By Jamie Waggoner

So, let’s get the “bad news” out of the way first.  Based on what I’ve been learning studying this business with Pronto Tax School Founder Andy Frye, doing taxes isn’t likely to make you wealthy.  That is to say, the actual act of tax preparation does not often lead to wealth.

For example, let’s say you do 1,000 tax returns per tax season, which is a pretty huge number.  If you charge $150 per head, that’s $150K per year.  Yes you’re making good money but it’s not some outlandish amount.

Now for the good news!  There are a lot of factors that help a tax preparer become wealthy.  And many people who work as tax professionals do in fact become wealthy.

In this blog, you will find out specific ways to up your annual income, and also your net worth, through working as a tax preparer…keep an open mind because you may not have thought of some of these ideas before.

Opportunities Run into doing Taxes

As a tax preparer you are doing taxes for hundreds of people per year and sooner or later there is a good possibility of making connections with wealthy people.

You do multiple business owner’s taxes and you see which businesses are most profitable.

Sometimes your advice can go a long way with a business owner allowing you to have a very special connection with them and their business.

Specific things that can come up after making a connection with a successful business owner may be:

1. Acquiring stock in the client’s business
2. You might be able to land a role in the company depending on specific skills you may offer
3. We have even heard of stories where the business owner passes on the business to the tax professional!

These are all possibilities that can happen to a tax preparer that will allow them to not only make more income, but make the right moves to acquire true wealth.

Off-the-Beaten Path Real Estate Deals

Second main avenue for getting wealthy as a tax professional is to keep your eyes peeled for real estate deals that are not known to the general public.

If you meet wealthy CPAs and other tax professionals it’s virtually guaranteed that in addition to their business interests, they also own real estate.  And, they often acquire that real estate from someone they met via tax preparation.

Now of course you have to be careful and ethical about it but just look at some of these opportunities that come up:

• A client of yours passes away and the heirs live in another state and don’t want the property
• A friend of one of your clients needs to sell a piece of property fast, and is underwater on the mortgage, so he doesn’t want to pay a real estate agent, he just wants fast cash and to be out of the property
• A client has been holding a piece of land for many years and wants to get rid of it

These are the kinds of things that people mention to you when you are a tax preparer.

Now, again, you must be careful and ethical about it–but jeez, real estate agents would LOVE to have people entrusting them with that kind of inside information.

Relationships + Assets = Wealth

Wealthy people are wealthy because of their assets.  And as a tax professional, you have an “up close and personal” view into what assets people own, and especially when it comes to working with business owners you often play a role in increasing those assets.  You may end up reaping rewards in this area, as long as your relationships are rock solid.

Relationships matter tremendously in the process of achieving wealth.  It’s the old saying, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”  Well, being a tax professional is one way to meet and develop meaningful relationships with a wide variety of people, some of whom either already are very wealthy or will someday be very wealthy.

If you’re a tax preparer looking to achieve wealth, you need to be able to seize those opportunities if and when they come up.  Hooking up with a “star” business and scoring one (or multiple) great real estate deals are two common ways that tax preparers become wealthy.  Again just keep in mind the ethics part of it because at the end of the day, the trust of your clients is the only asset you

 About the writer: 

Jamie Waggoner is a Communication Major at University of North Carolina-Wilmington (UNCW).  Jamie’s favorite course at the moment is Integrated Marketing, which shows how smart companies use storytelling and word-of-mouth to develop authentic and compelling relationships with their customers and the general public.  Jamie did not realize when she accepted an internship at Pronto Tax School that she would become a tax expert, but hey, life is full of surprises and that’s a good thing.