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That would be great, my email is Disneyquesting at icloud. I've thought about buying access to a EA exam prep to see 8f that would help also. I like the concepts it just seems like 0 to 60
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Oct 15, 2020 01:45
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Empress Brosephine posted:Do any of you have tips for learning about federal taxation? I feel like I've been thrown into the deep end and have 0 idea wtf I'm doing. Gleim has a test prep series for the Enrolled Agent IRS Test. It'll get you spun up on the Tax Cut and Jobs act pretty quick. Los Angeles has a community college program teaching it at LAVC.
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Oct 15, 2020 02:12
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Yeah I was looking at that and PassKeys one. Too bad the gleim one is $700 rip
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Oct 15, 2020 02:20
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I got my ea studying with the passkey books. I hate this tax season (I hate all of them I'm gonna become a math teacher I think.)
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Oct 15, 2020 18:50
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I think I'll probably buy them. I like tax, just all these legal terms are like "... What"
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Oct 15, 2020 19:17
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happy 10/15 fuckers, hope your efiles are accepted and your paper files are certified mailed, return receipt requested.
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Oct 15, 2020 22:37
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Empress Brosephine posted:That would be great, my email is Disneyquesting at icloud. I've thought about buying access to a EA exam prep to see 8f that would help also. I like the concepts it just seems like 0 to 60 
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Oct 16, 2020 01:18
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You rock thanks so much
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Oct 16, 2020 01:35
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I'm a tax manager in industry. We had some covid/office shakeups, and I ended up working 70-80+ hour workweeks for about 2.5 months. My 10/15 deadline ended, and I have some work to do before 11/15. I'm so burn out. Year 8 of this and it's just insane. Time for a career switch 1000%.
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Oct 17, 2020 05:14
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Audax posted:I'm a tax manager in industry. We had some covid/office shakeups, and I ended up working 70-80+ hour workweeks for about 2.5 months. My 10/15 deadline ended, and I have some work to do before 11/15. I thought industry was all about that 40 hr week. Was it lack of employees?
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Oct 18, 2020 18:30
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Tax is like the only thing in accounting Ive enjoyed learning about so I think that might be my path forward (granted I've done nothing with auditing yet)... Am I going to want to kill myself perusing this though? You guys make it sound horrendous 
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Oct 18, 2020 19:28
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Empress Brosephine posted:Tax is like the only thing in accounting Ive enjoyed learning about so I think that might be my path forward (granted I've done nothing with auditing yet)... Am I going to want to kill myself perusing this though? You guys make it sound horrendous I'mma go all CSPAM real quick: if Biden wins this shits getting changed. Not as much as you'd think, but enough to require a new edition of a book. If Trumpo wins then... Well I still need a new edition, but my classroom hours studying this fraud tutorial made into law won't feel as wasted. I have... Taken the cowards path and deferred further inroads into book keeping until after the election.
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Oct 18, 2020 20:20
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Public accounting tax: Work a lot. Make some good friends. Mostly smart and motivated people. Insecure overachievers who live to climb the client services ladder so that one day you too can have a vacation home to work remotely from. You will become one of these people, or you won't, and you'll leave. Industry tax: Work less with less motivated people, which in general could be good. Your boss might be a former big 4 maniac who still lives for client service only the customers are internal now and isn't that awesome whoa cool. If you have enough power you get to sit in meetings and say "No" but management will do it anyway. Hopefully you have a budget and You're the Client Now. RIP if not. Government tax: You can do things today. You can do things in two weeks. The work is made up and the reviews don't matter.
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Oct 18, 2020 20:23
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Thanks so much. I am going to a online school so I don't think I'll get I to public accounting, so probably something local which seems fine for me lol.
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Oct 18, 2020 21:21
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Empress Brosephine posted:Tax is like the only thing in accounting Ive enjoyed learning about so I think that might be my path forward (granted I've done nothing with auditing yet)... Am I going to want to kill myself perusing this though? You guys make it sound horrendous Well it’s not very fun to post about successfully completing a tax return without much stress now is it? Overall tax is a fairly stable job, with predictable seasons. Also, gently caress auditors, learn tax you jerks, provisions aren’t that hard. Don’t plan on taking vacations in February, March, early April, August and early September. You will be able to plan your year fairly far in advance (if COVID were not happening, this is when I take vacation usually). In Big 4, you will often specialize in a certain industry, which can provide you expertise in that industry (for instance, I can talk your ear off about private equity real estate investment structures). At lesser firms (the Big 4 in me, obviously they are just as valid), you may have a more generalized knowledge of tax, and maybe even do people taxes (that is, 1040s). Working with a Big 4 in tax I’ve had some incredible opportunities, rising to manager. I’ve trained in and implemented tax automation technology, worked with some of the biggest asset managers on the planet, flown around the country teaching people how to use internally developed tax software, and even been flown to India to work with our offshore team for a couple of weeks. On a daily basis I work with people from Europe to India to Australia. Perhaps the biggest hazard in doing tax is the exit opportunities. While auditors seem to be able to find more general accounting and finance roles, by entering tax you will find that the bulk of your expertise is in tax specifically, becoming a “tax guy”. While early exits (associate and senior) will often be able to find similar pay in different accounting roles, the more you rise in the ranks of public accounting tax, the more you will find that you will want to exit specifically into an industry tax role. If you like tax that is fine, but if you do not like tax you may find yourself at a somewhat lesser role than you were in previously as a tax person. All in, gently caress accounting and gently caress tax, I should have become a line cook, but your experience may vary, and if nothing else, they pay me enough money that I keep logging on every morning. e: saw your follow up post as I posted my post, but keeping it in case other people are curious about Big 4 tax
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Oct 18, 2020 21:35
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No that's still great. I know the public firms recruit through my school, so there's always the chance.
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Oct 18, 2020 23:21
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I'm a preparer at a family owned office and we serve local small businesses and individuals. In general I love my job, love talking to people for an hour every year to catch up and actually do their returns. It's the perfect amount of social interaction for me. Like Hurt Whitey said don't plan on taking days off February to April or early September. I've always been lucky enough to still get Sundays off except the ones leading up to the actual deadlines. This year has been total rear end because of COVID, and I'm definitely feeling burnt out, but we're past the final deadline so I can focus on catch up work until tax season starts again. Before COVID my office was having one of it's most productive and efficient tax seasons, but the additional work of helping clients navigate unemployment and the government loans on top of continuing to prepare returns on top of half our staff including one of the other preparers not being able to work well if at all remotely kind of hosed that all up. Hopefully we can figure it all out for next tax season.
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Oct 19, 2020 05:15
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Don’t do tax. Do audit and then get the gently caress out after a year or two as senior. But not into internal audit. NEVER into internal audit. The rotation they’re promising you will never truly get you out
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Oct 19, 2020 05:26
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In my experience the client relationship is much better in tax vs audit. The ceiling for an audit is telling clients their employees didn’t majorly screw up any internal control processes in the last fiscal year and the financials are fairly represented in accordance with GAAP. The ceiling for tax is telling clients they got a big refund.
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Oct 19, 2020 05:55
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Accounting is a pretty flexible degree and you don't have to lock yourself into public either. I work in government financial analysis, do about 15 hours actual work a week, never have to do more than a 40 hour week, and basically just do some A/P work, prepare an expense report for the state every month, and help set the department budget annually. Its also about as recession proof a job as you can get. I could probably make more in public or industry but there's something nice about just having a job that you know will be there that isn't all that hard.
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Oct 23, 2020 15:25
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I can't wait to be done with my decade in public so I can go work for a brewery or something and be paid to know things and have opinions about things instead of being paid to do things Does anyone here ever work in forensic as an expert witness or similar? Something I'd like to do later in my career but not really sure how to angle my way in, the CFA cert seems more like a product than a thing people would care about (the exam is apparently super ez?) but mb I'm wrong
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Oct 23, 2020 17:12
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Government sounds pretty nice also to be honest. I need to convince my girlfriend to relocate anyways. I should find an internship though I guess. Might be hard as a 30 year old though rip.
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Oct 23, 2020 18:25
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Could work for the IRS I hear they're going to upgrade to Windows 7 soon
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Oct 23, 2020 18:39
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black.lion posted:Could work for the IRS I hear they're going to upgrade to Windows 7 soon Was speaking to an agent this week and he was positively thrilled that email might roll out in the next few months. Democratic Pirate posted:In my experience the client relationship is much better in tax vs audit. The ceiling for an audit is telling clients their employees didn’t majorly screw up any internal control processes in the last fiscal year and the financials are fairly represented in accordance with GAAP. The ceiling for tax is telling clients they got a big refund. This is what appeals to me about tax over audit. Tax people are the good guys to the client, while auditors just make their life more difficult.
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Oct 23, 2020 20:06
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:This is what appeals to me about tax over audit. Tax people are the good guys to the client, while auditors just make their life more difficult. I split the difference here and work as a consultant for technical accounting matters (sometimes known as Accounting Advisory Services or similar). Clients like us because we are helping them solve stuff. I started in audit which was a great foundation then hopped over to this after 3 busy seasons. The actual work is great, I’m just about done with the public accounting part of having 6 bosses at once and 2 of them rotate in/out weekly, though.
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Oct 23, 2020 20:10
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Empress Brosephine posted:Government sounds pretty nice also to be honest. I need to convince my girlfriend to relocate anyways. I should find an internship though I guess. Might be hard as a 30 year old though rip. If it makes you feel better my first accounting job was at age 30 and I didn’t get my CPA until 33. You don’t have to be limited to federal either, I worked municipal for 2 years and county for 1 now.
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Oct 24, 2020 03:43
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Lord of Garbagemen posted:I thought industry was all about that 40 hr week. Was it lack of employees? Late last year my company announced an office move 15 miles south of our current location. Coupled of that with COVID, we ended up being down about 5 people going into June. We had loan staff, hired some people, but the work still has to get done.
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Oct 24, 2020 04:08
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I work for a teeny tiny boutique firm, literally 3 people: me (passed 1/4 exams), my boss (CPA), and our admin - the plan had been that I'd eventually be picking up some equity and would be "passed the torch" of the firm Welp my boss had some health problems come up and it looks like she may be selling the firm to another firm which is also small and local (they have like 8 employees rn and most are bookkeepers) I'm not really mad about missing the equity boat, I can't super afford buying into a biz rn anyway and this way if I want to jump to industry in 5 years I won't be held down - more importantly my boss is my mentor and I want her to get the cash out she deserves for running this firm alone for 20 years and building it out of dust. So that's all good, however, I do get to have a say in how the 'deal' is structured, what the terms are, etc. (if it even goes down, not decided yet) So basically I'm trying to think of what I should 'ask for' - if anything - at this point of transition. My thinking is that this is (possibly) the last moment I have any negotiating power before I'm strapped into whatever ride this sale/merger ends up being. Our firm and the firm that is thinking of buying us are very much about "work/life balance" which is nice - I wear tshirts to the office when I'm not wearing pajamas, and we've cultivated a client list that actually prefers and values that (casual/friendly vibe, many of our clients are on the hippy/liberal end of the cultural spectrum so they see it as a value add that we don't wear ties or "office attire") - so for that general reason I'm not too concerned about asking for X vacation or time off... but was thinking, does it make sense to line out expectations regarding hours worked during and outside of tax season? Really the big thing is compensation - right now my salary is a couple thousand shy of "average" in my area, according to Glassdoor and Indeed (and salary.com but I have no idea if that site means anything) - if I ask for a 10% pay rise, I'll land just about at the average for my area - and then if I ask that another 10% happen when I get my license, I'll be sitting around average pay for a senior tax accountant in my area. This all sounds reasonable to me, but this is the first time I'm discussing salary with someone that isn't my mentor and a really close friend, so like.... are those super large/unreasonable jumps? TLDR Basically trying to gauge whether my asks (salary esp) are too much, or reasonable, given the situation (and also what should I think about that I'm not already thinking about?)
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Oct 26, 2020 16:29
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I would think of your negotiations as essentially a new job if you are bought out. Definitely ask for more money, and definitely define vacation and hours. Depending on the acquiring firms appetite, maybe see if you can get a cash bonus as a “retention bonus”, as you are almost certainly going to end up having to go through the other firms partnership process to get ownership, which sounds like it may be a ways down the road if you do not have your CPA license yet.
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Oct 26, 2020 17:30
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Yeah I honestly don't want ownership in this "new" firm, the only firm I'd want to own is the one I'm at now and if it gets bought and thus ceases to exist, I plan to ride public for a few years 'til I can get something cushy in industry (lots of local breweries around here yea boi) - and yes def a ways off without my CPA license, but the two people who own the firm that wants to buy us are not CPAs either (one is a marketing person and the other has a MSA in tax but no license, and hasn't decided if she wants to take the tests)... so I'm thinking entirely in terms of vacay/compensation/etc terms of my position as the only carrot on my stick. Mentioned a 10% bump to salary + another 10% when I get the license next year and she didn't even bat an eye: "I'll give you that 10% bump right now lol" was her reaction... so feel pretty good about that. Defining hours/expectations esp wrt tax season vs. normal time is one that I really don't want to miss the train on, but not sure how best to structure that language. Is it standard to just define it "x hours/wk during tax season & y hours/wk outside of tax season"? Cash bonus for retention sounds pretty cool, may tuck that one in my back pocket if I get any pushback about anything - thanks for the thoughts
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Oct 26, 2020 18:19
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What's your title? If I were looking forward to exiting in a few years, I'd want that to be as be as high as I could get it. The responsibility on the other hand...
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Oct 26, 2020 18:23
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Literally don't have a title, I don't have a job description here, my boss practiced alone for 20 years and then I showed up to help but it's all been very informal Lol should I ask for a crazy title? TAX RANGER
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Oct 26, 2020 18:35
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Duke of Depreciation
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Oct 26, 2020 18:47
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The MACRS Monarch
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Oct 26, 2020 18:54
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Hurt Whitey Maybe posted:I would think of your negotiations as essentially a new job if you are bought out. Definitely ask for more money, and definitely define vacation and hours. Depending on the acquiring firms appetite, maybe see if you can get a cash bonus as a “retention bonus”, as you are almost certainly going to end up having to go through the other firms partnership process to get ownership, which sounds like it may be a ways down the road if you do not have your CPA license yet. To piggy back on down the road, the two states I am licensed in do not allow ownership by non license holders.
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Oct 26, 2020 21:53
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Moneyball posted:What's your title? If I were looking forward to exiting in a few years, I'd want that to be as be as high as I could get it. The responsibility on the other hand... Yeah just to echoe this I think assuring some big title would be helpful as well as the raise. At the very least I think you want your new position to be well defined. If the merger happens and you've not set out your role and responsibility clearly then the new company is just gonna be business as usual till they realize you've become redundant.
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Oct 26, 2020 22:23
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Hey fellow accounting goons, I am an audit manager at a regional firm and I am looking to expand my skills by learning a programming language to hopefully automate some of my work. Does anyone have any experience incorporating computer programming into their accounting job. If so, which language?
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Nov 4, 2020 09:23
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You want to learn Python, it’s all the rage with accountants.
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Nov 4, 2020 18:36
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black.lion posted:I work for a teeny tiny boutique firm, literally 3 people: me (passed 1/4 exams), my boss (CPA), and our admin - the plan had been that I'd eventually be picking up some equity and would be "passed the torch" of the firm I'm gonna say you should push for a really good number... after all, we're numbers people. Another reason that I say this is because it's a great opportunity to receive a substantial bump in your yearly earnings without much work. Negotiating more money now means larger yearly raisers when % raises come into play. I speak this from personal experience; I have coworkers that did not negotiate and are making 20 less than me in the same position after 5 years at the same firm. All because I said I wasn't comfortable with the first offer and requested a higher starting number. How many years experience do you have, and what type of work do you do? Are you doing generally data-entry work, or do you do reviews and higher-level critical thinking? What types of tasks do you have? Would you say they're more associate-level tasks, or closer to senior and/or supervisor/manager level? I can share the range of salaries we typically dole out at my location/region, but I'm not a hiring manager specifically so I'm not sure how that would translate to where you live. Your boss was so quick to say +10% is nothing. If I was in your shoes, my first thought would have been gently caress I shoulda have asked for more.
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Nov 5, 2020 04:15
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Aye so thanks y'all for all the sound advice, figured I'd throw an update: We (my boss) decided not to sell the company woohoo! Which I'm really happy about bc we have a great vibe in the office and I dont' want to gently caress with it, also I like my clients and dont' want to pass them off to other "bookkeepers" who surely will not be as cool and good as me, also also we ultimately didn't love that neither of the couple who wanted to buy the firm are CPAs Also I'm getting a 5% raise for every passed CPA exam section so I'll have a 20% raise in the next 6 months or so (literally willing this exam passing schedule into existence by posting about it) which works for me Then we start figuring out how I'm going to be getting equity in the company - e.g. how to buy some equity without having any capital to put into the biz bc wife.lion and I just don't have the savings to buy a chunk of equity straight up (we got countertops and hardwood floors and poo poo to do yo!) Hoping my equity can be financed and paid off via distributions so I don't actually have to touch my personal funds but we'll see. Now back to studying 
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Nov 17, 2020 20:09
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