Tax Offices Have More Closures Than You’d Think
Tax firms don’t just close for Christmas and New Year. There’s the post-season break in late April or May, when the entire staff needs to decompress after months of marathon hours. Summer Fridays are common in smaller practices. And the standard public holidays still apply.
Each closure needs its own phone message. A caller reaching your office on December 27 has very different needs than one calling on a May Friday during your post-season reset. The first wants to know when you’ll process their year-end stuff. The second is probably a new client who found you online and doesn’t know your schedule.
Getting these messages right is a small effort that pays off in client trust. Getting them wrong (or not updating them at all) makes your firm look careless, which is the last thing a financial professional wants to project.
When to Use Each Template
Year-End / Christmas Closure covers the biggest annual break. Most tax firms close for a week to ten days around Christmas and New Year. This message needs exact dates, a document submission alternative (email), and a clear return date. Year-end is also when some clients are scrambling to make last-minute tax moves (retirement contributions, charitable donations), so the email option is especially important.
Post-Tax-Season Break is unique to accounting and tax firms. After April 15 (or the extended deadline), many practices shut down for a few days to a full week. This message should acknowledge the season, explain the break, and provide a path for anything truly urgent. The “email with URGENT in the subject line” approach works because it filters genuine emergencies from routine questions.
Summer Friday / Reduced Hours applies from roughly June through August at many smaller firms. If you close on Fridays or shift to four-day weeks, your phone message should say so. Otherwise, Friday callers will leave messages expecting a same-day callback that won’t come until Monday.
Public Holiday (Single Day) is your catch-all for Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and other one-day closures. Keep it short. The caller just needs to know you’re closed today and back tomorrow.
Extended Closure with Emergency Contact works for any multi-day closure where you want to provide a safety net. The emergency email goes to a specific partner or senior advisor who monitors it remotely. This is important for firms that handle IRS correspondence, because letters from the government don’t pause for your vacation.
The Cost of Outdated Messages
Here’s a scenario that happens more than it should: A tax firm closes for Christmas, records a holiday message, and forgets to remove it. Two weeks later, callers are still hearing “Happy holidays, we’re closed until January 3rd” on January 15th. It sounds ridiculous, but it happens.
The fix is simple: put a calendar reminder on your return date to update the phone message. Better yet, assign someone specific to own the phone system. When everyone is responsible, nobody is.
Same goes for summer hours. If you switch to a reduced schedule in June, your September callers shouldn’t still be hearing about summer Fridays. Set calendar reminders for every transition.
Holiday Calls Are Often High-Intent
People who call a tax firm during a holiday closure aren’t browsing. They have a specific problem:
- They got a tax document in the mail and don’t know what to do with it
- A deadline is approaching and they’re anxious
- They need to make a year-end financial decision and want advice before January 1
These callers are motivated. If your holiday message gives them a clear next step (email documents, leave a detailed message, reach the emergency contact), they’ll follow it. If your message just says “we’re closed, call back later,” some will. But the ones with the most urgent needs, the ones most likely to become high-value clients, will find a firm that’s reachable.
Year-Round Coverage Without Year-Round Staffing
Even with the best holiday messages, you’re still relying on callers to leave voicemails and wait. Safina offers an alternative: it answers your phone during closures, asks what the caller needs, and sends you a summary. The caller gets a conversation instead of a recording. You get organized notes instead of a voicemail backlog.
For a small firm, the $11.99/month plan covers the handful of calls that come in during a week-long closure. If you want year-round overflow coverage during busy periods, the Pro plan at $29.99/month handles 100 minutes. Either way, your clients never hear a dead line.
Browse our greeting scripts for daily call handling and voicemail templates for in-hours missed calls. If you run a law firm or other professional service, similar templates are available. The full script library covers a range of industries, and our solutions pages explain why missed calls cost more than you think.