Tax lawyers’ jobs are one of the best paid professions in the law field and the earnings mostly depend on the success, reputation and skill of a tax attorney. Wondering what is the earning potential of a tax attorney? Keep reading to know further…
The complex and technical field of income tax is beyond the scope of layman to handle and work through it. Even large corporate firms and business houses find it difficult to understand tax laws and implement them in handling their financial transactions. The need of tax attorney or tax lawyers is evident in every step of the financial dealings of large employers and even for individual tax payers. Tax attorneys handle IRS related issues, help clients understand ways to save money and they provide information and advice on tax laws. Right from filing of tax returns to legal documentation of all tax related matters, the job of tax attorneys is extremely challenging. These law graduates are aware of all nuisances of income tax, personal wealth, properties and various areas of taxation. They’re also expected to remain updated about latest tax rates, rebates, rules, laws and state, federal codes for their works. The salary of a tax attorney, after years of education, with a law degree, is amongst the highest in the law profession.
Salaries for Tax Attorney Jobs
Being in a career as a lawyer opens doors to various other career choices for students. Candidates aspiring to be tax lawyers can rejoice from the fact that even the starting salaries of tax attorneys is relatively high and begins at US$60,000. With experience between one to four years, tax lawyers can easily command salaries to the tune of US$65,000 to US$80,000. This is certainly a great start in the initial stages of a career. Further, as the work base increases and experience grows, the earning potential of tax lawyers depends much on the profile of clients. Tax lawyers with five to ten years of experience have the ability to grab six figure salaries provided that they’re being hired by top-notch businesses or business tycoons. The highest salaries in this profession has no limits as it is all dependent on the profile of clients and how established a tax lawyer is. Those with 20 or more years of experience can even command salaries as high as US$200,000!! Certainly, monetary rewards in this profession is very high and it is also dependent on seniority in a firm. Senior tax lawyers hire taxation law graduates from colleges for supervisory and assistant works. Learning the intricacies of this profession in the initial years is vital to succeed later.
Becoming a Tax Lawyer
Tax lawyer career starts by obtaining required educational qualifications and work experience in the complex field income taxes. Here is a step by step to become a tax lawyer.
Step 1: Obtain a four years undergraduate degree. As such no major subjects have been highlighted by experts in undergraduate degree. Good command in subjects like English, foreign languages, public speaking, government, philosophy, history, economics, mathematics, and computer science, besides others is cited to be very helpful during the career. Developing excellent written and oral communication skills besides the ability to research deeply, organize information effectively and think logically is vital. Knowledge about courses in accounting and a solid background in engineering or maths is a bonus as tax lawyers have to deal with numbers.
Step 2: Three years law degree from an accredited institution certified by the American Bar Association (ABA). To get into the law college monitored by ABA, one needs to crack the Law School Admission Test (LSAT) exam. This is followed by a screening process that considers personal interview with the candidate, past academic performance, undergraduate school and numerous factors. At the end of the 3 years course, lawyers are awarded their first professional degree, the Juris Doctor, or Attorney at Law.
Step 3: Tax attorneys need to obtain licenses from the American Bar Association (ABA), as per the rules established by the jurisdictions’ highest court. The written bar examination is compulsory for all lawyers to pass.
Nearly 7 years of full-time study after high school makes one eligible to work as a professional tax lawyer. Learning for professional tax lawyers never stops as they have to keep reading and writing about various tax rules and minute details associated to it. The earning potential of the tax attorney as discussed earlier is worth the years of effort and hard work aspirants invest in this career. Candidates interested in taxation field must make dedicated efforts to carve a niche for themselves in the dynamic and evolving world of income tax.