Recognizing "Top Tax Advisors" for 2026

For 2026, Insightful Accountant will be recognizing the Top Tax Advisors as a new group of awards within the Top Advisor Awards. This new group will join the Top 100 U.S. ProAdvisors, the Top 25 Up-n-coming ProAdvisors, and the Top 50 International ProAdvisors being recognized for 2026. 

Two factors have contributed to the establishment of this new awards group. First, a consistently growing number of U.S. ProAdvisors have been documenting a tax focus within their formal applications. Second, formal tax training and credentialing recently became available through the Intuit Academy.

Insightful Accountant believes the time has come to recognize tax professionals who strive to become the 'best of the best' in offering tax services, regardless of QuickBooks ProAdvisor status. However, to include non-ProAdvisor Tax practitioners within the Top 100 ProAdvisor awards wouldn't be appropriate. That is why an entirely new group was established for these Awards, rather than setting up 'Tax' as a Top 100 Award Category.

For 2026, a maximum of twenty-five Tax Advisors will be recognized as the Top Tax Advisors. One of the twenty-five will also be recognized as the 2026 Tax Advisor of the Year.

Tax Advisor Award Requirements for 2026

There are three requirements for recognition in the Top Tax Advisor Awards group.

(1) To be considered for these awards, applicants must be active Tax Advisors who are residents of the United States (or its territories).
(2) Tax Advisors must:
                (a) Have an active Tax Practice consisting of one or more personal or business tax clients, including preparation of tax estimates, tax returns, or tax planning strategies, at any time during 2025 (from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025), even if said assistance was related to a prior 'tax year,' or

                (b) Serve as an agent for TurboTax Live or TurboTax Live Full-service (part-time-full-time, independent contractor or employee) who has assisted 12 or more TurboTax Live Clients at any time during 2025 (from January 1, 2025, through December 31, 2025), even if said assistance was related to a prior 'tax year.'

(3) Tax Advisors must also hold a current Intuit Academy Tax-Level 1 Certification with an issuance date no earlier than November 1, 2024. They must be prepared to upload a copy of the certificate of completion/certification as documentation of such current certification.

While nothing requires Intuit Academy participants to earn ProAdvisor certification, nothing prevents ProAdvisors from participating in the Intuit Academy tax training and credentialing.

Awards Process

The new Tax Advisor Awards process is being conducted as part of Insightful Accountant's Top Advisor Awards for 2026. A single application form for the U.S. Awards (Top 100, Up-n-comer, and Tax Advisor) simplifies documenting the related requirements, as many of the same objective measures apply across the award's criteria.

The 2026 Top Advisor Awards are currently underway, having launched just before the Labor Day holiday. A Tax Advisor can apply directly for the awards. Applicants have until 11:59 PM Pacific on March 3, 2026*, to complete their formal applications.

A third party can also nominate Tax Advisors. The nomination period for Tax Advisors by a third party will end at 11:59 PM Pacific on December 9, 2025*. All nominees will be advised by email within minutes of their nomination. Such nominees can then begin their formal applications.

Applicants are not required to complete their applications in one sitting; they can supplement their applications on a come-and-go basis, allowing them to enter training and certifications as earned, or record apps as used (referred to vendors or implemented for clients).

Qualified applicants will appear on a ballot during a four-week voting period, starting approximately two weeks after the close of applications.

The Top 25 Tax Advisors will be announced no later than mid-May 2026*. The Tax Advisor of the Year will be announced before July 1, 2026*, along with other top award recipients within the various 2026 Top Advisor Awards.

A centralized Awards Portal allows individuals to apply for these awards or nominate advisors from a single website.

Beyond the Minimums

Insightful Accountant's Top Tax Advisor Awards are intended to identify the "best of the best" tax advisors, not just those 'meeting the minimum requirements.' That is why the formal application assesses areas like Professional Stature, Practice Dynamics, Training, Certifications and Intuit Ecosystem Activities. 

Two of these key areas are directly related to training and certification opportunities offered by Intuit to tax advisors. In turn, those training and certification opportunities translate into valuable points when documented within  the formal application.

Intuit Academy Tax Training/Certifications (aka: Badges)

While the Intuit Academy Tax Level-1 training/certification is required, and was discussed above. The formal application gives you the opportunity to report additional courses Intuit Academy you participate in, and obtain a 'certificate of completion' (Credit Hours, IRS-CE, or CPE) for. (Hint:  The more hours, the more points you are awarded within the awards process.) For the 2026 Awards, all such certificates must be for training completed between November 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025. 

Other Tax Training (Intuit and Non-Intuit)

Regardless of the provider or source of tax training (IRS, NATP, Intuit, Other), you can list events you participated in between January 1, 2025 and January 31, 2026. (Hint:  The more hours, the more points you are awarded within the awards process.)

By the way, this is also where you report completion of the three 'Intuit ProConnect Tax' courses available as part of the ProAdvisor Academy. Even though they are not CPE content within the ProAdvisor Academy, you can report them for the actual instruction time required to complete the self-paced training. 

You can list up to 36 different events over that period.(Hint: If you attend a one or two day event, in-person or virtual, with multiple classes, you are NOT required to list each class individually. List the name and sponsor of the event,and provide the 'total' of the hours, CEs or CPEs for which you were issued one or more 'certificates of completion'.) The initial list, shown below provides space for 12 events, you can then turn on another block for an additional (up to) twelve, and so on.

We’ve had one question asked of us regarding the ‘tax training type’ (not instruction method/type), which defaults to a “Federal” type as first choice. When in doubt, you should always record the type as “Federal” unless the training clearly specifies “State” (specific). In the event you attend an event regarding tax applicable to a specific governmental subdivision of the state, always select “State.”

Upcoming Intuit Tax Training Applicable to the Awards 

Intuit offers all sorts of tax training to Tax Advisors as part of their ecosystem of training, supplemental to the specific tax certification courses offered through the Intuit Academy.

For example, later this month, the Intuit Accountant’s Education Center is offering a two-day live-virtual event diving into integrated workflow solutions for tax firms and redefining what a successful tax season looks like. The September 30-October 1, 2025 ConnecTax Conference offers you up to 6.5 hours of valuable education that can be applied to your Top Tax Advisor training documentation. (As I mentined previously, don’t worry about recording each conference session individually, enter Intuit as the Sponsor, ConnecTax as the training name, Virtual-live as the training type, and the total hours you received certificates of completion for.)

Another source of Top Tax Advisor ancillary training is the various webinars Intuit offers for ProConnect, ProSeries, and Lacerte Tax.

• On September 23, Intuit Lacerte is offering a live virtual webinar on  “The Fundamentals” worth one CPE. For purposes of the Top Tax Advisor awards application, you can record this as one hour or one CPE.
• On September 23, Intuit ProSeries is offering its “Fundamentals” live virtual webinar worth one CPE. For purposes of the Top Tax Advisor awards application, you can record this as one hour or one CPE.
• On September 24, the Intuit Accountants Education Center is holding a live virtual webinar titled “The Journey from Schedule C to 1120-S,” worth one CPE or one IRS CE credit. For purposes of the Top Tax Advisor awards application, you can record this as one hour, one CPE, or one CE.
• On September 24, Intuit ProConnect is offering a live virtual webinar on “The Fundamentals” worth one CPE or one IRS CE credit. For purposes of the Top Tax Advisor awards application, you can record this as one hour, one CPE, or one CE.

You can use one or all of these four webinars to bolster your points toward the 2026 Tax Advisor Awards.  If you "do tax", the 2026 Top Tax Advisor Awards are the place for you.

Nominate or Apply for the 2026 Top Tax Advisor Awards HERE.

About Insightful Accountant's Top Advisor Awards

Since its inception, Insightful Accountant has been the awarding entity and administrator for the ProAdvisor Awards Program, which recognizes the best QuickBooks ProAdvisors worldwide.

With the 2026 incorporation of the Top Tax Advisors (who are not required to be ProAdvisors) into the overall awards program, the program is now referred to as the "Top Advisor Awards" since not all recipients may hold the title of ProAdvisor.

Applicants for these prestigious programs are ranked based on their performance across various criteria, measuring everything from QuickBooks knowledge to utilizing the best tools & partner apps within the QuickBooks ecosystem that contribute to solid practice growth. Tax Advisors will be held to similar standards based upon Intuit's Tax-offering ecosystem.

Intuit, QuickBooks, and the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program have participated in a sponsoring advisor capacity every year since the inception of the awards. (Insightful Accountant actively monitors the nomination and application process to determine candidate qualification and equivalency and coordinates with Intuit officials and the QuickBooks ProAdvisor Program should questions arise.)

2026 Award Program Sponsors

Sponsors are the lifeblood of these awards; without sponsors, the Top Advisor Awards would not be possible. We want to thank each of our 2026 Award Sponsors. 

You can find out more and support our 2026 Advisor Award sponsors by visiting our ProAdvisor Awards Sponsors webpage!

 * - all dates are subject to revision by Insightful Accountant.