A "SEASONED" TAX PRO RESPONDS

Over at TAX FACTOR Jamaal Solomon’s “Confessions of a Mad Tax Accountant” continue with the promised "Arrogance of Some (Not All) Old Tax Accountants (30+ years' experience)”.

 

Jamaal advises -

“My advice to young tax professional is not to be shy. Young professionals MUST seek advice from ‘seasoned’ tax professionals. You will meet some jerks but hey that’s life! You have to keep on striving for excellence. My advice to ‘seasoned’ tax professionals is don’t be greedy. ‘Seasoned’ professionals MUST share their knowledge.”

In looking back at my more than 4 decades in the business, the only “seasoned” tax pro from whom I actively sought advice during my earlier years was my teacher and mentor James P Gill.  We worked together just short of 30 tax seasons, and he eventually “handed over” his practice to me when he got tired of 1040s at age 75.  To be honest, while I have been attending NATP and other conferences for over 25 years, I did not begin to “network” with other tax pros until only very recently. 

Over the years I obviously received guidance from “seasoned” seminar and workshop leaders at NATP, NSTP and other continuing professional education sessions via their presentations.  And since I began blogging - around the time my mentor went to his final audit - I have sought guidance and help on tax preparation issues from time to time from my fellow tax bloggers (especially the MISSOURI TAXGUY, who actually credits me as one of the reasons he started to blog) – some less “seasoned” than myself.  Different tax preparers have different areas of experience and expertise.

From the odd questions and comments presented during my tenure at various CPE sessions by participant tax preparers, who one would think to be “seasoned” based on years, I have come across many that seem to need a lot more “seasoning”.  Years in the business alone does not necessarily yield “seasoning”.   

I like to think I am one of the “great ‘seasoned’ tax professionals” that JS refers to in his post.  I have tried to be supportive, and provide guidance, support, and publicity (via BUZZ), to new tax bloggers, Jamaal included, over the dozen years I have been writing THE WANDERING TAX PRO.

I do agree with JS that “seasoned” tax pros need to share their experience with newbies, and new tax pros need to seek out “seasoned” mentors.

FYI, Jamaal and I, a “young” tax pro and a “seasoned” tax pro, will soon be providing guidance, advice, and resources for beginning tax preparers in a book that we are currently working on with the tentative working title “Won’t You Take This Advice I Hand You Like a Brother”.  I apologize to JS for not devoting more time to my contributions to the manuscript lately, but I have been plagued by GD extensions.

Next up for JS – turnabout is fair play with “Arrogance of Some Young Tax Professionals”.  I am looking forward to this next post almost as much as I was looking forward to the current one.

RDF