Tax professional vs tax specialist

The differences between tax professionals and tax specialists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a tax professional has an average salary of $60,241, which is higher than the $57,168 average annual salary of a tax specialist.

The top three skills for a tax professional include strong customer service, customer service and individual tax returns. The most important skills for a tax specialist are IRS, customer service, and tax compliance.

Tax professional vs tax specialist overview

	Tax Professional	Tax Specialist
Yearly salary	$60,241	$57,168
Hourly rate	$28.96	$27.48
Growth rate	-	-7%
Number of jobs	82,351	46,937
Job satisfaction	4	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 50%	Bachelor's Degree, 57%
Average age	47	47
Years of experience	-	-

What does a tax professional do?

A tax professional is responsible for conducting tax procedures, ensuring that all tax documents are filed timely and accurately. Tax professionals review financial statements, verify adjustments, and resolve account discrepancies. They also handle financial reports and collate related account documents. A tax professional should be highly-communicative and analytical, especially on solving tax complexities, as well as preventing financial risks and excessive loss. A tax professional may also file for dispute on a case-to-case basis for any inaccuracies on tax statements.

What does a tax specialist do?

A tax specialist is responsible for handling the tax compliance and correspondence of an organization, finalizing tax audits, and resolving discrepancies. Tax specialists should have excellent knowledge of tax laws and federal regulations, ensuring the accuracy of tax statements, and filing it accurately and efficiently. They should also be highly-analytical and communicative, especially on explaining tax-related documents to the management or the clients, as well as analyzing tax computations and managing the company's financial transactions.

Tax professional vs tax specialist salary

Tax professionals and tax specialists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Tax Professional	Tax Specialist
Average salary	$60,241	$57,168
Salary range	Between $31,000 And $115,000	Between $36,000 And $88,000
Highest paying City	Manchester, NH	Stamford, CT
Highest paying state	Rhode Island	Rhode Island
Best paying company	IBM	STMicroelectronics
Best paying industry	Government	Finance

Differences between tax professional and tax specialist education

There are a few differences between a tax professional and a tax specialist in terms of educational background:

	Tax Professional	Tax Specialist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 50%	Bachelor's Degree, 57%
Most common major	Accounting	Accounting
Most common college	University of Southern California	University of Southern California

Tax professional vs tax specialist demographics

Here are the differences between tax professionals' and tax specialists' demographics:

	Tax Professional	Tax Specialist
Average age	47	47
Gender ratio	Male, 30.2% Female, 69.8%	Male, 30.8% Female, 69.2%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 9.6% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 18.8% Asian, 9.6% White, 57.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 10.5% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 17.8% Asian, 10.0% White, 57.1% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%
LGBT Percentage	8%	8%

Differences between tax professional and tax specialist duties and responsibilities

Tax professional example responsibilities.

Advise clients on most efficient ways to manage, organize, and utilize proprietary data in FactSet's integrate platform.
Manage the training and use of new FactSet products and enhancements with various client bases including portfolio management and performance teams.
Answer phone, provide clients with immediate taxation information and up-today tax policy.
Provide professional taxation consulting services for taxpayers.
Assist and educate taxpayers regarding complicate IRS audit/examination processes.
Calculate and input information for depreciation assets in QuickBooks software.

Show more

Tax specialist example responsibilities.

Operate industry-specific taxation software to complete the tax returns.
Author of several articles on topics of international taxation.
Prepare and electronically file accurate and timely individual tax returns base on IRS regulations and company policies.
Conduct confidential interviews with individuals/couples using current IRS and state laws and manually or electronically file returns through proprietary software.
Prepare quarterly and annual tax accruals and return-to-provision calculations.
Analyze historical property tax for multiple internal divisions to accurately forecast current year expenses and support annual accruals.

Show more

Tax professional vs tax specialist skills

Common tax professional skills

Strong Customer Service, 25%
Customer Service, 16%
Individual Tax Returns, 11%
IRS, 6%
Taxable Income, 6%
State Tax Returns, 5%

Common tax specialist skills

IRS, 11%
Customer Service, 8%
Tax Compliance, 8%
Tax Issues, 7%
Taxation, 6%
Appeals, 6%

Tax Professional vs. similar jobs

Tax Professional related careers

Tax Professional related jobs

What similar roles do

Updated January 8, 2025

Browse business and financial jobs

A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z