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.
Tax professional responsibilities
Tax professionals play crucial roles in providing personal and business tax advice, preparing tax returns, and maintaining long-term client relationships. They work closely with clients to gather required information, conduct tax interviews, and ensure client confidentiality. Their responsibilities also include evaluating tax service procedures, researching complex tax regulations, and growing their expertise through continuing education. Kenton Klaus, Director, Master of Science in Taxation, advises, "The best way to maximize salary potential is to quickly narrow down the areas of tax where the graduate student can separate themselves from other candidates."
Here are examples of responsibilities from real tax professional resumes:
- 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.
- Enter transactions in QuickBooks for bookkeeping purposes and perform bank reconciliations.
- File confidential information after retrieving assign IRS control numbers for each return.
- Work encompass several specialize tasks including: bookkeeping, payroll and financial advisory services.
- Start job by assisting TurboTax user's on how to enter information into the TurboTax program.
Tax professional skills and personality traits
We calculated that 25% of Tax Professionals are proficient in Strong Customer Service, Customer Service, and Individual Tax Returns.
We break down the percentage of Tax Professionals that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Strong Customer Service, 25%
Developed strong customer service and time-management skills.
- Customer Service, 16%
Delivered exceptional customer service by anticipating customer needs as well as the presentation of various company products and services.
- Individual Tax Returns, 11%
Prepared individual tax returns and provided additional or alternative products/services suited toward clients' tax and financial situations.
- IRS, 6%
Corresponded with Internal Revenue Service on IRS notifications and prepared amended returns.
- Taxable Income, 6%
Interviewed clients to obtain additional information on taxable income and deductible expenses and allowances Proctored exams for Applied Measurement Professionals.
- State Tax Returns, 5%
Prepared Federal and State tax returns following a detailed consultative conversation.
"strong customer service," "customer service," and "individual tax returns" are among the most common skills that tax professionals use at work. You can find even more tax professional responsibilities below, including:
The three companies that hire the most tax professionals are:
- H&R Block763 tax professionals jobs
- Bank of America29 tax professionals jobs
- Paro28 tax professionals jobs
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Compare different tax professionals
Tax professional vs. Auditor
An auditor is responsible for reviewing financial statements and making sure that the reports align with the accounting principles and legislative standards. Some of the important duties of an auditor are verifying the company's account statements, ensuring that the business is free from fraud and other unusual activities, providing recommendations to boost operations' performance, and creating financial reports for the board. An auditor should have excellent analytical and decision-making skills to spot inaccuracies of financial statements and resolve financial issues immediately.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, tax professional responsibilities require skills like "strong customer service," "individual tax returns," "irs," and "taxable income." Meanwhile a typical auditor has skills in areas such as "audit reports," "audit findings," "audit procedures," and "advanced computer." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Auditors earn the highest salaries when working in the professional industry, with an average yearly salary of $75,596. On the other hand, tax professionals are paid more in the government industry with an average salary of $73,335.auditors tend to reach similar levels of education than tax professionals. In fact, auditors are 1.3% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.1% more likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Tax professional vs. Account auditor
The account auditor is the person tasked to conduct audits in sales accounts handled by the company. As with an auditor, this person checks all financial statements, investigates each entry, making sure everything is accounted for correctly. The auditor checks all receivables, attachments, and liquidation to ensure the financial report is accurate, which is vital for strategies that affect company expenses, calculate revenue, gains, and losses, and use those information to file taxes.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that tax professional responsibilities requires skills like "strong customer service," "customer service," "taxable income," and "state tax returns." But an account auditor might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "audit reports," "reconciliations," "cpa," and "internal controls."
Account auditors earn a higher average salary than tax professionals. But account auditors earn the highest pay in the professional industry, with an average salary of $84,961. Additionally, tax professionals earn the highest salaries in the government with average pay of $73,335 annually.In general, account auditors achieve similar levels of education than tax professionals. They're 0.0% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.1% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for Tax Professionals in the next 3-5 years?
Thomas King
Department Chair, Director, Master of Accountancy Program, Professor, Accountancy, Case Western Reserve University
Tax professional vs. Accountant
An accountant is an individual whose primary task is to prepare, keep, examine, and interpret financial records. Most accountants are in charge of a wide scope of finance-related tasks, either for private individuals or for large-scale businesses and organizations they are employed with. They make sure that financial statements and records are accurate and comply with laws and regulations. They also compute for taxes, prepare tax returns, and ensure being paid properly and on time. As they keep track and record the flow of money, they can offer guidance on how to reduce costs, enhance revenue, and help in profit maximization.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from tax professional resumes include skills like "strong customer service," "individual tax returns," "taxable income," and "state tax returns," whereas an accountant is more likely to list skills in "reconciliations," "general ledger accounts," "account reconciliations," and "gaap. "
Accountants earn the highest salary when working in the technology industry, where they receive an average salary of $60,365. Comparatively, tax professionals have the highest earning potential in the government industry, with an average salary of $73,335.When it comes to education, accountants tend to earn similar degree levels compared to tax professionals. In fact, they're 1.4% more likely to earn a Master's Degree, and 0.2% more likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Tax professional vs. General accountant
A general accountant is responsible for evaluating account statements, conducting data analysis with financial transactions, and generating reports on revenues, expenses, and sales forecasting. These accountants manage discrepancies on the company and clients' profiles, including bank reconciliations and processing of account receivables and payables. They also handle the release of invoices and petty cash, analyzing balance sheets, and updating accurate financial information on the database. A general accountant must have excellent analytical skills, as well as extensive knowledge of the accounting principles and disciplines.
Types of tax professional
Updated June 25, 2024
