Recruiting in tax consulting: Why some firms have no problems

More than 72 percent of firms say in the 2025 ifo business survey that they are having difficulty filling qualified positions. According to STAX 2024, 43 percent of sole proprietorship firms were unable to fill a single open position in the last two years. More than 10,000 positions in tax advisory are currently unfilled.

At the same time, there are firms that, in the same market, in the same cities, with the same salary bands, have their pipelines full. The difference lies in four areas that every firm controls itself.

Recruiting as an always-on function

Most firms recruit reactively. A position becomes vacant, an ad is posted, and nothing happens for three months. Firms that do fill their openings treat recruiting as a permanent process on three levels.

Visibility. A current careers page, well-maintained profiles on Indeed, at the Steuerberaterkammer, and on kununu, a LinkedIn company page with active jobs, presence on specialist job boards such as Tax Talents or Steuerkoepfe. In addition, targeted ads on Instagram and Facebook that reach tax professionals and entry-level candidates where they spend their time. Visibility is the foundation. If you cannot be found, you will not be found by candidates who are open to changing jobs either.

What is often underestimated here: candidates today check very carefully how a firm presents itself externally. Anyone who shows on their own website and on social media that they work with the latest technology, have clear processes, and go into depth professionally signals future readiness. For many applicants, that is now more important than salary.

Active outreach. Tools such as Clay enrich candidate lists from LinkedIn and public sources with verified contact details. Multichannel sequencers like Lemlist or Heyreach combine email with LinkedIn touchpoints. AI recruiting platforms like Jack & Jill enable automated preliminary interviews, from which suitable profiles land directly in the inbox. This does not replace human selection, but it does replace the first ten hours of sourcing per position.

Coordination. An ATS such as Ashby, Greenhouse, or Personio Recruiting bundles applications from all channels and automates reminders and interview scheduling. A fast, structured application process is an initial signal to candidates about how the firm works internally. If you make applicants wait three days for a response, you lose them to the next firm.

Sharpening positioning

Many job ads in the industry read as interchangeable. Flat hierarchies, flexible working hours, fruit baskets. This language is not precise enough for anyone.

Tax clerks and licensed professionals who stay long term are looking for an employer that knows where it is headed. Clear processes, a defined client portfolio, visible career paths, professional depth within the team, and a recognizable strategy for the coming years. They want to work in a firm that is positioned to be future-proof, not one that is simply waiting out the industry's transformation.

Sharpening positioning means becoming specific. Which client groups does the firm serve? What specializations exist? What technology is used? What does the path from tax clerk to tax specialist to licensed professional look like? Anyone who writes that they serve fifty e-commerce clients, work with DATEV Unternehmen Online and Candis, and offer an in-house certified payroll specialization says more than any slogan ever could. And they speak precisely to the candidates who are looking for that clarity.

Technology and process as the biggest lever

Very few firms need as many new employees as they think. They need less friction per employee.

A tax clerk can now handle mandates that would have been unimaginable five years ago. Document capture via DATEV Unternehmen Online and connected upstream systems, bank reconciliations via interfaces, payroll accounting largely automated in DATEV LODAS. AI-assisted notice review, automatic posting suggestions, and research agents for tax questions further accelerate processing.

We see in the firms of the Limetax group that employees can accomplish more when the tool landscape is set up properly. In many cases, doubling output with the same team size is the realistic result of serious process work.

This lever works in two ways. First: less friction means fewer new hires are needed. Second: employees who work with modern technology and can focus on professionally demanding tasks have no reason to leave. A firm that gives its team the best available tools positions itself as an employer that is serious about the future of the profession.

Those who stay do not need to be replaced

Employees stay at firms where they can develop professionally and where they feel they are in the right place. Structured employee development means defined learning paths, support for the tax advisor exam with clear terms, regular feedback discussions, and responsibility in specialist areas.

These are the factors by which employees judge whether their firm has a future. Anyone who experiences their employer investing in technology, taking career paths seriously, and working at a high professional level has little reason to look around the market.

What Limetax does in practice

We work on all four levers at the same time in our firms. Recruiting runs as a central process across the group: with Ashby as the ATS, active outreach via LinkedIn Recruiter, targeted social media campaigns, and a central talent pipeline for all locations.

Through the Limetax app, we provide DATEV-connected applications that accelerate document booking, research, notice review, and document processing. Employees in Limetax firms work with technology that is unmatched in the industry. That is the core of our thesis: those who have the best tools attract the best people.

Employee development is structured at group level: exam support, specialist career paths, and exchange between the firms. The independence of each individual firm is preserved, while the infrastructure behind it is that of a group.

Recruiting is not a market problem. It is the sum of processes that every firm can build itself.