As the title says, I'm a recently licensed CPA but have spent my entire time in O&G in Houston (Katy) and am not an accountant by background. My undergrad is Finance and have worked entirely in Finance. However, I'd like to gain tax experience, particularly individual & small business. Any recommendations on how to go about this while continuing to work my full-time job? I do intend to take several CPE courses in this area but was hoping to also get some real experience.

Tax work is extremely seasonal. You might be able to work for a small CPA who would be willing to offload some work to you during the busy season as long as you were clear that he needed to be responsible for reviewing your work. I'm talking about a guy that may be the only CPA in the office and hires a bookkeeper to do light bookkeeping, payroll, things like that. I know a couple of guys like that in BCS but nobody in Houston. I don't know if either of the ones here would be willing to do that kind of arrangement.

Seidel Schroeder is great. Aggie owned and operated, and a great reputation.

I'm honestly not even looking to get paid, just looking for some flexibility and an opportunity to learn.

It has been a good while, but you and I had discussed some items concerning the CPA Exam in the past. Not trying to derail your thread at all, but I was wondering if you could possibly share what you used to prepare for the Exam. Did you wind up going with Becker? If so, how do you feel it prepared you and did you have any trouble passing any of the sections? Just curious!

Congratulations on getting your license, by the way! Thanks.

By the way, gaining tax experience is definitely a good idea and cannot hurt. Are you wanting to eventually get into public accounting? As Loyal Ag said, tax work is very seasonal and it's going to be difficult to get a public firm to even discuss part-time work opportunities with you right now. I think you would have a lot better success landing a part-time or as-needed position if you start looking in October and/or November - especially if you're wanting to try something in public accounting. This is when most all of the tax work is completed for the previous tax year (in our case, 2017) and firms start gearing up for the upcoming (2018) season.

I'll answer about the exams first:

I did use Becker. I liked it just fine and it definitely got the job done. I don't really remember the exact order of my exams but I know FAR was first and Tax was last. I passed all 4 the first time, scored like 92-94 on the first 3 and either an 83 or 87 on tax (was tired of studying, Harvey, baby almost born so focus wasn't as there). Took my first test in March i think and last in November so Becker definitely got me through quickly.

Regarding the tax work, I don't really have any desire to go into public accounting in the traditional sense. It's more of, I have quite a few small town connections who have mentioned sending friends/family/clients my way for tax work mostly but I'd really like to get some experience first.

canadianAg said:

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I'll answer about the exams first:

I did use Becker. I liked it just fine and it definitely got the job done. I don't really remember the exact order of my exams but I know FAR was first and Tax was last. I passed all 4 the first time, scored like 92-94 on the first 3 and either an 83 or 87 on tax (was tired of studying, Harvey, baby almost born so focus wasn't as there). Took my first test in March i think and last in November so Becker definitely got me through quickly.

Regarding the tax work, I don't really have any desire to go into public accounting in the traditional sense. It's more of, I have quite a few small town connections who have mentioned sending friends/family/clients my way for tax work mostly but I'd really like to get some experience first.

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Glad to hear you went with Becker. I should have done that as well, but went with a cheaper option that hasn't panned out for me. I got off track due to moving and Harvey (just like you) last year and am trying to get back into finally getting the Exams behind me. Quick additional question: did you follow Becker's suggested study routine exactly as they prescribe? If not, how did you proceed? I am going to see if I can put some funds together and get Becker soon, so just trying to plan a bit. Sounds like you did very well with and got the Exams done in only a little more than half a year.

Tax is definitely something you can really only truly learn by working in it. Things change with just about each passing year and they are again for 2018 returns. It sounds like you just need to work a little as a tax preparer for really anyone you can possibly get on with. I know you said you don't care if you get paid, but you may as well work somewhere and earn a few dollars at the same time. I still think you're best bet for finding something like this would be a little later this year. That doesn't mean you shouldn't be looking around now, though. A lot of firms these days are set up in the cloud, so you may even be able to work at home for a CPA or tax firm if you can find someone with this capability. I used to work for a guy that had it and he had (and still has) a lady who lived in California do a lot of his preparation via the cloud. He'd then review the returns she prepared, call her to discuss and/or make corrections, and then print and mail the return to clients. It worked well and this is becoming the new norm in public accounting it seems (at least for part-time and/or as-needed employees). Do you have any tax experience at all (besides preparing your own return)?

If you can stomach it and can make yourself focus it shouldn't take more than 10 days to learn the material for any of the four parts. Lock yourself in a room for 12 hours each day, read the Becker book cover to cover and then blast example questions and flash cards.

Doesn't H&R block hire people seasonally to work on preparing taxes? I think they mostly just have their people use something similar to TurboTax but it would likely get you exposure to various personal tax situations

GE said:

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If you can stomach it and can make yourself focus it shouldn't take more than 10 days to learn the material for any of the four parts. Lock yourself in a room for 12 hours each day, read the Becker book cover to cover and then blast example questions and flash cards.

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Thanks for the tips. It has been several years since I've been out of school, so not sure about the 10 days. I definitely am more of a book-learner, so I am not sure the lectures would do anything at all for me, although some people say they helped them. If I can find a way to afford Becker, I was planning on skipping those unless I just am not grasping something in the book. I know a lot of the learning comes from just working multiple-choice questions.

GE said:

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Doesn't H&R block hire people seasonally to work on preparing taxes? I think they mostly just have their people use something similar to TurboTax but it would likely get you exposure to various personal tax situations

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There is also Liberty Tax Service and Hewitt-Jackson, I believe. I would recommend working for an actual CPA who has his or her own practice if at all possible over these sorts of businesses, but they definitely could get someone some good experience in preparing basic Forms 1040. CanadianAg is looking for some good experience, so he/she definitely might be okay starting with such a tax-prep service/business.

OP, are you willing to relocate to Dallas?