Can an accountant charge for taxes outside of work without being a CPA?
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010 at
5:45 pm
I was wondering if an accountant can charge for taxes when they aren’t for there job? I know people aren’t allowed to charge unless their a CPA but I don’t know if a regular accountant is allowed to.
Tagged with: accountant • CPA • job
Filed under: CPA
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Yes they can. H&R Block preparers, for example, are often not even accountants, but they charge…..
Anyone can do taxes for money, it does not require being a CPA. For example, the people doing taxes for HR Block are not CPAs.
Sorry, but you are terribly mis-informed. You do NOT need to be a CPA to charge people for the preparation of tax returns. There are plenty of janitors and Mickey-D’s burger flippers moonlighting at the tax prep mills during tax season.
A CPA (Certified Public Accountant) is someone who has met the academic and experience requirements, passed the CPA exam and is licensed by their state.
Most people who work at places that do a lot of individual returns at a lower cost (i.e. H&R block) are not CPAs (but do take tax training classes to get the job done).
Anyone can charge fees for a service. Tax returns are something that do not require a CPA (or any other certification for that matter) unless they are going to be representing the taxpayer in front of the IRS. Usually, that’s a specific tax matter (such as something taken to tax court) and not your day to day filing.
In summary, anyone can be and accountant. Only those who have met the requirements can be a CPA. All can prepare (and charge) for tax returns and related services.