How to Start a Tax Preparation Business

Learning how to start a tax preparation business is much easier than learning how to start many other home-based and small business ideas. Training is very affordable, is easy to find, and the majority of your workload will be spread over a 4-6 month time period – tax season.

If you happen to be bilingual, the demand for Spanish speaking income tax services is something you will definitely want to look into.

If you’ve got some basic computer skills and are also able to perform simple accounting tasks, there are plenty of different training programs out there that will help give you the skills that are required to open a tax preparation business. Below are some of the best options for training:

IRS – The Internal Revenue service offers free training in exchange for a few hours of volunteer work on your part. They’ve got an excellent training and certification program that contains five parts: Basic, Intermediate, Advanced, Military, and International.

Tax Services – Large tax services like Jackson Hewitt and H&R Block offer training courses that can range anywhere from $99-$200 to attend, and the costs of any materials is generally included. Since they’re hoping to hire students from the class, they offer very thorough training.

Online Classes – A wide variety of websites offer online instruction. If you’re a busy person whose problem is finding time, this is an excellent option. A lot of people find the Internet to be a wonderful tool to use when starting a tax preparation business, and may also attend even more advanced training from a different source.

Getting Started
In order to learn how to start a tax preparation business successfully, you will, at the very least, need the following items:

Software – In order to produce a very professional product and also be able to manage your time more effectively, you will need a good tax preparation software program. Having this will allow you to offer your clients the ability to save their information in a variety of formats, and will also allow you to e-file any tax returns. Make sure to shop around when looking for software so that you can find the least expensive, yet still high quality program.

Office Supplies – You are going to need to stock up on all sorts of different types of office supplies. Things like paper, a printer, computer, and lots of ink cartridges are essential to have. You will also want to stock up on sticky notes and sticky flags for paperwork.

Work Space – Whether you decide to run your tax preparation business from your home or out of an office somewhere, you will definitely need some comfortable chairs and a decent desk that has got ample writing space for both you and your clients.

Things to Consider
While it is a fact that the tax season is only about four months out of the year, there are plenty of opportunities to maintain clients all year long. Some tax preparation businesses offer mid-year tax checks. What this does is allow you to offer advice to your clients on how they can minimize their tax bill.

A tax preparation business is one that can be easily incorporated as a second business or even in conjunction with some other type of financial service. A great example of this would be small business planning.

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