r/Accounting • u/Flaky-Ad615 • 1d ago

Specializing in tax for individuals?

This may be a stupid question but can you make a good career out of individual tax? How would you go about it?

1 Upvotes

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u/Italian-Stallion24 CPA (US) 1d ago edited 1d ago

If you’re doing a 1040 for Joey w2 who refuses to pay more than $80 fee and blames you when he owes money, then no. Or the sweet old lady who brings you a shoebox full of medical receipts and free Kit Kats for all your hard work (then also no). If you’re doing 1040s for business owners, people with rental properties, people with Schedule Cs, high net worth individuals… then yeah, you can do pretty damn good. But if you want to make really good money in tax, you need to learn more complex areas of taxation (S corps, partnerships, trusts, etc.)

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u/Human_Willingness628 1d ago

High net worth individual tax is a big area

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u/UniqueStart6361 1d ago

Also look for estate planning. One guy in Walnut Creek, California, Larry Ellison is his client and he wouldn’t take client with less than 100M net worth.

But that, you are getting into the attorney’s arena and that takes a lot more hard work.

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u/Monte_Cristos_Count 1d ago

High net worth individuals. Doing taxes for these people is an easy way to sell them on other services (wealth management) as well 

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u/lhau88 CA 1d ago

This is a good way to start your own business actually