How should accountants plan social media around tax season? Do the work in November

The short answer

Plan tax season social media in October and November, because nobody in an accountancy practice has time to write posts in January. Write, approve and schedule a batch of evergreen posts before December. Then run a quiet, steady rhythm of one or two posts a week through the rush, and restart your normal plan in February with one short post.

The rule behind all of it: social media must never compete with client work. If a post needs a partner's time in January, it is the wrong post.

Why the planning has to happen before January

January is when clients pay most attention to tax and when the firm has least time to talk to them. For online Self Assessment returns, GOV.UK says the return and any tax owed are due by 11:59pm on 31 January 2027. Most practices spend the weeks before that date doing nothing but returns.

That leaves two common patterns, and both are a waste. Some firms post every day in early January, run out of time by the second week, and go silent until March. Others say nothing at all through the period when clients are most likely to be looking. A plan made in the autumn avoids both, because the posts already exist before anyone is busy.

A tax season timeline, October to February

Work backwards from 31 January. Each month has one job, and the hard work is done before Christmas.

• October: decide what you will post through December and January, and who approves it. Pick your own internal cut-off date for clients to send records.
• November: write the batch in one or two sittings, have one partner approve it in one sitting, and schedule everything up to mid-February.
• December: let the scheduled posts run. Check replies and messages daily. Add a post only if something genuinely changes.
• January: nothing to write. One or two scheduled posts a week, replies answered, and nothing new unless it is urgent.
• February: one short restart post, then back to your normal monthly plan.

If you already plan a month at a time, this is the same habit stretched over a longer stretch. Our guide to a social media content calendar for accountants covers the monthly version.

What to write and approve before the rush

Write posts that will still be true when they go out. Anything that depends on next week's news cannot be written in November; most of what clients need in January can.

• Deadline reminders. A short sequence leading up to 31 January, each with one action. Our guide on how accountants should post about tax deadlines sets out what each one should say.
• What to send us. A checklist post for clients who have not sent their records yet: income, expenses, any letters from HMRC. This saves your team phone calls.
• Common mistakes. Two or three posts on errors you see every year, written in general terms.
• How to reach the firm in January. When the office is open, the best way to send documents, and how quickly you reply.
• One or two lighter posts. A meet-the-team post or a thank-you to the team. These break up the reminders and remind readers there are people behind the firm.

Have the GOV.UK page open while you write, and check every date and amount against it before the batch is approved. Dates and rules can change from one year to the next.

That post is written by us to show the shape: one job, plain words, a clear next step. It names no date, so it can go out on any week in January without being edited.

This is the point where a tool earns its keep. Pillr reads your firm's website and drafts a month of posts in your firm's voice, so the November sitting is spent checking and approving rather than writing from a blank page. Nothing is published until a partner approves it, and approved posts are scheduled to go out on their own while the team works through returns.

What to pause and what to keep going

A quiet but steady presence beats a burst followed by silence. Decide in advance what stops for the season, so nobody has to decide it in the middle of January.

• Pause: anything that needs new writing on the day, such as comment on the news, long articles and new formats or platforms you were planning to try.
• Pause: video and photo shoots. If you want a clip in January, film it in November.
• Keep: the scheduled batch, at a lower rate than usual.
• Keep: replies to comments and messages. A question left unanswered for a week looks worse than a week with no post. Agree who checks, and how often, before December.
• Keep: your main platform. If you post on LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram, it is fine to let the smaller ones go quiet for a few weeks.

A realistic January rhythm

One or two scheduled posts a week is enough in January. Nobody expects a busy practice to post daily, and clients will not notice the drop. They will notice a page that stopped in December.

• Week one: what to send us, and how to reach the firm this month.
• Week two: one common mistake, and a reminder of your own cut-off date.
• Week three: a deadline reminder with one action.
• Final week: a short final reminder, and a thank-you to the team.

If you want to know how this compares with the rest of the year, our guide on how often accountants should post on social media covers the normal rhythm for each platform.

Approval when partners have no time

Get the whole batch approved in one sitting before December. Asking a partner to sign off one post at a time in January means the post waits until they have a spare minute, and in January they do not.

• Book the slot in November.Forty-five minutes in one partner's diary, with the drafts sent the day before.
• Name a stand-in. If something has to go out in January, a senior manager can approve it the same day.
• Agree what needs no approval.A reply saying "please send us a message and we will help" can be pre-approved. Anything else waits for the approver.

Who may post as the firm, and who approves what, belongs in your wider rules. Our guide on whether accountants should have a social media policy covers both.

What never to post during busy season

Busy season is when rushed posts cause trouble. Tired people post things they would never approve in October. Keep these off every channel, scheduled or not.

• Anything that reads as personal advice to one client. A reply that tells someone what to claim or how much they owe belongs in a private conversation, not under a public post.
• Client figures or details.No screenshots of returns, no "just saved a client £X", no business type and town that could identify someone.
• Promises about outcomes. Never promise that a return will be filed in time if a client sends records on 30 January, or that a penalty will be avoided.
• Complaints about clients. Jokes about last-minute clients and shoeboxes of receipts land badly with the clients who recognise themselves.

How to restart in February

Restart with one short, calm post in the first week of February, then go straight back to your normal plan. There is no need to apologise for a quiet month or to post twice as much to make up for it.

• Thank clients for getting their information in.
• Point to what comes next, such as starting records for the new tax year or a check-in on payments on account.
• Pick up the normal monthly plan.Ideally February's posts were written in the November batch too, so the restart costs nobody any time.

Then take ten minutes to note what worked: which January posts got replies or brought enquiries, and what you would write differently next year. Our guide on how accountants measure marketing explains what is worth tracking. To see a month of posts drafted for your own firm before this year's rush, paste your website address on the home page.

Questions accountants ask about tax season posting