Becoming A Sacramento Tax Preparer

After the year ends, tax season begins. Most people who can’t do their taxes by themselves usually hire a tax professional to prepare their taxes for them. A tax preparer can be both a full time or part time job; nonetheless, it is a great way to earn income. You can also choose to either work temporarily during the busy tax season from January 1 to April 15 or do it full time and work all year round. So, what do you need and how do you become a tax preparer?

Like most jobs and professions, you need education and knowledge about the work. For being a tax preparer, you don’t necessarily need a college degree but it will help to further your career and open up more opportunities. If you don’t have a degree related to accounting or law, you can look for schools or online programs that offer tax preparation courses to learn the trade. Being at least a high school graduate is necessary to be able to qualify for such courses.

Basic tax preparation courses offered by small tax schools are enough to help you learn the basics of preparing taxes for an individual. Finishing four year courses are not required as some courses can be finished in a couple of months. For business taxes and other kinds of tax such as for estates, you can take additional advanced courses. Either way, your main goal is to be able to understand the tax code, calculate taxes, and learn how to prepare all necessary tax documents.

To become a good tax preparer, you can start by preparing your own taxes. Doing taxes for friends and family members can also help if you are not yet that confident with your skills. It will also serve as a good exercise since you will be able to get a good grasp of the necessary knowledge and skills when actually doing the job.

After finishing your tax courses, you can look for tax preparation companies that are looking for new tax preparers for training or hiring temporary positions during the tax season. If the company likes your performance, there is a good chance that they might hire you for a full time position.

Lastly, a need for continuing education may arise since new laws are passed every year and tax laws are also always changing every year. Continuously spending time to familiarize yourself with new tax laws is very important to your success as a Sacramento CA Tax Preparer.