How To Become A Tax Auditor: What It Is and Career Path

What is a tax auditor and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

The role of a tax auditor is vital in ensuring that an individual or business's taxes are in line with tax laws. To do this, tax auditors analyze financial documents, perform tax calculations, gather necessary financial documents, and create tax audit reports.

A tax auditor is also typically responsible for collecting delinquent taxes, recommending best strategies for tax management, overseeing tax audit recommendations, and working with financial managers to ensure that tax audit reports are acted upon. A tax auditor is generally expected to travel to the location of their client to perform these duties.

If this career sounds interesting to you, the requirements that you'd need for this role are a bachelor's degree in accounting and proficiency in tax auditing software. Being a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) is not a requirement but is generally preferred by many employers and clients. Moreover, most employers look for at least a few years of experience as a tax auditor, which may be acquired through entry-level work.

A tax auditor makes an average of $54,000 per year. However, with more experience and a bigger client base, a tax auditor can make up to $70,000 annually or even higher.

ScoreTax AuditorUS Average

Salary

3.8

Avg. Salary $48,226

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

7.0

Growth rate 6%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

6.4

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.46%

Asian 12.57%

Black or African American 8.76%

Hispanic or Latino 11.10%

Unknown 3.97%

White 63.14%

Gender

female 47.20%

male 52.80%

Age - 43

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 43

Stress level

7.0

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

8.9

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

4.1

Work life balance is poor

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a tax auditor

Explore tax auditor education requirements

Most common tax auditor degrees

Bachelor's

74.9 %

Master's

13.4 %

Associate

7.8 %

Start to develop specific tax auditor skills

Skills	Percentages
Audit Reports	23.95%
Financial Statements	8.36%
Audit Findings	8.22%
Individual Tax Returns	6.22%
Income Tax Returns	4.12%

Complete relevant tax auditor training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New tax auditors learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a tax auditor based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real tax auditor resumes.

Research tax auditor duties and responsibilities

Collaborate extensively with external accountants to achieve all SOX compliance targets.
Establish community relationships with taxpayers, CPAs, and consultants.
Send correspondence to resolve auditing issues from non-compliance to proof by supplying documentation.
Conduct conferences with taxpayers and their representatives to discuss findings and resolve issues.

Prepare your tax auditor resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your tax auditor resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a tax auditor resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable tax auditor resume templates

Build a professional tax auditor resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your tax auditor resume.