What is the Job Market Outlook for Tax Examiners?
Job Market Outlook October 2, 2013Give a tug on the green eye shade and cinch up the pocket protector; we are heading for the showdown at the Spreadsheet Corral. As the relationship between government and business gets more acrimonious in light of new rules that seem to be changing daily, tax examiners will become the Earls and Claytons of the coming standoff.
Planning a Career in Taxes
In order to save on fines, businesses reduce employee hours of employees to get under the magical 30 hour per week figure. The government counters with taking all hours worked and creating full time equivalents to tax.
As employees demand higher wages, companies go more to computers and the government says that they will now tax the human equivalent of work completed by the computers. Into this fray walks the tax examiner.
Understand that a state or federal tax examiner starts with working with a person’s tax return and works up. An experienced examiner will work with multinational companies. It can be stressful in that it is your job to disallow deductions and gain more income for the government. On the other side, businesses are hiring experienced tax examiners to find ways to build firewalls around their earnings.
This side is more lucrative, but can be even more stressful, since it is your job to anticipate the red pencil of the government auditor. It is done with spreadsheets, computers and mountains of tax codes, and it is done with long hours of absolute concentration required.
What Is the Job Market Like?
Hard number estimates are difficult to know, but with waves of retirements and increased need for the talents and abilities of tax examiners the job market should be stout for the foreseeable future. With straining resources on both sides, it will be a battle royal over dollars and cents.
As more people enter the occupation, the competition for the “plum” jobs will become more intense, perhaps even cut throat, but there should be plenty of work available into the foreseeable future.
Naturally, you need to get your bachelors degree. The government does not tend to take savants regardless of their prowess. You must show a paper trail that says that you know the process, and an internship or special classes would be appropriate choices for someone who wants quick employment and upward mobility.
You must also be ready to move nearly anywhere if you are chosen by the federal government or live in a non-cosmopolitan area working for a state, but that changes as your experience grows. The career of a tax examiner requires the same patience and planning as the work itself.
As you look into the challenging world of the tax examiner, finding employment should be the least of your worries as the new realities take hold in the world of business and finance. The job market will grow through attrition alone, let alone other factors and the tension between business and government. The battle lines are drawn, and the blood is only red ink, but the stakes and challenges are real.
