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

What is a tax investigator and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Gary LaFree

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a tax investigator. For example, did you know that they make an average of $16.86 an hour? That's $35,077 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow -7% and produce -3,700 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a tax investigator?

Gary LaFree

Chair and Professor, University of Maryland

Think about obtaining as much education and training as you can. Be patient. The fundamentals of the economy are relatively strong. Outlet should be much better when we get through the current crisis.

ScoreTax InvestigatorUS Average

Salary

2.7

Avg. Salary $35,077

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.6

Growth rate -7%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.9

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.12%

Asian 8.05%

Black or African American 14.13%

Hispanic or Latino 12.02%

Unknown 3.10%

White 62.58%

Gender

female 35.71%

male 64.29%

Age - 50

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 - 50

Stress level

8.6

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

6.6

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

7.4

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a tax investigator

Explore tax investigator education requirements

Most common tax investigator degrees

Bachelor's

51.9 %

Associate

29.6 %

Master's

11.1 %

Start to develop specific tax investigator skills

Skills	Percentages
Tax Laws	55.19%
State Tax	29.86%
Customer Service	14.95%

Complete relevant tax investigator training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New tax investigators 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 investigator based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real tax investigator resumes.

Research tax investigator duties and responsibilities

Investigate welfare, Medicaid, and food stamp fraud.
Work in conjunctions with the FBI, IRS and various corporations to help control tax loss and fraud.
Update taxpayers addresses, assign temporary ITIN numbers to taxpayers without a social security number, establish fiduciary accounts for taxpayers
Update taxpayers addresses, assign temporary ITIN numbers to taxpayers without a social security number, establish fiduciary accounts for taxpayers

Prepare your tax investigator resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your tax investigator 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 investigator 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 investigator resume templates

Build a professional tax investigator 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 investigator resume.