Chartered Tax Professional Certificate Program

Your path to a high-paying professional career!

Becoming a Chartered Tax Professional (CTP) can significantly enhance your salary and your advancement potential as a tax professional.

Students can start working and earning money while completing coursework

After successfully completing the first two courses in the CTP® certificate program, (most students finish in just 10 weeks or less) you will be qualified to prepare individual tax returns for almost all U.S. taxpayers

While you apply what you’ve learned and earn money as a tax preparer, you continue your studies in advanced individual tax preparation which will enable you to serve clients with more complex tax situations and increase your earning potential. Next you learn to prepare returns for small business corporations and partnerships and more complex sole proprietorships. This opens up a new, more lucrative market for you while you continue to learn to help small businesses with more complex tax situations.

As you complete the six 10-lesson courses that comprise the CTP® program over the span of two tax seasons, you will accumulate the required 500 hours of experience as a tax professional to qualify for the prestigious Chartered Tax Professional designation.

There is a shortage of qualified tax preparers and, therefore, a great demand for seasonal tax preparers.

As long as you meet a tax firm’s employment criteria, with the tax knowledge you will gain from the initial courses, you should be able to easily get a job with a local tax preparation firm. Alternatively, you could become self-employed as a tax professional. Upon successful completion of the program, you will receive a certificate of completion from the college or university where you register, in addition to a very impressive CTP® certificate when you meet the final experience requirements. As a CTP® you will have the tax knowledge and experience to prepare for the IRS Enrolled Agent (EA) exam if you wish to add the coveted EA credential to your professional designation as a CTP®.

How will becoming a CTP® help your career?

Your image will be enhanced by becoming a Chartered Tax Professional

Your increased knowledge will enable you to prepare more complicated tax returns

You can increase your revenue, as you can charge higher fees for more complex tax returns

You will acquire the knowledge necessary to prepare for the EA exam and more

And if you're a Tax Business Owner, you can gain a competitive advantage in your market by having Chartered Tax Professionals on staff!

To help you become employed or self-employed as a tax professional, we provide a Tax Professional Career Center where you can find information about careers in tax preparation and valuable resources.

The Tax Career Center includes:

Links to various tax industry sites

Free articles on tax practice management

Online classified ad directories where you can post an ad for free to let tax business owners know of your availability to work as a tax preparer

You can also read help wanted ads posted by tax businesses seeking to hire tax professionals

If you are a CPA, CFP, attorney, or if you hold some other professional license, you may be able to satisfy some or all of your continuing education requirements through your coursework in the CTP® program. Income tax knowledge is also valuable to many professionals because financial decisions usually involve tax consequences for their clients. Providing tax preparation services is also a great way to diversify and recruit new financial services clients.

The CTP® certificate program is unique in that you will have the opportunity to earn money as a professional while you study, and to also internalize the knowledge by applying what you learn.

The best thing about being a tax professional may be that you have the opportunity to really help people to deal with the intimidating and stressful chore of preparing their taxes. Your clients will trust you with their personal and financial information and you have an obligation to maintain complete trust and confidentiality. Being a successful tax professional is less about numbers and more about people skills. It is very rewarding to help people who place their complete confidence in you and come back year-after-year because they trust you and respect your knowledge.

Tax preparation can be combined with various other professions and services such as small business accounting, insurance, paralegal, real estate and financial services to provide year-round employment or self-employment. Income tax crosses many professional disciplines.

An added bonus is that you will save money on your own taxes and tax preparation fees. The average U.S. taxpayer pays about one-third of his or her income in income taxes. Knowing how to minimize your personal tax bill can save you many times the cost of the CTP® program.

Learn more about the Chartered Tax Professional Certificate Program