Anybody do seasonal tax work

[Texas Proud]

I am interested in doing some tax work during the tax season and maybe at different times during the year....

DW does sub teaching and there are times I would not mind doing something to add a few $$$s to the till...


So, if anybody does this or knows someone who does... what is the pay for this kind of work? I am a CPA and know a bit about taxes, so I am not coming to it without knowledge... just have not been full time tax for 30+ years....

 

[kaneohe]

some discussion in the first item here https://www.google.com/#q=seasonal+tax+work+site:+bogleheads.org++

 

[pb4uski]

Sounds like work to me. I do my return and a handful of others (Mom, DS, aunt, friend) and am trying to do less rather than more. I did lots of returns early in my career as our firm's tax department sought to borrow me from audit for months at a time during tax season.

Different topic... are you renewing your license, keeping up on CPE, etc since you retired? I renewed for one term but then decided to go inactive.... I can reactivate if needed by getting some CPE.

 

[frayne]

Year after I retired I did five tax seasons working for Block and then two years doing volunteer tax with the VITA program. I enjoyed the work and helping people, especially during the VITA years. After three years with Block and building up a clientele I was making right around $10K per season.

 

[pb4uski]

frayne, any idea roughly how many hours you worked for that $10k? I think I would be more inclined to do volunteer work.

 

[Souschef]

Volunteer

I volunteer with the AARP/IRS program. one day a week for 6 hours. This program is mainly for seniors and low income people.
We have a good friend that used to work for H&R Block, but balked at the extra hours of class they required this year.

 

[jIMOh]

I have worked for Block and Liberty

Each of them had a training course, one I took was about 8 weeks and the other about 12 weeks. I think same number of hours, just one was 2 hours twice a week, the other was 4-5 hours on a Saturday.

They basically taught you how to qualify people for the EIC.

They each paid about $12/hr plus some commission or bonus schedule. The Block bonus was at years end, the liberty commission was based on the franchise owner (3 choices were $8/hr plus 12%, $10/hr plus 10% or $12/hr plus 6%) I think. This was 2005-2008 timeframe.

There were part timers clearing $20k at both locations.

 

[MasterBlaster]

I had a neighbor who retired, got bored, and went to work for HRBlock. He worked up into some sort of management position there.

Anyway, we had one of those [-]bulls**t[/-] what-if conversations should I decide to retire. He told me that there were people at HRBlock (that hustled) that made around $40k per season and that maybe I could do that too !

I told him - no I like my really long commute, feeling marginalized and unappreciated, endless unproductive meetings, bad coffee, and strange co-workers where I work now! So why should I retire ! I'll just keep doing what I have been.

 

[whatnot]

Have a friend who works from home for Turbo Tax. I think he likes it ok. Haven't heard him complain - it is seasonal.

 

[frayne]

frayne, any idea roughly how many hours you worked for that $10k? I think I would be more inclined to do volunteer work.

I worked about 400-500 hours during the season and always got a decent bonus for retention and selling Peace of Minds. I got tired working for Block mainly because of the goofy corporate BS that came down the line and actually burnt a few bridges telling the regional managers and at corporate they had their respective heads up their asses. I do like Blocks software and the in office TPS system was second to none. The people at the local level were great to work with and we still lunch together on occasion. If you want to break into the tax prep business doing Block for a few years won't hurt. Just my two cents.

My two years with VITA was fun but as a site coordinator they kept trying to push more and more on you to the point it became too much like a job and quit being fun.

 

[REWahoo]

I started (and stopped) seasonal tax work after only one year as a VITA volunteer. Like frayne, I found it to be far more like a job than a volunteer gig. No thanks. And unlike Block, we didn't have to try to sell the clients anything.

 

[RE2Boys]

Gee, I've been doing seasonal tax work for 15 years since retiring as an engineer. First five were with HR Block. Learned a lot but as someone else mentioned, got tired of them wanting me to be a salesman for their other stuff, you really needed to work at building your own clientele, and the corporate BS. Pay averaged about $11 per hour over that time.
Last ten years I've been a seasonal employee of an CPA firm. They appreciate the trained help, I don't have any desire to work past April, they don't hassle me as they know I can easily disappear being FI. About $19 an hour, and I pretty much call my own hours (always aware that I need to be of value to them to keep returning). Heck, haven't had a formal evaluation in 10 years. I show up, work as much as I want to, disappear until the next January.
I call it my dog days of winter job when the snow is too deep to do a lot else.


I would imagine with your CPA knowledge, you'd do better than I. I'm pretty well limited to 1040s and simpler 1041s, never got my head around business returns and at this stage, don't want to bother to learn.

 

[Texas Proud]

Sounds like work to me. I do my return and a handful of others (Mom, DS, aunt, friend) and am trying to do less rather than more. I did lots of returns early in my career as our firm's tax department sought to borrow me from audit for months at a time during tax season.

Different topic... are you renewing your license, keeping up on CPE, etc since you retired? I renewed for one term but then decided to go inactive.... I can reactivate if needed by getting some CPE.

Yes, it is that dreaded word.... but I still like to get involved with some of this work and would rather get paid to do it than volunteer....

To answer you different topic question....

I did some temp work in 2014 with a small firm, but they were having problems and there were no good temp jobs I wanted last year....

Signed with another, but a big firm, but have not had any calls... so think they are not going to call... however, got free CPE from them so I am up to date on that....