2013 United States and European Union
Tax Market Assessment:

A Review of Predictions for 2012:  What We Saw Coming …
As we predicted in last year’s Market Forecast, TaxSearch experienced an across the board, overall
increase in search activity similar to 2011. We predicted an increase in activity of 50% and the actual
year over year increase in 2012 was 44%. This increase came after a 40% increase in our search activity
in 2011.
This uptick in search activity resulted from a “hangover effect” because tax departments were being
understaffed in 2008, 2009 and 2010. This phase of understaffing can be attributed to two areas: (1) Limited budgets
due to the recession; and (2) The additional workload put on tax
departments due to added legislative
regulatory pressures. These two factors, combined with an appetite for tax
revenues by all taxing authorities and a recovering economy,
all helped propel staffing in 2012.

The retirement of Baby Boomers that we anticipated to
increase in 2012 has now begun and we will continue to feel
that impact in 2013. In 2012, TaxSearch was asked to fill a
number of assignments; either because of current retirements
or succession planning preparation for future retirements. The
demographical issues facing the tax industry are addressed in
our predictions section for 2013.

As we predicted the deconsolidation of corporate America that
began in 2011 also continued into 2012. This was also a factor
that contributed to the uptick of search activity. We predicted a continuation of regulatory pressure
from the US Federal, state and local, and governments internationally. On the regulatory front, we
expected there to be little movement in the area of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS).

2013: Predictions for the Current Year Primary Tax Market Predictions:
1. Demand for tax professionals will continue to be strong in 2013.
2. Supply of tax professionals will continue to drop in all major age brackets:
a. Baby Boomers will continue to retire and/or migrate to contract based positions.
b. Gen Xers will either assume leadership roles at their current companies or migrate to other opportunities where they can advance more rapidly without hitting the boomer
ceiling. …
c. Millennials will settle for less advanced roles or migrate to other positions if tax
leadership does not address their career needs and goals.
d. Future generations will have to adapt to the complexities or simplification of the tax code which will dramatically affect the supply and demand for tax professionals.