The key to growth for any business is having good people. For a tax firm, this means finding seasonal employees to service your clients during tax season. While it may seem better and easier to hire an experienced tax preparer, we’ve found that it is better to find people with strong customer service skills first and teach them to prepare taxes through our Tax School. This eliminates the chance of hiring someone with bad habits and allows you to start fresh with someone and train them to prepare taxes the correct way.
The best prospective tax preparers are not necessarily accountants. Accountant and other financially oriented professionals tend to be more numbers-oriented than people-oriented. Taxation is not accounting; it is law. Finding good people who are interested in tax preparation and teaching them to prepare taxes is the best way to staff your growing tax business. Preparing tax returns is a very personal process that requires someone with strong people-skills to satisfy their clients. Make sure new students are learning to prepare by hand to ensure they learn the tax laws and are not dependent on tax software. You should also make sure they are asking questions and providing feedback to confirm their comprehension, and the person doing the instruction is available for help.
Below is my presentation on recruiting and training your own tax preparers.