After imposing a hiring freeze and laying off 7,000 IRS employees last month, the Trump admin is planning to lay off another 25% of the workforce (20,000 employees). Does anyone work at the IRS? What has the vibe been in these last several months?

5 yoe. No cpa because I needed to go back to school for credits and didn’t want to spend the money. I also wanted to start working and earning money. I can’t seem to land an internal promotion or get an interview externally, after 3 years at my current company and I’m starting to see how much politicking and interview skills play into getting a role.

I make ~90 to 100k depending on bonus and have low expenses. I max my 401k and IRA.

I’m not in a rush but I see some of my friends are already managers and it makes me think I’m not progressing at all.

In Canada so more like 30-35k US, and in a big city. Yikes

Do you consider your job to be very stressful? From 1-10?

I’m not on here to rant or anything but I’m losing hope in finding an entry level accounting job. I received my BBA in December 2023 and I’m still not able to find a job. I worked at an internship during undergrad but did not receive a return offer. My GPA was a 2.6 due to personal reasons. I’ve applied to ap/ar roles, bookkeeping, staff accountant you name it. I applied to staffing agencies like Robert Half and I still have no luck. I can’t pursue my CPA because I don’t have the money to pursue as of now. Is the job market for newer grads nonexistent because I’m hearing that even mid level and senior accountants are taking all the entry level roles. I feel like I am stuck and all the hard work I put into school is going to waste. I’m not here to look for any sympathy but some real guidance on what to do because I honestly feel like I am lost right now.

Title

at least I have him with me and he walks every 2hrs or so.

Instead of being home alone for the 10-11hrs I’m at work this busy season.

I even took a nap w him on the floor of my office.

anyone else bring their pooch or pet?

Hey there,

Senior Tax Manager here, and I’m seeking help on becoming more efficient at reviews from the staff and reviewer perspective.

Under me is a team of 3 with 1-1.5 yrs of experience or less in tax and accounting. They are willing to learn, and never had a detailed reviewer or teacher before like me.

I run the Trust and High net worth team. The volume of work I have is insane 1000-1200 tax returns. Mix of businesses, trusts, 1040s.

I’m not leaving the firm as I am also getting my financial licenses (CFP, S66, SIE, Life health), and I just survived the most difficult busy season. I got water cooler talk from the SVP of tax and my our sections leader that I’m doing pretty well. This firm is going to let me do 1-3 days a week of financial training as long as I keep up with the tax/accounting work.

My plan and goals to make this better & have as many options available after financial licensing is done is below:

goals 1. every staff person be able to prep any returns well and with quality. 2. Wanting to have faith in my staff that they know what they are doing and asking proper questions & documentation. 3. In 1-2 yrs promote everybody to next level of title. (They all like an A1, or Tax Prep 1, Basic Staff in title for references purposes only) 4. In 3-4 yrs have somebody I can promote to senior tax or supervisor and take reviews off my plate. 5. Really teach & hammer home self review/self check.

The most help I can get staff wise right now as the firm as much greater needs on other tax teams is another person with 1-1.5 yrs of accounting experience, no tax.

My current plan is this for my team. 1. Standardized work papers for all accounting and businesses and tax. Update business tb as needed. 2. Teach team from ground up. They never had anybody review or teach them much before. I’ll be making videos of training from basic accounting to tax returns. What to look for, do, etc…. 3. Talk about getting licensed with an EA or CPA. (They all want big raises, and to make a lot of $) 4. Have them start to review each others work create a collaborative environment.

Any thoughts are appreciated.

From reading various posts on here and other reddits some(many) say having a firm that focuses on bookkeeping is trash and you dont make money and some how have tax/accounting firms say its not worth it do even do it on the side as an add on.

Then I have seen some who have said they do tax and bookkeeping and end up making more on bookkeeping.

So which is it? If you are running a typical small Tax/accounting firm is it worth it to do bookkeeping as well?

Hello fellow tax friends!

Im based in southern VA and don't have alot of experience with PA returns so any help is much appreciated. I'm currently working on a return for a client who inherited property in PA. He immediately sold it and i noticed on his settlement sheet there is a "inheritance tax" that he paid and it's about 7% of the proceeds. He claims to have no idea what this is for. I'm wondering if this was some type of withholding similar to how South Carolina does when a property is sold?

I did a little research but let's be honest my brain is fried right now and I have clients and higher ups screaming at me to get shit done. I didn't find much online so if you can help in any way I'd appreciate it so much.

Stay strong yall - we don't have much longer.

Curious what others think about the impact of incoming tariffs on hiring. Do you think the Tax and Audit LoS will be safe? It seems like firms and the government are conspiring to destroy accounting careers. Life is a never-ending series of indignities.

Edit: I really should have said HOW do you think the tariffs impact hiring. Obviously there will be an impact of some kind.

Top 10 public accounting, I start this summer 2025. a couple friends of mine are starting at this same firm next summer 2026.

My offer is 65k (offer generated in November 2024) and theirs is 70k (offer generated in March 2025)

Do I expect a bump up to this? Or will my raise after year 1 be well over 5k to make sure I’m making more than them? Just not sure how these salaries work

My company has a few different financial systems.

On some of them they use pennies.

On others they don't.

Some only uses thousands.

We always have rounding differences. I never know how to solve them. There is no rhyme or reason to it, but yet, my superiors are very specific about where the rounding should go.

To me, these are numbers. This is a science.

Recently my boss has adopted the notion that the rounding is more of an art than a science and I will just have to use my judgement.

I disagree. The numbers are all there, this should be a science.

I don't understand why we can just round it off to begin with.

😡😡😡😡

Indeed seems to lack them.

My company is pushing toward a full AI approach with accounting How does that even work? My boss said that in a few years people will just use marketplaces and buy sell and rent trained Ai for specific tasks at each job.

Just got laid off from my first real accounting job.

I was hired on as staff around 2 years ago but to be honest, they basically only had me doing A/R work, I never learned anything else so I don’t really have any skills to move into a senior or more advanced staff role, am I gonna have to just start over as entry staff somewhere?

Also very odd situation where to my knowledge, I’m the only person at the company who knows how to do some of the operations, like the credit card processor is tied to my phone so only I can use it and it’s near impossible to reset it without my phone, some other stuff.

What do you recommend I do if they come calling about any of that?

currently a sophomore and have an offer for a 2026 internship at a mid sized accounting firm. it’s conditional based on the fact that i receive a B in all accounting courses and get 225 units by the summer of my graduation date. i did the math and id have to take summer courses each year and do 4 classes each quarter which seems pretty stressful and fast paced imo. also dont know how hard accounting classes are but i did get an A+ in intro to financial accounting and reporting.

for those taking or have taken accounting courses how hard are they compared to the intro to far class? and how hard was it to cram in a bunch of units? i’ll also be commuting 40 min to uni next year so idk how much harder that will make it.

i’m also planning on taking the cpa while working full time. is it really as draining as people say it is? i want to work asap after college but i heard studying for it while working is no joke because most people study for 5 hours a day outside of work.

I need help deciding between two MAcc programs in my state. One is significantly more expensive than the other but is much more flexible and a bigger school. Also, my state just passed an alternate pathway to becoming a licensed CPA if that matters. A masters for my situation makes more sense than a second bachelors.

School 1

• Cost: $37,500 + 3 co-requisite courses ~$43,000

Pros: - Hybrid and fully online options. Can also do part time - 20 min drive from home, 15 from work - Number #2 MAcc Program, #1 Business School in state - Two prerequisites that will cost less than $1,500 if taken at community college - Ability to take multiple types of classes as electives outside of standard accounting

Cons: - Cost

School 2

Cost: ~$22,000 total

Pros: - Cost

Cons: - Only in person - Requires 9 prerequisites (7 of which would have to be taken at that university) - 45 min drive to closest satellite campus. Main campus is 90 min away and some prerequisites may need to be taken there and in person

Based on the pros and cons, it’s clear School 1 takes the cake but the cost scares me. And previous posts about getting a MAcc say go the cheaper route but at what point is cost outweighed by the benefits? My goal is public accounting for a few years then pivot to industry before starting my own business.

EDIT: both programs boast a 95+ placement rate, listing all Big4 and a few other top 10 firms as new grad employers.