Accountancy vs Tax

hey guys; in terms of career potential, employability, demand etc, which would be better? i'm stuck between choosing an AAT training couse (accountancy) and a ATT training course (tax).

'Tax adviser' sounds less common than 'chartered accountant' so maybe there is more demand for tax advisers? or maybe they are just not needed?

the big 4 firms (kpmg etc) have vacancies for trainee tax advisers but hardly any for AAT accountancy trainees.

i would appreciate any help/suggestions from others who have considered this field of employment or are currently involved in them.

i am not going to university but my A-level grades are quite good (BBCC).

thanks for any suggestions.

Reply 1

brabzzz

Depends what you want to go into. Assuming you're applying now, for 'now', it's a bit late in the recruitment calander...all the, er, 'good' positions are taken! ;-) Tax is typically one of those, if any, left at the end of the year. One of the KPMG tax guys i met last year applied halfway through summer after graduating...and was in the job by the end of summer. Other functions had stopped recruiting 8 months earlier!

That's not to say tax is bad in any way, just the perceived dullness of it (even more so than accounting!) puts many people off. I hear it's actually pretty interesting and that tax peeps earn on average more than 'plain' accountants early on.

Dunno whether you're after grad or a-level entry, but either way you want to be picking based on what you want to do (obviosuly!). Not matter how great a job is, if you don't like it, you'll leave well before it 'gets good' in terms of money and responsibility. Both pay well if you last!

There's a 'thing' over in the states as a lot of tax work is being outsourced abroad (india etc), like IT management. Nothing saying it can't happen here, or even to plain accountants - pick based on what you want to do. That's a more important factor.

EDIT: ahhh, just noticed you're after a-level entry. make of my reply what you will then! :tongue:

I'd go for the tax as you get more 'qualifications' sooner if i remember rightly...meaning more money. You might also want to look into smaller 'local' forms - more responsibility earlier as you're closer to the clients than you would be in a big-4, behing layers of 'management'.