I have just completed my required class for Oregon, and passed my test to become a licensed tax preparer.
I am very excited about it, and because my teacher is also the manager of a local tax office, I also got a job offer. Liberty Tax, where I will be working, starts pay at a quarter above minimum wage, so in Oregon that would be about $10 an hour. The figures for experienced tax preparers, however, make it seem worth it in the long run.
So, for those who don't want to go into a bunch of debt in a job market that may not want you anyway, I'm going to tell you about it. I wanted to do a series about debtless jobs, but so far, I can only talk about my own experience. I will post other articles as I hear about other jobs, but I may not personally have worked them, so I cannot guarantee that they will be enjoyable or bearable.
Disclaimer: Granted, I have not started this job yet. It may be the bane of my existence, though I know of some people who prepare taxes half the year while being retired from their other jobs. If they do this, and they probably don't even have to work, I think I can do it too. And though it may be overwhelming at first, I can get the hang of it next year at the latest. In a few years, it will not be a big deal at all.
With that out of the way, here is my experience: I paid $250 for the materials, then took a night class twice a week. The class itself was free, since the company that sponsored it did it to recruit new employees.
I found some figures given by Liberty about how much their preparers make on average, but I didn't trust those. So to get more accurate statistics, I looked up the Bureau of Labor Statistics webpage for this profession. And in my state, the Annual Mean Wage is $40,760-47,520. I don't know what the mean wage for my particular area is, or how much experience I will have to get to reach these numbers.
My teacher and soon-to-be boss says that tax preparers are actually hard to find. So apparently my new skills would be in demand. She also says that companies often look for help even in the middle of tax season (January through April 18).
If you live outside of Oregon, there aren't really any requirements for you to do this. Even in Oregon, going to school for it is not financially demanding, though it is mentally demanding. It's not that much effort and money at all, if you consider that it's actually like going to college and getting a degree for a job.
In Oregon, you have to complete 80 hours of instruction and pass a state test. The state test is 163 questions, and you must get 75% correct (123 questions) to pass. You must pay a fee for the test, and if you're not in Salem, a proctoring fee to the local test site as well. Then you have to pay a fee for them to issue your license.
You can take the test multiple times--my local community college has state licensing tests (all kinds, not just for tax preparers) every month. I can also go to a neighboring county if I don't want to wait a month. However, the authorities send your test scores in the mail--not in an email or on a website. It could take up to 30 days to receive your results. Teacher says that it will probably take two weeks, but that it could be longer, especially in December, because many people throughout the state are taking the test in December. So I take my test in a few days, but probably won't know the result until after Christmas!
You need 30 hours continuing education every year to practice, except for the first that you renew your license, since you just took a long course. I asked how I would even find 30 hours every year, and Teacher says that they will find you. Apparently I will get all kinds of advertisements for seminars and web courses. But for the first year after getting your license, you don't have to take the 30 hours, because you just had 80 hours of instruction already.
Preparers have to work under a Licensed Tax Consultant, the next rung in the system. If I become a consultant, I could start my own business. But for now, I don't want to worry about running a business, so I will be an employee this year and probably the next few years.
My cousin, who was prophesied at church to be a professional baseball player, couldn't make his college team. So he decided that he wanted to be a physical therapist. He graduated with a four-year degree, which cost him tens of thousands of dollars. But he forgot to volunteer a certain number of hours which were required of him. He managed to find a job in his new profession, but I'm not sure how that's going to get him volunteer hours, if he gets paid for it. And he needs to go back to school to get a Master's degree, eventually, just to keep his new job. But he can't, if he can't get the volunteer hours.
In addition, he has to start paying his student loans very soon. His payments will be $400 a month, for a very long time
So now he's stuck, and he's burdened with a huge amount of debt, and he's only 22. It's a very fucked up system that lets him and millions of others get like this. And that's why I'm skeptical of it all. I have no college debt, and I will do everything in my power never to have it. People say that it's necessary to succeed in life. But how successful are you, really, if you have such burdens?
Apparently, I have to choose between being poor, and being in massive amounts of debt. I'll take poverty, thank you very much. At least I won't have the creditors breathing down my neck, as well as wondering about my financial future and job prospects.
But if this job is really all it's cracked up to be--and so far I have no reason to think that it isn't--then there is a middle ground. And I can always save up money and go back to school later, if I get a good job now.
I'm sure there are enough options like this out there, but the challenge is finding out about them. The likeliest source of information about jobs, to my mind, is the local community college. But then again, they are a college, and also a business, and they will try to sell me a degree.
So I must shift for myself, as far as guidance goes, and try to help others along the way. Hence this article.
Remember, this is a job--not your life! Especially with a seasonal job like this, you can work your job, if it's bearable, and make as much money as you can--and then have a life, that is enjoyable. I still plan to save money to maybe go back to school or take online courses about things I'm interested in. I still dream of one day publishing a novel. And I still want to blog about minimalism, art, and LGBT stuff.
My homophobic uncle seems to think that one's job defines them. He has complained to my mother, "I'm just a mill worker!...I'm just a janitor!...I'm just..." and you can fill in the blank.
Meanwhile, the local lumber mill is very much unionized--there are some good benefits to working there! They also, I have heard, are hurting for workers who can pass a drug test, so anyone clean is a valuable worker.
And as for being "just a janitor," well--he was "just a janitor"...for the freaking school district! He was a government employee.
So he has had some very good jobs, and felt belittled by them. He thinks there is shame in honest work. After my grandfather--his father--supported a wife and four kids on a mill worker's salary, and still wears his union caps to this day...my uncle was humiliated by being no "better" than his own father. I seriously hope that my grandfather doesn't hear what he says. I wonder if it would hurt him, being "just" a mill worker.
(My uncle used to look down on the janitors at his own schools, thinking they were "losers," so he now feels judged by kids. And yes, that actually bothers him, apparently. He is in his mid fifties now--I know, I'm rolling my own eyes, too!)
So get the best, most palatable kind of job you can, whether it's this, or something else. And don't worry about the "status" of your job. Please don't do that to yourself. Be proud of who you are. And be proud of any kind of honest work. Don't put others down for their professions (even if you live in Nevada and don't like prostitution, for example), and don't have people in your life who disapprove of yours. Cut them out, as much as you can.
And above all, be good to yourself. You deserve a good job, you deserve not to go into a whole bunch of debt, and you deserve not to care what others think of you.
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