NYC/LI Preparers

I'm sorry to hear about your friend.  To me, cancer is the scariest word in the dictionary.  It sounds like the tax world isn't exempt from finding folks to work like most other businesses these days.  Evidently somewhere during this whole COVID mess, aliens came down and picked up most of the folks that wanted to work.  Good luck on your search - I hope you find someone good to fill that position.

There may be lots of people who want to work, just not for what you are offering.  Raise the pay -- are you advertising it, or at least indicating that it's competitive and then some?  And I suppose we have to assume that this is at your location, and involves dealing with the public.  How much of it could be done remotely? 

The biggest challenge for me has always been finding someone who accepts seasonal hours: full time part of the year, part time the rest of the year.  I have been fortunate, although I did lose one long-time employee to cancer and another to a lung transplant.  

When my partner of 30 years died, I took over all his clients. By then, he was doing only about 100 files. I just worked nonstop for 3 months. I collaborate with another tax preparer who goes over all my completed returns to check for errors. Covid made things run more efficiently because it eliminated all the face-to-face meetings that turned into too much socializing.