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 specialist responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real tax specialist resumes:
- 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.
- Start job by assisting TurboTax user's on how to enter information into the TurboTax program.
Tax specialist skills and personality traits
We calculated that 11% of Tax Specialists are proficient in IRS, Customer Service, and Tax Compliance. They’re also known for soft skills such as Computer skills, Interpersonal skills, and Analytical skills.
We break down the percentage of Tax Specialists that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- IRS, 11%
Prepare and electronically file accurate and timely individual tax returns based on IRS regulations and company policies.
- Customer Service, 8%
Provided customer service and utilized an electronic cash register system and calculator to compute and record all transactions.
- Tax Compliance, 8%
Collaborate with controllers and accounting professionals in various markets to gather information needed for tax compliance.
- Tax Issues, 7%
Researched tax issues, sourced critical information and communicated findings to provide policy information while complying with state and federal guidelines.
- Taxation, 6%
Operated industry-specific taxation software to complete the tax returns.
- Appeals, 6%
Assisted outside real property tax appeal providers by providing information necessary for filing appeals.
Common skills that a tax specialist uses to do their job include "irs," "customer service," and "tax compliance." You can find details on the most important tax specialist responsibilities below.
Interpersonal skills. Another essential skill to perform tax specialist duties is interpersonal skills. Tax specialists responsibilities require that "tax collectors must be comfortable interacting with people. when pursuing overdue accounts, tax collectors should be firm and composed." Tax specialists also use interpersonal skills in their role according to a real resume snippet: "assisted in preparation of tax returns for households demonstrated interpersonal abilities/skills"
Analytical skills. This is an important skill for tax specialists to perform their duties. For an example of how tax specialist responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "tax examiners and revenue agents must be able to identify questionable claims for credits and deductions and determine if claims are lawful." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a tax specialist: "trained new employees on multiple programs and data entry software.- composed effective accounting reports summarizing payments received and distributed. ".
Detail oriented. For certain tax specialist responsibilities to be completed, the job requires competence in "detail oriented." The day-to-day duties of a tax specialist rely on this skill, as "tax examiners and revenue agents verify the accuracy of each entry on the tax returns they review." For example, this snippet was taken directly from a resume about how this skill applies to what tax specialists do: "applied detailed knowledge of tax codes to customer returns, ensuring accurate returns were filed with the tax authorities. "
Organizational skills. A commonly-found skill in tax specialist job descriptions, "organizational skills" is essential to what tax specialists do. Tax specialist responsibilities rely on this skill because "tax examiners and revenue agents may work with multiple returns and a variety of financial documents." You can also see how tax specialist duties rely on organizational skills in this resume example: "researched applicable tax laws using cch database and applied accepted and relevant business and organizational practices for accurate tax preparation. "
Communication skills. While "communication skills" is last on this skills list, don't underestimate its importance to tax specialist responsibilities. Much of what a tax specialist does relies on this skill, seeing as "tax collectors must be able to clearly explain complex details, especially about sensitive information, in their work with the public." Here is a resume example of how this skill is used in the everyday duties of tax specialists: "provide written and oral communications to appeal audits and inquires regarding tax applications to state agencies for company benefits. "
The three companies that hire the most tax specialists are:
- Deloitte41 tax specialists jobs
- Paro29 tax specialists jobs
- Brookfield Properties12 tax specialists jobs
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Compare different tax specialists
Tax specialist vs. Fund accountant
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.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a tax specialist are more likely to require skills like "irs," "customer service," "tax compliance," and "tax issues." On the other hand, a job as a fund accountant requires skills like "calculation," "securities," "gaap," and "accruals." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Fund accountants earn the highest salaries when working in the finance industry, with an average yearly salary of $80,811. On the other hand, tax specialists are paid more in the finance industry with an average salary of $70,786.On average, fund accountants reach similar levels of education than tax specialists. Fund accountants are 0.4% less likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.6% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Tax specialist vs. Tax internship
A tax intern is responsible for supporting the finance and accounting department on preparing tax documents, including analyzing financial statements and performing account reconciliations, under the supervision of a tenured tax preparer. Tax interns observe tax processes, shadowing the staff on daily operations, and utilizing their classroom knowledge to practical applications by recommending strategic procedures to handle tax filings efficiently and accurately. A tax intern must have excellent knowledge of the financial industry, as well as high-organizational skills on processing paper works and following instructions from the tax consultant.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, tax specialist responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "customer service," "appeals," "tax audits," and "data entry." Meanwhile, a tax internship has duties that require skills in areas such as "first hand," "cpa," "excellent computer," and "tax regulations." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Tax interns earn similar levels of education than tax specialists in general. They're 3.9% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 0.6% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Tax specialist vs. Master tax advisor
Senior Tax Accountants recommend tax strategies, as well as assist the preparation of federal, state, and local taxes. They contact clients to resolve minor tax issues and work with the senior tax manager to ensure compliance with federal, state, and local tax legislation.
The required skills of the two careers differ considerably. For example, tax specialists are more likely to have skills like "customer service," "tax compliance," "appeals," and "tax payments." But a master tax advisor is more likely to have skills like "tax law changes," "audit assistance," "corporate clients," and "tax professionals."
Most master tax advisors achieve a higher degree level compared to tax specialists. For example, they're 10.8% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 2.3% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Tax specialist vs. Senior tax accountant
Types of tax specialist
Updated January 8, 2025
