Tax investigator vs tax associate

The differences between tax investigators and tax associates can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a tax associate has an average salary of $62,466, which is higher than the $35,077 average annual salary of a tax investigator.

The top three skills for a tax investigator include tax laws, state tax and customer service. The most important skills for a tax associate are strong customer service, CPA, and tax planning.

Tax investigator vs tax associate overview

	Tax Investigator	Tax Associate
Yearly salary	$35,077	$62,466
Hourly rate	$16.86	$30.03
Growth rate	-7%	6%
Number of jobs	30,630	42,019
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 56%
Average age	48	47
Years of experience	2	-

Tax investigator vs tax associate salary

Tax investigators and tax associates have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Tax Investigator	Tax Associate
Average salary	$35,077	$62,466
Salary range	Between $22,000 And $53,000	Between $40,000 And $95,000
Highest paying City	-	Las Vegas, NV
Highest paying state	-	Nevada
Best paying company	-	Ropes & Gray
Best paying industry	-	Finance

Differences between tax investigator and tax associate education

There are a few differences between a tax investigator and a tax associate in terms of educational background:

	Tax Investigator	Tax Associate
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 56%
Most common major	Accounting	Accounting
Most common college	University of Southern California	University of Southern California

Tax investigator vs tax associate demographics

Here are the differences between tax investigators' and tax associates' demographics:

	Tax Investigator	Tax Associate
Average age	48	47
Gender ratio	Male, 64.3% Female, 35.7%	Male, 36.4% Female, 63.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 14.1% Unknown, 3.1% Hispanic or Latino, 12.0% Asian, 8.1% White, 62.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.1%	Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 18.2% Asian, 10.2% White, 57.3% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between tax investigator and tax associate duties and responsibilities

Tax investigator example 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

Tax associate example responsibilities.

Provide tax planning and preparation services for corporate, individual and high net-worth clients of this midsize CPA firm.
Implement process to identify and prepare the balances for W2 purposes at year end.
Prepare customer taxes from w-2's and other tax information, answer phones, print checks, filing
Resolve a major system problems with split process level errors so employee W2's and companies returns are correct.
Respond to inquiries from the IRS and other tax authorities regarding reconciliation of filings, liabilities, and other associate matters.
Advise clients on questions they have pertaining to their tax liabilities and ensure that they are compliant to the IRS regulations.

Tax investigator vs tax associate skills

Common tax investigator skills

Tax Laws, 55%
State Tax, 30%
Customer Service, 15%

Common tax associate skills

Strong Customer Service, 26%
CPA, 13%
Tax Planning, 6%
Taxation, 5%
Tax Research, 4%
Local Tax Returns, 4%