Veronica
How you learn to do taxes, but the school doesn't have any classes so you know what to do?
In life we are made to do taxes, and most of us are so clueless to where to start. Some of us don't have anyone to go to get the knowledge we need.
#Taxes #Wack
5 answers
Blake Flota, CPA
Blake’s Answer
Google is actually a great resource. I'm a tax accountant, yet I find myself searching tax related questions on google all of the time. Millions of Americans don't know much about how taxes work, so chances are if you have a question, someone else has posted a similar question.
Tax prep websites like www.hrblock.com and www.turbotax.com are good places to start. If you only have income from one or two jobs, those websites will usually help you do your return for free! They are also designed to ask you simple questions about your life in the last year and most people are able to prepare their tax return in under an hour.
If you have any more specific tax questions, I would be happy to answer them below.
Hongyun (Heley) Bai, CPA
Hongyun (Heley)’s Answer
My school had some introductory classes. Also, there are some volunteer programs (such as VITA program) in the sprint to help underprivileged people to prepare their tax returns, which comes with training sessions and is good hands-on experience to learn at real life.
Elise Hulsey, CPA
Elise’s Answer
I work in accounting and prior to, did not know anything about taxes. I actually use TurboTax which is a great resource since it has all the relevant laws/deductions/etc. that you need. I highly recommend it! It made filing my taxes so much easier, in that all the information was already there and I didn't need to do much research individually.
Shilu Sheng
Shilu’s Answer
I currently work in the tax industry, and I had the same question/concern when I accepted my job offer. I had zero tax education or experience back then. But hey, right now I'm a tax professional. If your questions is about your personal income tax, I would suggest you to pull up the Federal and State tax return form instruction pages (available on Google) and patiently read through them. You will gain a pretty good understanding of how the tax return flows. Like income, deductions and credits you can take and etc. You may want to avoid using online software like TurboTax if you want to understand your own tax return. After you gain some knowledge about the return, you can even do some tax planning for next year. e.g. how much mortgage you should take .
However, if you asked this question regarding to your career plan, I would tell you to not be worried. As long as you have background in accounting or finance. You will have opportunity to pick tax knowledge while you do work and there will be plenty of trainings to get you up to speed. Also, tax is a life-learning career, because there will always be changes. As a tax professional, we need to learn new tax legislation and enforcement periodically. Therefore, as long as you take a proactive role on learning , you will do fine in the industry even without prior tax education.
