How to make Career in Taxation
Introduction
Taxation is a process of tax imposing on citizens who earn taxable income. Tax is the sum of money which an individual also known as taxpayer has to pay to a state or any authorized body. This process involves dealing with direct taxes, assessment of taxes, filing return and providing advice on indirect taxes. Direct tax is the tax which is directly collected from the people e.g. property tax, wealth tax, income tax etc. whereas indirect tax comprises of taxes which are collected from the customers on the purchased goods or the services provided e.g. sales tax, VAT, customs duty, excise duty etc. Taxation is the government’s main source of revenue which is paid by the citizens and is used in financing projects for development projects in various sectors.
Performance and growth of industry in India
Taxation is very lucrative and fast growing career for those candidates who have interest in this field. Today every organisation requires people having expertise in this field such as public sector undertakings and corporate houses etc.
Options and Opportunities
The aspirants having sound knowledge of taxation are appointed as tax accountant, revenue managers, tax analyst, tax recruiter, tax advisor, tax examiners, property tax consultants, business tax consultant, income tax consultant, tax manager and collectors. There are many other job opportunities such as lawyers, tax counsels and defence attorneys. Tax people in Indian Revenue Service hold the top positions. They are aggressive professionals in their field as they have immense responsibilities on them.
Courses Available
– B.Com. Taxation
– M.Com.Taxation
– Post Graduate Diploma in Taxation
– Diploma in Taxation
– Diploma in Taxation Laws
– Certificate Course in International Taxation
– Certificate Course in International Taxation
Qualification required
– To pursue graduate level courses, the aspirants must have passed Higher Secondary Certificate Examination or 10+2 from any recognized state/national Board.
– To be eligible for the PG courses, one has to complete graduation in the relevant stream from any recognised university.
Some good institutes
– St. Xavier’s College Kolkata, West Bengal
– Symbiosis Law School Pune, Maharashtra
– India Law Society Law CollegePune, Maharashtra
– D.A.V. Centenary College Faridabad, Haryana
– Indira Gandhi Government College Kurukshetra, Haryana
– Oxford College of Business Management Bangalore, Karnataka
– St. Peter’s CollegeErnakulam, Kerala
– Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, Bhawan New Delhi, Delhi
– Sanlok Institute of Management & Information TechnologyGurgaon, Haryana
Entrance exams
– Tax Assistant Examination, Staff Selection Commission
If you wish to join the Indian Revenue Service (Income Tax), then you should apply for the Civil Services Examination (CSE) conducted by UPSC every year. The minimum qualification required for applying for CSE is graduation from a recognised University. There is an age limit i.e. you should have attained the age of 21 years but should not be more than 30 years. Those meeting this age limit criteria are eligible to apply for the above examination (relaxations as per government norms mentioned in the official website on www.upsc.gov.in). There are four attempts for candidates who are eligible for this examination (no restriction on the number of attempts for SC/ST candidates, seven attempts for OBC candidates). There is a preliminary examination (prelims) that is conducted and through which candidates are shortlisted for the main exam (written examination).
Candidates qualifying for the main (written) exam are called for the personal interview. Based on the marks secured in the main (written) and interview, a merit list is made, which determines the choice of service (keeping in mind the options exercised by the candidate in the application). The same examination can lead to the Indian Administrative Service, Indian Foreign Service, Indian Police Service, Indian P and T accounts and Finance Service, Group ‘A’, Indian Audit and Accounts Service, Group ‘A’, Indian Revenue Service (Customs and Central Excise) Group ‘A’, etc. The staff selection commission holds a combined graduate level examination which would lead to recruitment as inspector of income tax. The procedure for selection is a very rigorous in CSE as compared to SSC which is less rigorous.
Getting a job in taxation is very profitable for aspirants in this field. But it all depends upon one’s academic background along with working experience in taxation, jobs can be found anywhere in the world. Opportunities increase with the increase in experience in performing complex tax audits. There are both kinds of jobs; aggressive taxation jobs such as lawyers and criminal or defence attorneys and laid back jobs such as filing tax returns for corporations, the range is wide in this field. Any interested individual can join an organisation as Tax Accountant, Employment Tax Specialists, State Local Tax Attorney specialists, Revenue Agents etc or can work independently as a consultant. The primary role of a tax consultant is to advice clients on how to go about filing their taxes to government, which also involves complete support and assistance to their clients in their fundamental tax planning.
Income Revenue Service officers (IRS) is another job prospect which deals with the collection, administration and policy formation of direct (income, corporate, wealth, etc) and indirect (central excise, service tax and customs duty). IRS officers start with the normal post of Assistant Commissioner, and rise up to the level of Chief Commissioner, with the senior most ones reaching the post of member/chairperson of CBDT and equivalent institutions. Working for the Income Tax department means that an individual is a part of a tax –collection process that is the fulcrum of the country’s most vital programmes.
If I choose tax consultant as my career then I want to know what the job profile will be like.
Ans. Career in taxation is a very critical job but with it comes lot of incentives. A career in this profile invites you to be a progressive, innovative team member of a high-quality, professional organisation. Tax consultants are those experts who are well aware of the different forms of taxes and use their knowledge in order to advice people of companies about tax returns. Giving suggestions and handy advice on how to deal with various aspects of dealing with taxes is a job of a tax consultant. To opt for a tax consultant job profile you have to undergo the taxation related courses that are there and should also gain some work experience in the field of taxation, then only you can achieve your goal. To sum it all up, we can say that the main goal of any tax consultant should be to make maximum use of all the knowledge and technical skills for the betterment of the client/company they are employed in.
What is the salary package that I can expect from a profession of tax consultancy?
Tax consultancy is a well paid job or you can say is very lucrative. It also offers great rewards. Remuneration in the field of taxation varies from one organisation to the other. However, the minimum salary that can be earned as a beginner is somewhere around Rs. 3,00,000/- p.a. to 5,00,000/- p.a. But again there is an increment but that again depends on the experience and the educational qualifications that one has.
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Source: Jobsnews