How to become Tax Consultant in India?

Who is a Tax Consultant?

A financial expert with advanced training and knowledge of tax law.(Investopedia)

A tax advisor or tax consultant is a financial expert specially trained in tax law. Individuals usually require tax advisors to minimize taxation, to avoid learning the details of tax law in complicated financial situations themselves, or to learn the details of tax law from a professional advisor(wikipedia)

What are the qualifications required to become a Tax Consultant?

In India, most of the professionals acting as tax consultants are law graduates or persons having professional qualifications.

There are no prescribed qualifications to become a tax consultant/ advisor. Individuals with interpretation skills and expertise knowledge in Tax Laws can act as a Tax Consultant. Tax Laws are changing all the time so they should be up-to-date with recent Circulars, Notifications, Rules, etc… issued by the Department of Tax, Ministry of Finance, Tax laws of respective states. Further, they should study the recent case laws related to tax laws.

A tax consultant should be able to minimize the tax liability of his clients by tax planning (acting within the four corners of the act ie legally) . When compared with other professionals, a tax consultant can establish a long-term professional relationship with his clients.

Experience is an essential element to become a successful tax consultant. Individuals having working experience with professional like CS, ICWA, CS or any other tax consultants or professionals can easily flourish in the industry.

In a nutshell–:

• if you have qualifications like L.L.B, B.com, CA, CS, ICWA it will be beneficial(not mandatory)
• Should possess expertise knowledge
• Should possess interpretations skill
• Ability to structure the affairs of clients to minimize tax liability
• Experience will be a value addition!
• Should not follow false practices

Major roles of Tax consultants

• Computation of Income Tax
• Filing of Income Tax returns
• Financial Planning
• Computation of sales tax under state and central laws
• Filing of Sales Tax return
• Consultation  with regard to registration, applicability of various tax laws

In addition to these income tax department has launched Tax Return Preparer Scheme, to mould individuals interested in taxation and independence in work to became a Tax return preparer .Candidates between the age of twenty-one (21) and thirty-five (35) having a bachelor’s degree from a recognized university in any of the following subjects can became a TRP

• Law (LLB)
• Economics (B.A. / B.Sc.)
• Statistics (B.A. / B.Sc.)
• Mathematics (B.A. / B.Sc.)
• Commerce (B.Com.)
• Management/ Business Administration (BBA / BBM)

Know more about TRPS http://www.trpscheme.com/

Reference books for your Library

1. Direct Taxes Ready Reckoner with Tax Planning by Dr.Girish Ahuja and Dr.Ravi Gupta – Buy Online
2. Income Tax Law and Accounts 58^th edition (2017-18) by Dr. H.C.Mehrotra and Dr. S.P. Goyal – Get your copy Online

    

3. Income Tax Guidelines and Mini Ready Reckoner 2017-18, 2018-19 along with Tax Planning – See the reviews and Buy Online