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Tax Professionals Job Description

Job Descriptions October 31, 2013

The term “tax professionals” is a somewhat vague term that refers to a variety of tax workers. This includes tax agents, Certified Public Accountants, financial planners and tax preparers. They specialize, in this case, in helping clients prepare their taxes. Legally speaking anyone can work as a tax preparer without any state requirements. However, most businesses will prefer to work with a professional who falls back on significant experience and education.

Tax Preparers and Their Expected Job Assignments

Tax preparers are usually grouped into two different categories: public accountants and enrolled agents. Both types of preparer can represent you when talking to the Internal Revenue Service. It’s interesting to note that while CPAs are qualified for almost anything, including giving company heads financial advice, not all CPAs will be able to give you expert-level advice on your income tax file.

The reason being, CPAs specialize in general tax law; compliance, industry standard, and so on. If a company wants a more hands-on worker, someone who can familiarize him or herself with the details of a company’s spending and profit on a daily basis, then the best option may be employing a bookkeeper.

For projects that involve more complex subject matter, such as estate planning or financial projects with professional analysis, a CPA is the only way to go—someone certified by the state.

Duties of tax professionals will typically include verifying totals, and in a CPA’s case, detecting errors made by other personnel, like bookkeepers. The CPA will scrutinize the summary of all data entry, math, and protocol. The tax preparer is also responsible for calculating taxes owed, and any amount overpaid.

With the work being compiled after viewing the file, much of the job is ascertained when the tax preparer interviews the client, so they can obtain more information about income, deductions, and allowances. Naturally, your interests are with the client, trying to save him or her as much as possible in income tax payments.

Becoming a Tax Professional People Can Rely On

Tax preparation is the key and being able to do this with accuracy requires extensive familiarity, with credits and liabilities, always in compliance with state and federal tax laws. This is not the type of work that can easily be passed on to a bookkeeper to file.

A company employs a person to handle the books on a daily or weekly basis; however, a qualified CPA is responsible for filing and communicating with the IRS. In addition, the tax preparer must also understand tax code, be able to follow instructions, and use the appropriate forms.

Another conundrum is becoming the ideal tax preparer—one who not only finds you deductions and credits (what you are expected to do) but also one who can put the brakes on and advise clients on potential tax liabilities and problems in filing, which may result from too many credits or deductions claimed. Lastly, you may have to resolve customer complaints if the filing doesn’t go according to plan.

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