What Can Tax Accountants Specialize In?
Very early on in their career, many public accountants need to choose between the two main service lines better common across substantially every traditional accounting firm: tax and audit. Those that choose to follow the tax path will soon realize that tax work has its own set of niches and specializations to choose from that are not obvious at a glance. Today, I'm going to walk you through some of the different types of tax specializations that you could consider in your career.
Fundamental Return Preparation - Partnerships, Corporations, and Individuals
If you work for a firm outside the top 10 firms, you will likely have your bread and butter tax experience be dictated by some combination of partnership, corporation, and individual returns. The exact concentration of these will depend on your firm and the clients they serve. While working with these clients, the accounting firm is typically responsible for preparing estimates, extensions, and the final return with information obtained from the client on a recurring annual basis.
State and Local Tax (SALT)
Every state and local jurisdiction has its own rules. Many middle market businesses will do business across state lines and indifferent areas than where they are Incorporated. Those businesses need the support of tax accountants who can quickly research and understand the implications of working across all these areas. State and local tax (SALT) accountants help their clients remain compliant and minimize their tax liability by taking advantage of tax law that is specific to these smaller jurisdictions.
International Tax
Like SALT, international tax accountants focus on specialized tax implications of doing business in areas that are outside of the United States. With globalization continuing to play a major role in many business operations, international tax accountants are crucial to remaining compliant with foreign governments and maintaining international business relationships and supply chains.
Estate and Trust
They say the only certain things in life are death and taxes. And when you work as an estate and trust tax accountant you are certain to have a job. This area of specialization focuses on tax planning and filing of specialized returns for estates and trusts. Accountants that specialize in this work are sought after because it’s not a specialization that is easy to come across, if it’s something you enjoy doing and you get the opportunity, take it!
Tax provisions
Also known as an ASC 740 specialization, this is a group that you will find in a top 10 accounting firm. The entire purpose of this group is to help determine the amount of tax that a large corporation might pay so that the company can properly record income tax expenses under GAAP. This is the group that will understand the dreaded concept of deferred taxes better than most.
Remember, these aren’t the only specializations that tax professionals can have. There will always be niche industries and areas where tax accountants can specialize and make a successful career, but these examples are the most common and accessible to many. As a reformed auditor, I have relatively little tax knowledge. It took me years of talking to various tax professionals on a casual basis to learn what each of these specializations meant, but now you have that knowledge too! Take that knowledge with you when you need to specialize as a tax professional down the line.