Taxes, taxes, taxes – they can be a daunting business at the best of times. Rarely does a feeling cause more panic than the sound of a tax form plunging through your letterbox.
Just imagine the scene – you’re breezing your way to your front door, possibly whistling a jaunty tune, when you stumble upon a tax return on the floor. There it sits, eyeballing you like a tome of bad vibes.
Suddenly, there are a thousand questions running through your mind. What if I muck up the form? What if I can’t find all of my receipts? What if the government picks holes in my frankly dreadful grasp of arithmetic?
Well, fear not! While it might come as a surprise to you, there are actually a number of people who don’t find tax forms to be all that, well, taxing.
While most people find finances to be a daily form of stress, those in tax jobs perform complicated arithmetic like it’s their bread and butter. Not only this, the world of taxes can be a lucrative job for those with the right qualifications and aptitude for numbers.
Gaining a job in the tax sector
If the tax industry doesn’t give you the jitters, what will you need to gain a well-paid job?
To start with, an appreciation of numbers helps. Although you won’t need a brain the size of Stephen Hawking’s, knowing your way around maths is a definite plus.
After that, it’s the qualifications that count, with a degree in some kind of mathematics (many universities have joint courses in Finance and Business, which is ideal) being a must to get ahead in the world of taxation.
With all of your qualifications in place, the *real *hard work will begin in the form of a job search. Like most job hunts, it can be a slog to find work that suits you, but with the right degree in place and a number of internships regularly cropping up, work is always around the corner.
The important thing to remember when applying for a tax job is that your key skills and competency are what employers are really searching for, so work up from the bottom and acquire as much experience as possible to hoist your way up the ladder.
With the right level of dedication, you can transform your degree and experience into a high-paying position that will make you cold, hard cash. And, on a smaller scale, you’ll find that those tax forms will be a dawdle, making you a lot more friends during tax season.