[Jriver]

Hi all,

I got a call in relations to a corporate position focused in doing sales & use tax. How valuable is this kind of experience and is it easy to continue down the road with a career in this area? Interesting? Seems like more of a specific area and can you go into public accounting with this background? It’s pretty much doing this for a software company. I was hoping to stick with financial accounting which is the safer bet but wanted to explore this area.

Any feedback is appreciated!

[ymmit]

seems a bit narrow, I work in public accounting and doing sales tax returns for clients is considered almost like “admin/bookeeping” work, not CPA work. It may be completely different for large companies not sure.

Licensed CPA!

[ymmit]

seems a bit narrow, I work in public accounting and doing sales tax returns for clients is considered almost like “admin/bookeeping” work, not CPA work. It may be completely different for large companies not sure.

Licensed CPA!

[Kelestrel]

Like Ymmit said, sales and use tax is (in my experience) mostly admin/bookkeeping level work. It pairs well with tax, as you have to wade through the same sorts of documents to figure regulations.

I work as a staff accountant for a non-profit. I was given the responsibility of sales and use tax almost as an afterthought when the Finance employee doing it before took a different position. It seems simple, but it's deceptive. Assuming you'll be handling US locations, every state has their own rules. For many states, each district (could be city, county, or just an arbitrary geographic location) has their own rules. We do everything manually, so I have to do a lot of research to try and stay compliant. Honestly it's a never ending struggle, but it is interesting if you like research and looking up regulations.

REG Aug 16, 2014
FAR Oct 04, 2014
AUD Feb 15
BEC May 15

[Kelestrel]

Like Ymmit said, sales and use tax is (in my experience) mostly admin/bookkeeping level work. It pairs well with tax, as you have to wade through the same sorts of documents to figure regulations.

I work as a staff accountant for a non-profit. I was given the responsibility of sales and use tax almost as an afterthought when the Finance employee doing it before took a different position. It seems simple, but it's deceptive. Assuming you'll be handling US locations, every state has their own rules. For many states, each district (could be city, county, or just an arbitrary geographic location) has their own rules. We do everything manually, so I have to do a lot of research to try and stay compliant. Honestly it's a never ending struggle, but it is interesting if you like research and looking up regulations.

REG Aug 16, 2014
FAR Oct 04, 2014
AUD Feb 15
BEC May 15

[nicole2035]

I wouldn't do it, it's more of a temp/intern work. I did sales/use tax as my first internship, after I left the made the position part time. But before then they had a lady who was a temp doing it and she had 0 background in accounting. Sounds fancy because it's sale/use tax but for a big corporation they have a program that automatically knows the rates and does updates. So i'd just request the form I needed from a particular state, and instantly know the % I should be using.

Also depends on what the company does, the place I was at did resale of still lol so they paid literally nothing in sales and use tax for the most part. But it's gotta be done. I won't even list it on a resume anymore.

[nicole2035]

I wouldn't do it, it's more of a temp/intern work. I did sales/use tax as my first internship, after I left the made the position part time. But before then they had a lady who was a temp doing it and she had 0 background in accounting. Sounds fancy because it's sale/use tax but for a big corporation they have a program that automatically knows the rates and does updates. So i'd just request the form I needed from a particular state, and instantly know the % I should be using.

Also depends on what the company does, the place I was at did resale of still lol so they paid literally nothing in sales and use tax for the most part. But it's gotta be done. I won't even list it on a resume anymore.

[jaredo155]

I spent 4 years doing sales, use, and property tax for a large corporation, so I definitely have a good perspective on this. In my experience sales/use/property/or any other periphery tax isn't given much credit for the reasons listed already, however for large organizations it is a very big role and quite essential that a very qualified person is involved. With that said if you wanted to have a career in that field you have to be willing to move wherever the jobs are, because the demand is only high with larger companies, which is precisely why I am currently learning the income tax side of corporate taxes. Tax in general is a very narrow field to begin with outside of public, and so I wouldn't recommend further pigeon holing yourself in to sales and use unless this is a first job just to get experience and your foot in the door in corporate, or you know it is what you want to do forever.

AUD - 2/2013 - Passed!
BEC - 5/2013 - Passed!
FAR - 8/2013 - Passed!
REG - 11/2013 - Passed!
"Do or do not, there is no try." - Yoda

[jaredo155]

I spent 4 years doing sales, use, and property tax for a large corporation, so I definitely have a good perspective on this. In my experience sales/use/property/or any other periphery tax isn't given much credit for the reasons listed already, however for large organizations it is a very big role and quite essential that a very qualified person is involved. With that said if you wanted to have a career in that field you have to be willing to move wherever the jobs are, because the demand is only high with larger companies, which is precisely why I am currently learning the income tax side of corporate taxes. Tax in general is a very narrow field to begin with outside of public, and so I wouldn't recommend further pigeon holing yourself in to sales and use unless this is a first job just to get experience and your foot in the door in corporate, or you know it is what you want to do forever.

AUD - 2/2013 - Passed!
BEC - 5/2013 - Passed!
FAR - 8/2013 - Passed!
REG - 11/2013 - Passed!
"Do or do not, there is no try." - Yoda

[Jriver]

Thx for your inputs. Yes, financial accounting is what I have done and should continue with it. Thank you!

[Jriver]

Thx for your inputs. Yes, financial accounting is what I have done and should continue with it. Thank you!

[Author]

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