Tax Strategies & Preparation Articles

“A lot of fellows nowadays have a B.A., M.D., or Ph.D. Unfortunately, they don’t have a J.O.B.” -Fats Dominoe

Fats is right. The degree isn’t the goal. The income to create the lifestyle that you want is the goal. Unfortunately, a college or university education doesn’t necessarily guarantee that you’ll get a job, much less a job that will provide a great income and lifestyle. The same is true of the “wrong” education in Tax Preparation.

Speaking to university graduates, Michael Mandel in BusinessWeek:Online wrote on September 8th, “I’m sorry for obsessing about this, but I can’t help it. I really do wonder whether we’ve passed over a critical threshold where a college degree alone is no longer enough.”

With the “right” education you “make your own luck.”

Most tax training programs only teach you enough about Tax Preparation to get a data-input position making $8 bucks an hour, but I don’t think that’s the lifestyle that most of us are looking for. I believe that the “right” education will give you the tools and training to help you “make your own luck.”

Introducing what makes the “right education in Tax Preparation the “perfect” education.

Maybe we should be a little more specific about what you should find in a curriculum on Tax Preparation. These are the basics. If they aren’t in the course, don’t take it!

1. The nuts-and-bolts of the standard tax returns. You should expect to learn about and have experience preparing the tax returns that the majority of individuals will use. This is where it starts.

2. How to shelter your income. You should expect to learn concepts and strategies that will ensure that your clients will pay lower taxes. You should expect to learn about legitimate deductions that can save your clients thousands of dollars on a return. You should learn about tax credits, which could reduce your client’s tax burden even more.

3. Income adjustments strategies. Expect to learn how to itemize on a tax return, how to deal with business expenses, capital gains and losses, and depreciation in ways that let you and your clients pay the bare minimum tax allowed by law.

4. You should become a 1040 expert! You should expect to learn about self-employment and rental property income, Alternative Maximum Tax, extensions, amended returns, etc… If this isn’t a part of your Tax Preparation education, it’s not the “right” education.

5. You should be comfortable with the basics of business tax issues. You should expect to learn all about the various types of business types and the tax forms that service them. You should learn about the different types of businesses that exist; partnerships or corporations, to name only a couple, and what makes all the different business structures unique and the tax advantages or disadvantages of each.

You must know what business structure to use with your own business so you pay less taxes and keep more of the money you earn.

6. You should become a master of the Business Return. Once you know about all the types of business entities there are, you should expect to learn the lucrative and much sought after field of business returns.

As you search for the “right” education in Tax Preparation, if these 6 areas of instruction are not a part of the curriculum, it isn’t a complete education and is not the “right” education for a successful Tax Preparation business. Knowing that, I should tell you, I think these 6 areas of instruction are only a part of what you’ll need to have a successful and very profitable Tax Preparation business. There’s still more you’ll need to know to create a truly profitable and rewarding tax preparation business.

Okay… show me what the “perfect” education must include!

Now let me introduce you to the 1/2 dozen things profitable tax services know that will turn the “right” Tax Preparation Education into the “perfect” education. Realize that this is not offered everywhere. (But don’t worry; at the end of this e-mail, I’ll give you some information on where you will find it.)

• In depth marketing strategies. Time proven techniques that will save you years of experimentation and frustration and teach you how to attract and keep clientele. Since the best knowledge only turns into a great income when you have paying clients, learning how to quickly find and keep clients must be a part of the “perfect” curriculum. A library of prospecting letters and fliers to help you begin your Professional Tax Preparation Business with clients should be in your course material.

• Coaching from marketing experts. If there’s not someone on the other end of the phone to help you with your efforts to attract and keep clients, it’s not the “perfect” education.

• How should I charge for my services? How can any school that would make you guess what your fee schedule should be consider itself to be the “perfect” education?

• How should I interview clients to get the information I’ll need? Without the right information, it will be difficult to really service your clients. Any school that doesn’t offer instruction on how to interview your clients to serve them effectively and efficiently is not the “perfect” education.

• Tax Support. Your first year as a Professional Tax Preparer may be full of a lot of tax questions that you are not sure of. If your education doesn’t include access to experienced professionals for that critical first year, I don’t think there’s anyway it could be the “perfect” education.

• Access to all the current tax forms. What kind of instruction on preparing taxes wouldn’t include access to all the forms you’ll need. If the forms aren’t there, it can’t be “perfect”.

• Proven management techniques. Running your business like a pro will make it possible to live the lifestyle that you and your family deserve. If your education doesn’t teach you the proven management techniques that will allow that, you guessed it, it isn’t the “perfect” education.

Now you know what I consider the “perfect” education in Professional Tax Preparation. If you are able to find the right education, you’re on the right track. But if you want to “Make Your Own Luck”, you better be looking for the “perfect” education.

Did We Set Our Sites Too High?

Does anyone really provide this kind of real-world tax preparation training? Yes, but most of them are called a “franchise” and can cost up to $80,000 to start. There is one exception. Universal Accounting’s Professional Tax Preparation Certification is that exception.

Click Here to Learn More About The Costs of Buying a Franchise and Why You Don’t Need to

Most people don’t have the money to buy a franchise, but they can still create a profitable tax preparation business. Universal Accounting has been teaching the ins-and-outs of small business accounting and tax preparation for over 25 years. We’re the small business accounting experts. Click on the link below and learn more about how to start your tax preparation business with something even better than a franchise.

Show Me How to Start a Lucrative and Exciting Tax Preparation Business Today

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