It’s almost that time of year and no I don’t mean Christmas. I mean the time of year that helps car people all across America pay off those credit card bills they accumulate during Christmas. Tax season is upon us and it is greatly needed after the tough financial year that has been 2009.

I have had the pleasure of interviewing several well run special finance operations and will share tips from them in the coming weeks. Plus, I will be sharing tips from my over 17 years of special finance experience. This will be broken down into a six part series that talk about pertinent subjects like marketing, inventory, and sales processes.

In general, tax season seems to start earlier and earlier every year. People file for refund loans based off their last check stub and this has caused dealers to start their preparation earlier.

Recently, I spoke with B.A. Nerison, owner of Wheel City Auto Sales in Sioux Falls South Dakota. Mr. Nerison had this to say about the upcoming tax season. “Be prepared because it will come and go fast! Customers are getting their money sooner (via electronic filing) and the tax window is short, unlike a few years ago. No more can we count on two solid months of tax money. It’s turned into a month long event at best.”

With economic times the way they are, there are sure to be other challenges that are unique this year as opposed to past years. “Customers that are unemployed or have fallen behind on bills will have their money spent before they get it,” said Nerison.

One person who echoed that sentiment is Dustin Jones, Finance Director for Boch Honda outside Boston. “Now, more than ever, families across America need their tax refund checks,” said Mr. Jones. “Our company is focused on meeting customers’ needs and through our advertising, we have portrayed that we are not looking to seize the customers tax refund but help them purchase a vehicle utilizing as little of their refund as possible.

“We know that a lot of people are struggling this year and taking more of a community service approach in aiding them,” continued Jones.

When I asked Mr. Jones when they started preparing for tax season, he responded “At the end of September”.

As an indication of how early tax season is starting these days, TaxMax offers a program called their “Fourth Quarter Program”. It is a program that estimates what a customer will get back on their tax return, look for reasons that would prevent them from getting a return, and offers loans based off their tax refund amount.

Al Serra Chevrolet has used Taxmax for years with great success. A.J. Ager, Finance Director in Colorado Springs, loves the program. “ We signed up for TaxMax again this year. It is a great way to control your customer’s refund.”

It is easy to see how powerful it could be if you control the customers refund. You know how much they are getting and the money comes to you first!

“You enter the information into their system”, continued Mr. Ager. “They file the return and send you the customers refund.”

This is great for customers that walk into your showroom but is it also good to go find your local tax preparers as well as local H.R. Block, Jackson Hewitt, and Liberty Tax Services offices. Make sure they know you are a dealer that helps credit challenged customers and give them a bird dog on customers they send to you.

I will share some great marketing tips to get a bunch of customers from these local tax preparation companies in my next edition of the tax season checklist. Until then, take a look at your operation and see if you are ready for tax season. Tax season is the equivalent to cash for Clunkers for a special finance department!