(WSJ.com) — Small, independent tax shops are burgeoning, fueled by layoffs in other areas of finance, lower technological barriers to entry and increasingly complex filing requirements for individuals, organizations and companies.
Roughly three-quarters of the country’s 44,000 accounting businesses are now one-person shops, according to the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. And almost half of tax accountants work in companies with fewer than 10 employees.