Tax season leaves accountants sleep deprived, stressed, survey finds

The filing deadline did not end tax season for 438 accountants and tax professionals surveyed after April 15. It only exposed the damage: an average Tax Season Survival Index score of 55.6 out of 100, with 78% saying the season affected their sleep, health, relationships or decision-making and only 3% scoring above 70.

The toll showed up in the basics of daily life. Almost two-thirds said they woke up thinking about tax returns during filing season, 55% rated their stress at eight or higher out of 10 before April 15, and more than half slept less than six hours a night. Nearly half, 47%, reported caffeine withdrawal after the deadline, and 44% said their personal relationships needed repair after tax season. The survey also found that 58% received documentation late and 70% admitted to making or narrowly missing errors in the final 48 hours, a reminder that compressed deadlines do not just strain morale. They can also affect quality control.

For KPMG, where early-career auditors and tax professionals still live by busy season calendars and promotion-cycle pressure, the survey puts numbers to a problem many teams already know by feel. KPMG has said its traditional audit busy season runs from early January to March, when work-life balance, time management and mental health all collide. The firm said that in 2023 average audit hours fell from 51 to 45 a week, an 11% drop, while the share of professionals who worked no weekends during busy season rose from 18% to 29% and the percentage working 50-plus hours over eight weekends fell from 31% to 17%.

Even with those gains, KPMG has said it was still on track to pull forward nearly 20% more hours than in the pandemic audit year of 2020. That makes the post-season question harder, not easier: how much recovery time do teams actually get before the next wave of client work, coaching, and performance reviews begins? KPMG has tried to answer that with Energy Check-ins, reporting that 88% of managers found the prompts helpful and 77% of participating professionals said the conversations supported their well-being.

The survey suggests the broader profession is moving from vague burnout talk to measurable labor risk. If firms want to keep experienced people through manager and partner track, the issue is no longer just endurance. It is whether staffing models, deadlines and recovery policies match the reality workers are living through long after the filing date passes.