
Your firm answers for the people who sell under its name. Our reps are trained on every service before they sell it, retrained as the rules change, and held to these standards on every call.
Circular 230, every time
We say “likely,” “typically,” and “our goal is.” We never say “guaranteed,” and we sell the resolved case, not the threat of a levy.
Every recommendation has a reason
Each Next Step service is tied to something in the client’s file: a transcript entry, a missing return, or a problem that will come back.
Written scope, flat fee
Every engagement is scoped in writing before work begins. No contingent fees. When a service uses an attorney or other specialist, their fee is quoted on its own line.
Attorneys do legal work
Trusts and operating agreements are drafted by licensed attorneys. We handle the tax analysis.
Trained before they sell
Each rep works from a written presentation guide for every service: what it does, who it fits, the required disclosure, and honest answers to common objections.
Kept current
Training is refreshed as IRS procedures, forms, and tax law change, so reps never quote outdated rules.
Questions partners ask
Do you only work with tax resolution firms?
No. We partner with CPA and EA firms, attorneys, debt resolution companies, financial advisors, insurance professionals, bookkeepers, and payroll providers. See how it works for your kind of practice.
Who represents clients before the IRS?
Practitioners authorized under Circular 230, named on the client’s Form 2848 power of attorney. When a service needs an attorney, such as drafting a trust, a licensed attorney does that work.
How do you protect client data?
Clients sign a section 7216 consent before any tax information is shared, files move only through encrypted transfer, and data is handled under a written information security plan. Read how we handle client data.
Who owns the client relationship?
Your firm does. With Next Step services and the service division, services are sold in your firm’s name under a subcontract with 21 Century Tax. With an affiliate referral, the client engages us directly for the work you referred and stays your client for everything else. In every model, we never market to your clients outside the work you’ve approved.
How do clients pay?
Through your firm’s existing payment system. Each payment is matched to its case, so remittances reconcile cleanly and you can see exactly what was sold and paid. You earn a coordination fee on every service sold, disclosed to the client in the engagement agreement.
Can we choose which services to offer?
Yes. Offer all 94 services through us, or only the ones your team doesn’t already deliver. Services you handle in house stay with you.
Can you handle our core resolution cases?
Yes. Firms that focus on sales can use us as their service division for the full menu, including payment plans, offers to settle, hardship status, and collection defense. Your firm keeps the client relationship, and our professionals do the casework.
If we use you for Next Step services, will you sell against our work?
No. We don’t pitch services that duplicate what you sold, and we don’t comment on your case strategy to your client. Our job is to add what the client still needs.
How is your sales team trained?
Every rep learns each service from a written presentation guide before selling it, including the Circular 230 disclosure that goes with it. Training is refreshed as IRS procedures and tax law change, and it is a priority for both Matt and Scott.
Can you train our own sales team?
Yes. Your reps learn the same services, written presentation guides, and Circular 230 disclosures our own team uses, and the training is refreshed as IRS procedures and tax law change. If you would rather not sell Next Step services yourself, our sales team can present them on your behalf.
Do you generate your own leads?
No. We work from warm handoffs by firms that already have the client’s trust. That keeps our focus on doing the work well, and it means we never compete with our partners for clients.
Do you work in our case management software?
Yes. We work in IRS Logics and can adapt to the system your firm uses, so your case file stays complete.
What about unusual cases?
State sales and withholding tax problems and other high-variability cases are reviewed first and bid in writing, so neither your firm nor your client is surprised by the scope.
Where can we see pricing?
Partner pricing and terms are shared directly with firms after an introductory call. Request information and we’ll set one up.
Ready to talk partner terms?
Tell us about your practice and your clients. We’ll set up a short call and walk you through partner terms.