Top 15 Tax Consultant Skills to Stay Top of Your Career

This post presents important tax consultant skills and qualities you need to have to improve on your job performance and make a successful career.

Please, read on:

The issue of tax is always a strict one which governments of nations don’t joke with.

It is a reliable source of revenue for every government of a nation. And the major source of this tax is through business organizations.

In turn, organizations hire experts in tax to help put them through the process of taxation.

These experts are known as tax consultants and their major work is to put an organization through on the tax laws obtainable in the country.

Who is a Tax Consultant?

From the explanation given above, you can confidently say that a tax consultant is one who is well educated and well informed about the tax laws of a country.

Top 15 Tax Consultant Skills to Stay Top of Your Career

Here are important skills and qualities you need as tax consultant to excel in your career:

1. Problem solving skills
2. Commercial awareness
3. Organization skills
4. Communication skills
5. Numerical skills
6. Time management
7. Logical and analytical mind
8. Record keeping skills
9. Flexible approach to work
10. Planning skills
11. Ability to interpret complex tax laws
12. Knowledge of business laws
13. Interpersonal skills
14. Customer service skills
15. Active learning.

1. Problem solving skills

Tax is one source of revenue for every government of the world.

So due to the importance attached to this and the punishment attached to the non-compliance to payment of tax, organizations have somehow managed to find a way to comply with this important rule.

However, to ensure that organizations are taxed properly and at the right time, as well as knowing everything about tax, tax consultants are being consulted to enlighten organizations on all they need to know about taxing.

This is one problem you will solve for every organization that requires your services.

So, the problem you are to solve for any organization that will require your services is to enlighten them on the need to pay tax, the punishments for defaulting, and the proper way to pay their taxes.

2. Commercial awareness

Commercial awareness to a large extent correlates with business acumen, which is concerned with the way businesses are run and what is obtainable in every business place or industry.

Commercial awareness helps you have a more balanced career as a tax consultant.

It is important for you to understand how businesses are operated. This will give you a hint as to what you should help them accomplish in the area of taxing.

You don’t assume that every organization is run like all other organizations that you have worked with it in the past.

Also, understanding the type of organization you are working with should help you know the relevant laws that apply to such organizations.

Laws differ for different industries and so is the taxing system of different organizations under different industries.

3. Organization skills

Organization for you as a tax consultant entails organizing your activities to suit the schedules of the business organization that you work for.

Organization is for the purpose of smooth running of activities in the business organization.

So the thing is that you have to adjust and make sure that you work with the organization according to their timetable or as agreed between you and the business organization.

This will help both parties to give ample time to taxing issues that you are being consulted for.

If you fail to organize your activities in the business organization where you are consulted, you make end up consuming more time in the job than required.

Of course you know that time management is an important aspect of your job as a tax consultant.

4. Communication skills

There is no doubt as to how important communication can be in the job of a tax consultant.

It is a good skill that enhances the success of the job.

Communication is one of the ways you are able to carry out this job effectively and efficiently.

First, during consultation, it is through communication you are able to pass information across to the organization that contracted you for this job.
Understand that any form of communication you use is important as long as you are able to pass across the necessary information.

In communication, you should know that there are two aspects you have to consider: the written and the oral form of communication.

You should be able to communicate effectively using your mouth during conversation, either face to face or through phone calls, as well as passing information through clear and concise writing.

5. Numerical skills

This is monetary issue we are talking about. So there is no way that mathematical skills will be ruled out as one of the skills you will need to do this job well.

It is very important because without good mathematical skills you will make a mess of your tax consultant job.

You must not achieve the status of mathematical guru before you can become a tax consultant but what is most important is that you have satisfactory mathematical skills to work with.

It is important to you and your job.

You have to be good in mathematics at least to a satisfactory level for you to be able to do basic mathematical operations on the job.

The job cannot be done without some good mathematical skills to work with.

6. Time management

Based on the fact that you are working with an organization on contract basis means that you should be able to do all the details of your job within the timeframe stipulated in the contract.

This brings us to the need to have good time management skills for the tax consultant job.

Time management skills are relevant, not just for this job but for every other job you can think of especially if there is a deadline to beat.

This is why you should not think lightly of the importance of time management skills in the tax consultant career.

Time management entails that you have to focus and concentrate on the job at hand until you are done with the job.

You won’t be doing yourself any good if you fail to meet the deadline given to you to execute this job from the beginning to the end.

7. Logical and analytical mind

Taxing issues are not really easy to sort out and that’s the reason your services are needed to sort out complex taxing issues relating to the organization you are working for.

When problems are presented to you, the first thing you should learn to do is to give it a good thought.

Sleep over it and be sure to carry out a good analysis in your mind and apply the relevant processes needed to solve such a problem you are faced with.

This means that you should be a good thinker and not someone that assumes.

You should be professional in your thinking and analysis.

Creativity in your thoughts will certainly help you out in the long run in being effective in your tax consultancy job.

8. Record keeping skills

Documentation of transactions from the beginning of your tax consultancy job is essential for record purposes.

You should not discard any information due to carelessness associated with your inability to keep record of events and processes involved in your job.

The essence of record keeping is for future reference and decision making.

What you record forms part of the working documents you will need in the course of doing your job.

This is why you should learn the art of bookkeeping.

There are many sources of information you will need at every stage of this job and records you keep by yourself is one of the sources of data/information you will need in the course of working as tax consultant.

So, start documenting every necessary thing that needs to be documented.

9. Flexible approach to work

One thing makes boredom possible in a job and that is fixed approach to work.

Even in our everyday lives we tend to find ways to make what we do to be fun and we know the benefits associated with flexible approach to our daily activities.

You should be able to develop your own way of doing your job to make it easier for you and also help you manage time.

It is up to you to determine how you carry out this job.

You have to be flexible in this job; do it your way and produce the desired result.

When boredom enters your job, doing it becomes more tedious than you can imagine.

Not really because the job is much but because of rigidity you have subjected yourself to in your job; the job becomes a difficult mountain to climb.

10. Planning skills

Planning is a good skill to help you succeed as a tax consultant.

As jobs keep rolling in, so is the demand for those jobs to be done within the shortest possible time.

It is because every organization knows the importance of time and what time wastage can do.

Planning becomes one of the ways you can deal with time wastage.

During planning, you should make sure that you have in mind the expectation of the business organization you are working for.

This will form the basis of the plans you lay out for the job set before you.

But in all, planning is a way to go in this job.

11. Ability to interpret complex tax laws

The first thing every organization has in mind before consulting you is to help them interpret the complex laws relating to tax.

So automatically it means that you should as a matter of fact know these complex laws and know how best to interpret them for the organization to understand.

Without understanding these laws, there is no way you can give a proper explanation to the organization.

Also, interpretation of these laws is another thing you should know how to do.

You should know the best way to pass across the information for the hierarchy of the organization to understand.

Employ the best communication channel at your disposal.

12. Knowledge of business laws

As stated above, before you can boast of the ability of interpreting some complex knows, first you must have an excellent knowledge of those laws.

One set of laws you should have at your fingertips are business laws.

These are laws that guide and provide procedures for the operation of businesses in a given geographical location.

So you should acquaint yourself with laws obtainable in different parts of the country because you don’t know where your next contract will come from.

If you are able to understand some of these business laws, it will make you balanced in your job and set you head and shoulders above your competitors in this field.

But if you do not have good knowledge of these laws, you will be limiting yourself all the more.

13. Interpersonal skills

As purely official this job is, yet you cannot deny that you will need some good interpersonal skills to succeed in this job.

Every job description has some element of skills that may not be purely related to the job which somehow play a good role in your success in the job.

Interpersonal skills include your ability to work with people both in and outside the organization.

You have to know what people think about you and the job you are doing.

For you to have firsthand information on this, you will need to establish a good relationship with people around you.

This is one skill that anyone who wants to have a well-balanced skillset in the tax consultancy job must have.

You need to be sure that you are working in tandem with the necessary stakeholders in your job.

These people include the management of the organization and some other people in the organization.

14. Customer service skills

This is very important for you to know. If you look at the nature of your job, you will know that you need this quality more than you think.

Customer service skills will definitely help you woo more organizations into requiring your services.

You know that though organizations need the services of a tax consultant, however, the competition in this field is on the increase and you need more than your basic tax consultancy skill to land a good job.

This is why you should have the customer service skills as part of your skill collection.

If you are impatient and cannot be calm enough to explain things to hierarchies of organizations, you are more likely to lose clients than you can expect.

This is a skill you need every day in this job, not just when you have a job at hand.

15. Active learning

Knowledge is always a differentiating factor between an expert in a field and an amateur.

You don’t outgrow the amateur stage in this job by age or how long you’ve been in the job.

Knowledge is the big difference between you and any other person in this field.

This means that if you want to become more efficient and well sought after in this field, you should be able to improve your knowledge in this field with current information.

So, understand that the moment you stop learning is the moment you begin to lose relevance as a tax consultant.

You don’t have to give up on learning new techniques and technologies that are needed in this job today.

Tax Consultant Skills for Resume

If you are writing a resume or CV for the job of a tax consultant, you can make a compelling Skills section by applying some of the skills and qualities discussed above.

Your resume/CV is sure to receive the needed attention from the recruiter/employer because it shows that you have the needed skills and qualities to succeed as a tax consultant.

Conclusion

A tax consultant plays an important role in guiding organizations through the tax laws obtainable in the country or state.

But beyond the certification and the head knowledge, there are some skills and qualities you will need to develop to be effective on your job as a tax consultant and build a successful career.

These have been provided on this page.