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Tax specialist vs fund accountant

The differences between tax specialists and fund accountants can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a fund accountant has an average salary of $60,203, which is higher than the $57,168 average annual salary of a tax specialist.

The top three skills for a tax specialist include IRS, customer service and tax compliance. The most important skills for a fund accountant are reconciliations, calculation, and securities.

Tax specialist vs fund accountant overview

Tax SpecialistFund Accountant
Yearly salary$57,168$60,203
Hourly rate$27.48$28.94
Growth rate-7%6%
Number of jobs46,93735,702
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 57%Bachelor's Degree, 84%
Average age4744
Years of experience-4

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.

What does a fund accountant do?

A fund accountant provides accounting for an investment portfolio. The investments needed include commodities, securities, and/or real estate in an investment fund like a hedge fund or mutual fund. The role of fund accountants includes activity capturing and recording. Fund accountants prepare accurate and timely values, distributions, yields, and fund accounting output for review. They manage activities associated with fund accounting and domestic equity transactions. Also, they work alongside supervisors when it comes to budget development.

Tax specialist vs fund accountant salary

Tax specialists and fund accountants have different pay scales, as shown below.

Tax SpecialistFund Accountant
Average salary$57,168$60,203
Salary rangeBetween $36,000 And $88,000Between $44,000 And $80,000
Highest paying CityStamford, CTNew York, NY
Highest paying stateRhode IslandNew York
Best paying companySTMicroelectronicsWarburg Pincus
Best paying industryFinanceFinance

Differences between tax specialist and fund accountant education

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

Tax SpecialistFund Accountant
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 57%Bachelor's Degree, 84%
Most common majorAccountingAccounting
Most common collegeUniversity of Southern CaliforniaUniversity of Pennsylvania

Tax specialist vs fund accountant demographics

Here are the differences between tax specialists' and fund accountants' demographics:

Tax SpecialistFund Accountant
Average age4744
Gender ratioMale, 30.8% Female, 69.2%Male, 61.5% Female, 38.5%
Race ratioBlack 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%Black or African American, 7.6% Unknown, 3.9% Hispanic or Latino, 9.9% Asian, 18.4% White, 59.7% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage8%7%

Differences between tax specialist and fund accountant duties and responsibilities

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.
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Fund accountant example responsibilities.

  • Manage fund accounting activities for five funds for an investment manager with $80b in AUM.
  • Manage accoutningtransition from Quickbooks to Yardi.
  • Prepare internal financial reports for treasury manage accounts include in external compliance reports.
  • Record efficiently accounting records, securities positions, corporate actions and journal entries accordance with department policies and procedures.
  • Process complex transactions for foreign and domestic bonds, equities, futures, and options.
  • Prepare annual and semi-annual financial statements using GAAP.
  • Show more

Tax specialist vs fund accountant skills

Common tax specialist skills
  • IRS, 11%
  • Customer Service, 8%
  • Tax Compliance, 8%
  • Tax Issues, 7%
  • Taxation, 6%
  • Appeals, 6%
Common fund accountant skills
  • Reconciliations, 12%
  • Calculation, 5%
  • Securities, 5%
  • GAAP, 5%
  • Accruals, 5%
  • Journal Entries, 4%

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