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Personal Tax Accountant

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This article will give you an introduction to a promising career as a personal tax accountant. A personal tax accountant is an individual who will work with either individuals or businesses to provide tax accounting services. There are many different sorts of tax professionals that may fit into the broad category of personal tax accountant. They may be qualified as a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Enrolled Agents (EA) or simply have professional training in tax preparation. Personal tax accountants need to be equally adept working with people and numbers. Taxes are an intimidating subject for many individuals and small business owners, and it's up to the Personal Accountant to help translate complicated regulations and forms into clear actionable advice. In this article we'll explore how to get started as a personal tax accountant, typical responsibilities of the job, and salary expectations.


Job Requirements

Any person who wants to to become a tax professional should have a basic accounting background, or could study from an approved course, such as those provided by HR Block and/or Jackson Hewitt. They both have courses, and are provided free of charge provided that the individual taking the course will work for them for at least a season. A stipulation to doing this is that the individual will not take any of the agency's clients with them should they choose to leave the organization.

Job Responsibilities

The duties of the personal tax accountant are obviously to prepare taxes for individuals, as opposed to a corporate tax accountant who prepares taxes for corporations. The salary range for these positions depends on whether the individual is a CPA or an Enrolled Agent, or is just well versed in tax preparation. An Enrolled Agent is an accountant who is affiliated with the federal government, and charges roughly 40 dollars an hour for their services. A CPA by contrast, may charge between 50 and 100 dollars an hour for preparing the same return. Specialized knowledge, such as expertise in international taxation issues, self-employment, or real estate tax law, can help a personal tax accountant increase their earnings above these rates.

Salary

Accountants who strictly do taxes may earn less overall than someone who branches out into other accounting jobs. The average salary for an accountant in the U.S. is about 56,000. Some accountants who consider themselves primarily to be personal tax accountants do other accounting jobs outside of tax season to help round out their career during the year.

Growth Prospects

The Occupational Outlook Handbook states that accountant jobs are growing faster than average in the U.S. and that growth is expected to continue for many years to come, as both the complexity and the burden of taxation are expected to increase in response to the growing government debt. The field of accounting in general has always been a stable occupational choice, and personal tax accounting is always going to be around as long as their are taxes to be paid, and individuals who need help preparing them.

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