Individuals and organizations pay taxes to fulfill their national duty. The tax money helps in the development of the country and is very beneficial for the citizens as well due to the facilities they enjoy. But people and businesses face difficulties in understanding and preparing their taxes. Tax specialists help them with that. They explain to their clients exactly why and where taxes are applied and how to file them.
Other than tax preparing and advising, tax specialists suggest organizations on investment decisions and doing business to boost their tax returns. They are accountable for resolving discrepancies, handling tax correspondence and compliance of a firm, and finalizing tax audits. In short, they are responsible for documenting every stage of the accounting cycle for preparing local, Federal, and State tax returns.
Tax Specialists work a lot of hours at the beginning of the tax year. Other than that, they perform a standard forty-hour week. Passionate specialists demand a salary of $25.48 per hour. To follow this career path, get a bachelor's or associate's degree in accounting or business.
Tax Specialist Overview
Working as a Tax Specialist
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a tax specialist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $25.48 an hour? That's $53,005 a year!
What Does a Tax Specialist Do
There are certain skills that many tax specialists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed computer skills, interpersonal skills and analytical skills.
When it comes to the most important skills required to be a tax specialist, we found that a lot of resumes listed 44.8% of tax specialists included tax returns, while 10.3% of resumes included irs, and 7.9% of resumes included small businesses. Hard skills like these are helpful to have when it comes to performing essential job responsibilities.
When it comes to searching for a job, many search for a key term or phrase. Instead, it might be more helpful to search by industry, as you might be missing jobs that you never thought about in industries that you didn't even think offered positions related to the tax specialist job title. But what industry to start with? Most tax specialists actually find jobs in the finance and professional industries.
How To Become a Tax Specialist
If you're interested in becoming a tax specialist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 42.2% of tax specialists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 17.3% of tax specialists have master's degrees. Even though most tax specialists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a tax specialist. When we researched the most common majors for a tax specialist, we found that they most commonly earn bachelor's degree degrees or associate degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on tax specialist resumes include master's degree degrees or high school diploma degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a tax specialist. In fact, many tax specialist jobs require experience in a role such as customer service representative. Meanwhile, many tax specialists also have previous career experience in roles such as administrative assistant or cashier.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
Tax Specialist Career Paths
As you move along in your career, you may start taking on more responsibilities or notice that you've taken on a leadership role. Using our career map, a tax specialist can determine their career goals through the career progression. For example, they could start out with a role such as office manager, progress to a title such as accounting manager and then eventually end up with the title assistant controller.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Tax Specialist
Best Paying Cities
Recently Added Salaries
Job TitleCompany  | Company | Start Date | Salary |
|---|---|---|---|
Scott County Tax Specialist Tax Specialist | Scott County Scott County | 01/31/2021 01/31/2021 | $46,39401/31/2021 $46,394 |
Robert Half Tax Specialist Tax Specialist | Robert Half Robert Half | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $52,17501/28/2021 $52,175 |
Cobb County Police Department Tax Specialist I Tax Specialist I | Cobb County Police Department Cobb County Police Department | 01/28/2021 01/28/2021 | $30,51201/28/2021 $30,512 |
Randstad Payroll Tax Specialist Payroll Tax Specialist | Randstad Randstad | 01/27/2021 01/27/2021 | $48,00101/27/2021 $48,001 |
State of North Dakota Property Tax Specialist Property Tax Specialist | State of North Dakota State of North Dakota | 01/26/2021 01/26/2021 | $47,71201/26/2021 $47,712 |
Calculate your salary
Use Zippia's Salary Calculator to see how your pay matches up.
Tax Specialist Resumes
Designing and figuring out what to include on your resume can be tough, not to mention time-consuming. That's why we put together a guide that is designed to help you craft the perfect resume for becoming a Tax Specialist. If you're needing extra inspiration, take a look through our selection of templates that are specific to your job.
Learn How To Write a Tax Specialist Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Tax Specialist resumes and compiled some information about how best to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Detailed InformationTop Colleges for Tax Specialists
1. University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA • Private
2. Villanova University
Villanova, PA • Private
3. Bentley University
Waltham, MA • Private
4. University of Minnesota - Twin Cities
Minneapolis, MN • Public
5. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, IL • Public
6. SUNY at Albany
Albany, NY • Public
7. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
8. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
9. Baylor University
Waco, TX • Private
10. California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
San Luis Obispo, CA • Public
Top Skills For a Tax Specialist
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 44.8% of tax specialists listed tax returns on their resume, but soft skills such as computer skills and interpersonal skills are important as well.
- Tax Returns, 44.8%
- IRS, 10.3%
- Small Businesses, 7.9%
- Customer Service, 7.6%
- Ensure Compliance, 4.2%
- Other Skills, 25.2% See All Tax Specialist Skills
Best States For a Tax Specialist
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a tax specialist. The best states for people in this position are New York, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. Tax specialists make the most in New York with an average salary of $94,792. Whereas in Massachusetts and Rhode Island, they would average $72,951 and $70,147, respectively. While tax specialists would only make an average of $69,704 in Connecticut, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. New York
$94,793
Avg. Salary
2. Rhode Island
$70,148
Avg. Salary
3. Massachusetts
$72,951
Avg. Salary
How Do Tax Specialist Rate Their Jobs?
Top Tax Specialist Employers
Tax Specialist Videos
