• Tax preparers are responsible for preparing the tax returns of individuals and businesses. Usually, the individual or the business will supply the tax preparer with the required paperwork, including income tax forms and financial statements, which the tax preparer will use to prepare the returns. To accomplish this, tax preparers must set a number of specific goals.
  
  

Follow Changes to Tax law

• Each year, the laws that affect federal taxes, as well as many state and city taxes, change. This means that the process by which a return is filled out, including the amount in taxes owed, will vary from year to year. A tax preparer must keep abreast of changes in the law, so as to make sure that he knows how to prepare taxes without error.
  
  

Identify Deductions

• Many clients will provide tax preparers with a number of receipts or invoices for various purchases. It is then up to the tax preparer to identify which of these expenses may qualify for a tax deduction. For example, if the client has purchased a computer that he uses primarily for work, the tax preparer may write this off as a business expense.
  
  

Calculate Payment

• When a tax preparer has identified the client's total income and all relevant deductions, he must then compute exactly how much the client owes in federal, state and city taxes. This is done by applying the current formula that each of these governments apply for the calculation of tax payments. The preparer will then inform his client if he must pay additional money, or if he can expect a refund.
  
  

Fill Out Necessary Forms

• The Internal Revenue Service, as well as local tax collection agencies, demands that those filing tax returns fill out a number of forms enumerating various forms of incomes and claimed credits and deductions. In many cases, an individual may end up submitting a dozen or more forms in a single year. It is the tax preparer's job to fill out these forms properly and, with his client's approval, submit them.
  
  

Detect Errors

• Good tax preparers will also act as fact checkers, checking the documents provided to them by their clients. Many of the documents that clients provide to their preparers may contain some math on them, such as those that tally up various forms of income. The tax preparer should double-check these figures, as errors can lead to audits, and ultimately the assessment of penalties.