Job Responsibilities
Major responsibilities for a Senior Manger tax consultant at a
Big 4 firm include researching tax laws, providing tax advice
based on that research to clients - orally and providing written
memos. Must try to develop projects by talking with clients and
seeing what issues they have and coming up with a deliverable
that the client will see value in and be willing to pay for.
Must review lower level professionals' work and try to develop
them. Must provide performance reviews to lower level
professionals. Must be able to sustain billable hours. May need
to be a lower level professional's counselor, providing advice on
overall career development, as well as possible courses and
seminars. Must develop and build relationships with other tax
professionals in the firm so that they come to rely on you as an
expert in your particular specialty and introduce you to their
clients or send work your way. The percentage of time at each
responsiblity varies, but most of the time is spent researching
tax laws and reviewing others' written memos.
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Job Requirements
A tax consultant in a Big 4 accounting firm needs to have an
undergraduate degree in business or accounting and needs to work
toward or have a CPA license or J.D. An LLM is a plus as is a
Masters in Tax for a CPA, but it is not necessary.
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Uppers
Best parts of the job are the interaction with clients and learning about
different industries. You are constanly presented with different challenging tax
issues that you must resolve. Since you are constantly working with different
clients and different issues, if you like taxes, your job is rarely boring. The
pay is good though not as good as it once was - % bonuses and raises are much
smaller than a decade ago.
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Downers
The worst part of the job is the constant pressure for billable
hours. Work comes and goes and when it's gone, you have that
constant feeling about what if I don't get more work, will I have
a job tomorrow? You can be the greatest tax consultant in the
world, but if you aren't able to charge your time to projects
then you won't have the job for long and it is definitely a "what
have you done for me lately" world. That is, even if you had a
ton of billable hours last year, the slate is wiped clean the
following year and you are measured solely on that performance.
You are expected to do a myriad of non-chargeable work yet you
are really measured, especially when it comes to promotion or to
keeping your job, based on the number of billable hours. Also,
you have to work fairly long hours, especially since, as an
example, you may have to put in 3 hours to get 2 hours of
chargeable work.
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Lifestyle
You are generally expected to work approx. 50 hours a week, more during tax
season, sometimes less in the summer. Hours during tax season depends on whether
you are actually doing tax returns. If you are doing returns, expect at least a
60 hour week during tax season. The hours, however, are pretty flexible, you can
come in late and work late, come in early and leave earlier, work at home.
Vacation days are very generous. Travel depends on your job but it is usually
local to clients. There are various social events throughout the year, i.e., ice
cream socials, after-busy season party, happy hours, and a fairly lavish
christmas party. Dress code is business casual unless you are visiting a client
that dresses more formally or if you are making a presentation to a client.
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Advice to Jobseekers
A Big 4 accounting firm is still a great learning environment
because you get exposed to so many different clients industries,
and issues. A Big 4 firm is seen as a really big selling point
by corporations when evaluating your resume because they feel
like you have been exposed to so much and that you are a true
professional. It is important not to commit to a specialty early
on in your career so you don't get pigeon-holed in one area.
This can be difficult in the Big 4 because the firms are so
large, they like to have specialists. This is ok farther down
the road when you find something that you really like and that is
interesting to you. There are also great opportunities at
smaller regional firms because many companies that are audited by
the Big 4 are now sending their tax work to other firms due to
Sarbanes-Oxley.
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