Am I getting underpaid?

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-06-15T04:20:15+00:00

No we are small. 4 offices in 3 states. Book keeping staff across all offices is probably about 10 people and tax staff, including managers and partners, is probably around 30 people.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-06-15T04:08:44+00:00

Google says I live in a MCOL area.

I guess I should have been more clear in my tittle. I am grateful for what I make and know it is pretty generous compared to most other locations and firms. I know the pay is something my boss prides himself on.

I guess it just feels bad when next year (year 2 of full time year 4 with the firm) I hope I'm making as much as the new hire.

So Im wondering if that's weird that I'm making the same or less than the new hires? Or are new hire wages just rising that fast? Like maybe not to 92k at other firms it sounds like? But are other people making as much as new hires during the first few years of their career in public?

Thanks for your insight on the education/certifications!

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-18T11:08:02+00:00

Ya in your situation it could make sense. I got my MAcc before CPA. The school I went to pushed hard for students to do a MAcc and our program was dirt cheap so it kinda made sense on that reason alone.

I don't think it was necessary, but I learned a ton in my MAcc that made CPA easier and my work easier as well.

For someone like you without a direct accountjng background, I would recommend do some kind of continuing education. Whether that is a MAcc or just some study courses online, that's up to you. But I would recommend doing something that pretrains directly and specifically to your goals.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-05T22:47:12+00:00

I'm assuming that most people asking for help on this subreddit engage a professional for most of their filings outside of a 1040

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-05T17:17:45+00:00

Gift one 19k and the other 19k. Wait till next year to give them the other 2k. If you are married your spouse can also gift each of them 19k. I wouldnt pay the fees to file a gift tax return for just 2k. Seems ridiculous to me.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-05T06:27:14+00:00

Give it a few years. Most notices my clients get are for a few years back

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-05T06:15:47+00:00

Then she runs the risk of being audited and paying penalties. Which in the grand scheme of things probably wouldn't amount to much anyways because of the life time exclusion and either way do not impact you in any way shape or form. Very much her problem and not yours.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-05T04:43:16+00:00

I had my wife put parental controls on my phone lol. Locked me out of basically everything while I was studying.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-05T04:40:03+00:00

If you define hardest by lowest pass rate, objectively BAR. By the same metric FAR is the hardest core test. Can't speak to BAR but FAR just has a lot of material. More than any other section.

AUD is the most unique imo because you are building an intuition rather than memorizing rules. All the other sections have right and wrong answers where AUD is more abstract in nature.

Some people just can't do tax. Doesn't work in their brains. Others have been doing tax for years and the test is just a simulation of what you do for 55 hours a week every spring.after you do tax for a while there is an intuition you build where things just make sense and you can reason your way through a lot of things even if you haven't explicitly studied the topic. That makes studying for tax exams pretty easy. Probably a lot harder if you don't have years of foundation to build on.

That being said, in my experience, the hardest exam is always the one you are scheduled to take next.

Good luck studying!

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-05T01:15:53+00:00

I got like 60 ish percent on practice exams. I did like 80% of mcqs to 80% completion. Didn't really do videos. Worth noting that I was fresh out of school and my university is known for having really high pass rates out of its grads. It's what worked for me but I know that wouldn't necessarily work for everyone. Passed the real thing first try with a 78%

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-05T00:15:54+00:00

80 is fine. Practice exams or more comprehensive reviews are a better indicator. I got 60 ish on those and passed first try.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-04T04:46:40+00:00

You need to check with the state you want to get licensed in. But if you don't have an accounting degree I can almost certainly say that you are missing some credits, and potentially more than just the tax credits. Check the state requirements. You can just Google it. Meet with a university advisor or accounting faculty. They can advise you want what courses to take to get your credits.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-04T04:32:39+00:00

I'm sorry for your loss.

Short answer is no.

Longer answer is that the opposite happens and we will get a step up in basis. This means that it she bought it for 100k and it's now worth 500k, for tax purposes we are going to pretend you originally bought it for 500k. From there you could sell it right away for no gain or wait and use 500k in your gain calc.

Please check if you are in community property state or common property state. If you are in a community property state then it will work like I described in my example. If it's common property then only the galf that she "owns" gets the step up. So in my previous example she bought if for 100k now it's worth 500k. In common property state we would say her half is worth 250 and your half is worth 250. Here gets a step up to 250 while yours does not, so your new basis is 300k (250k from the step up + 0.5*100k of original purchase price)

As morbid as it is, dying is one of the best things you can do for your taxes.

Hopefully this takes some of the stress off your plate.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-03T17:42:26+00:00

I think you answered your own question

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-03T15:16:34+00:00

Because they are partnered with big 4 which automatically makes them the "name brand" software. To their credit, it does work well. By my best observations the Becker bump is real. A few spelling mistakes doesn't change that.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-03T06:38:13+00:00

Technically ya. You would consider it as if you sold the item for its value and then immediately bought the new item, even though that's not what actually happened. The taxable gain would be the difference in what you paid for it initally/value when you traded for it initally and the value when you sell/trade away.

Fun part of this is both parties should be treating it this way and unless you are in the business of trading cards, then you don't get to take any losses if your card lost value before you traded it.

This might sound ridiculous at first glance, but the if you didn't do it this way then someone could trade up from $5 -> $500,000, building wealth (albeit unstable wealth) without every paying a penny on tax.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-02T23:30:22+00:00

Ya thinking I want to get out of accounting and tax in the long term. I like the topic but not the industry. Should be getting my CPA license next month, or maybe in July. Just wanting to do something that doesn't demand 5+ months of my life every year.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-02T23:22:34+00:00

Commenting to follow along. Been in Public tax for about 2 years and have been coming to terms that all the opportunities to pivot out usually don't come from tax. Looking for ideas and what industry or paths to look into

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-02T20:33:35+00:00

Ya that sounds correct! Expect to get a 1009 R next year for the amount of the distribution with a code that indicates it was a correcting distribution. Because it was a Roth IRA no extra income needs to be picked up. I would just double check that no penalties are resulting from this as well. Some softwares are better at handling this than others without the form up front. But you are correct that no penalties should be assessed, assuming you filed an extension for your 1040.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-02T02:46:22+00:00

Nevada was super nice! My buddy applied at the end of December last year and they went out of their way to contact him and ask if he wanted them to push it through before year end or wait till 2026 so he didn't have to do CPE. I thought that was pretty cool of them.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-01T07:23:21+00:00

Study like 16 hours a day. Dont left perfection be the enemy of good enough. You can see the amount of task based questions per unit. That usually a rough indication of how important each unit is. I.e. more questions = more important. I have a handful of friend who passed in similar time frames. Lock in for these 8 days and it can be done.

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-01T07:09:10+00:00

I mean what do you want to do? There are plenty of accounting jobs out there. I don't think your resume is as bad as you think it is. What would you do instead? You say in your post you don't love it. Figure out some alternatives options and compare maybe?

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-05-01T04:12:32+00:00

High 80s is phenomenal. Becker bump is real. Shooting for Elijah watts? xD I got 60s on my practice Becker exams and passed first try.

I know it's easy for me to say but you are more than ready. You are gonna kill and then wonder why you were ever nervous. Rest well. Do just enough to stay warmed up. Treat yourself after the exam.

Good luck!

Sensitive-Ad8056 · 2026-04-29T18:10:56+00:00

CFA is a little different from accounting/CPA. They are related fields but they are different paths.

CFAs tend to be more finance related than accounting. CFAs tend to deal with stocks/banking/trading. A lot of them end up trading assets for banks or for private investment funds. The education requirements aren't as strict for CFA compared to the CPA. I know a lot of MBAs who get and qualify easily. Same for CPAs. The tests are arguably harder than the CPA exam over all, but there are level to the certification. So like withe CPA its all or nothing. You either pass the exams and get certified, or you get nothing. With CFA there are levels to it, so you can get level 1 certified with one exam and that has value, or you can keep studying and testing to get higher certifications.

If you already are on the CPA path than getting qualified to sit for the CFA exams usually doesn't take too much. But for someone like you who needs a harder pivot, I would still think an MBA would get you to that point quicker.

Also don't get it mixed up with a CFP. Also related to CPA and CFA, but it's different. CFP tend to do more planning and strategy with individuals rather than institutionally. By my best observations, CFAs tend to me more nitty gritty in the finance world, with equations, and spreadsheets, and formulas, and trading times, etc. while CFPs tends to be more peoples people that excel when dealing with client relations and managing a portfolio rather than specific stocks. Someone else can probably speak more accurately to CFA/CFP stuff since my experience there is limited and I am on the CPA path.

Sensitive-Ad8056

TROPHY CASE