How much do you work when it’s not tax season? I agree 50/week for busy season is not that high, comparatively.

Re: Big 4 is so much more stressful/you see more.

PP here who is now an assistant controller. I am in audit and worked at a large national firm and a small local firm (about 25ppl). I have also been audited by one of the big 4.

My opinion - you get the best experience at a large national or large local firm (office of 100+). I had bigger clients at my second firm but not that much difference in work/life balance. I actually found the partners at the larger firm to be more organized and there were way less ‘fires’. Did they exist? Yes. But, at my smaller firm, we were always behind. ALWAYS.
I jumped to the larger firm when I was a senior and increased my salary by 40%. My stress levels increased a little, but not by much.

As for the ‘you see so much more with Big 4’. Could be true, could not be true. I had a large team from the big 4 auditing us at my position. I would have hired one of them out of eight. I was blown away with what they 3rd year senior and 2nd year staff did not know. Big 4 is pushing a lot of prep work to India, which means the staff levels do not get exposure to stuff, which they were not seeing the whole process before either.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a CPA at a small firm but have been in the business a long time (40+ years) and make over 500k.

How long do you plan on working?

Money is so good, but trying to get out now. I'm nearly 70.

Curious how you’re getting out. I’m the owner of a small firm, sometimes think of acquiring a small firm.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tax managers with about half your experience make your pay in Big 4. But that’s apples to oranges. You’re at a small firm and the trajectories at places like that (as you’re learning) are atrocious. The work is not the same, the clients are not the same, the revenue to the firm is not the same. So while you might have more years of experience, you haven’t been exposed to nearly the same variety of work. That’s why your pay is much lower. One of the reasons people stick with Big 4 is because upward mobility is often a lot slower in the real world, but I digress.

I’ll break with the rest of the thread and go out on a limb. I’m not so sure you’re underpaid.

Tax managers are putting in a lot more than 50 hours a week during busy season. A whole lot.

I am PP. Quite true.

As an accountant I'd agree that posters in DCUM have relatively inflated salaries from the norm and are in no way the norm for many in the area. A small tax firm doesn't have as many high profile clients that can pay inflated fees. I'm an accountant and the tax managers I know work at least 70 hours minimum a week during business season. More like 80.

If your making $100k in a small firm, I'd say that's within the average. You could either work for yourself to try and gain a wider clientele of income or try for a position at a big accounting firm.

As I've told others if you want to make a lot of money and work regular hours with no overtime, accounting is not the profession.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tax managers with about half your experience make your pay in Big 4. But that’s apples to oranges. You’re at a small firm and the trajectories at places like that (as you’re learning) are atrocious. The work is not the same, the clients are not the same, the revenue to the firm is not the same. So while you might have more years of experience, you haven’t been exposed to nearly the same variety of work. That’s why your pay is much lower. One of the reasons people stick with Big 4 is because upward mobility is often a lot slower in the real world, but I digress.

I’ll break with the rest of the thread and go out on a limb. I’m not so sure you’re underpaid.

Tax managers are putting in a lot more than 50 hours a week during busy season. A whole lot.

I am PP. Quite true.

You are paid just fine for working at a small CPA firm. I also work at a small CPA firm and that sounds about right to me and in fact, with a 10-15% bonus sounds pretty good. Everyone here is just comparing to other CPA jobs that just aren’t comparable. Of course you can go somewhere else and make more but if you went to another small firm, I don’t think you would see much of a difference. Even though you work 50 hours in tax season, I guarantee you would work more at a national firm. I have to think your quality of life is better than others in public accounting jobs. If you go
private though, there you could get paid more and have a good quality of life if you land at the right place.
Signed: someone who also works at a small firm (less than 10 people).

Anonymous wrote:Tax managers with about half your experience make your pay in Big 4. But that’s apples to oranges. You’re at a small firm and the trajectories at places like that (as you’re learning) are atrocious. The work is not the same, the clients are not the same, the revenue to the firm is not the same. So while you might have more years of experience, you haven’t been exposed to nearly the same variety of work. That’s why your pay is much lower. One of the reasons people stick with Big 4 is because upward mobility is often a lot slower in the real world, but I digress.

I’ll break with the rest of the thread and go out on a limb. I’m not so sure you’re underpaid.

Tax managers are putting in a lot more than 50 hours a week during busy season. A whole lot.

Tax managers with about half your experience make your pay in Big 4. But that’s apples to oranges. You’re at a small firm and the trajectories at places like that (as you’re learning) are atrocious. The work is not the same, the clients are not the same, the revenue to the firm is not the same. So while you might have more years of experience, you haven’t been exposed to nearly the same variety of work. That’s why your pay is much lower. One of the reasons people stick with Big 4 is because upward mobility is often a lot slower in the real world, but I digress.

I’ll break with the rest of the thread and go out on a limb. I’m not so sure you’re underpaid.

Anonymous wrote:I’d be wary of responses to your question. You’re on DCUM where salaries are inflated and not the norm.

NP and I was thinking the same thing! You gotta be in top 10% to be making the similar income of what the DCUMers are stating. I am also in accounting and while I agree that it is possible to make high six figure income with accounting degree, this is not the norm. Most of the folks I know cap out between 100k-150k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not making 100k as I'm only a first year associate but am making 60k in a large accounting firm. I'm expecting myself to make at least 200k by the time I'm 10 years experienced. Yes, it seems like you are underpaid.

Keep dreaming

+1.

200k no way at 10 years. 150k - possible.

It's possible if they become a tax director or an independent consultant. I enjoy working as an independent consultant because if I work 60 hours a week during the busy season, at least I'm being paid for every hour I worked.

The odds of hitting tax director at the 10 yr mark is low at a large firm. There is going to be a lot of luck that there is an opening and no one else to fill it.


Independent consultant - more probable but I think it would be close. You would have to put in a lot of hours to during tax season to make up for slower periods during the summer (I am thinking to net 200k, not gross).

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not making 100k as I'm only a first year associate but am making 60k in a large accounting firm. I'm expecting myself to make at least 200k by the time I'm 10 years experienced. Yes, it seems like you are underpaid.

Keep dreaming

+1.

200k no way at 10 years. 150k - possible.

It's possible if they become a tax director or an independent consultant. I enjoy working as an independent consultant because if I work 60 hours a week during the busy season, at least I'm being paid for every hour I worked.

I’d be wary of responses to your question. You’re on DCUM where salaries are inflated and not the norm.

I work part-time (about 1,000 hours a year) and set my own hours. I make $135,000 a year with 2 weeks vacation and the standard holidays. It may be on the low side but I value the flexibility.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a CPA at a small firm but have been in the business a long time (40+ years) and make over 500k.

How long do you plan on working?

Money is so good, but trying to get out now. I'm nearly 70.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not making 100k as I'm only a first year associate but am making 60k in a large accounting firm. I'm expecting myself to make at least 200k by the time I'm 10 years experienced. Yes, it seems like you are underpaid.

Keep dreaming

+1.

200k no way at 10 years. 150k - possible.