What is the Difference Between Tax Advisor and an Accountant?
An accountant and a tax advisor both serve specific financial requirements and they are certainly not the same. You need to choose one of them based on your financial requirements. Each of them has different roles to play to ensure an efficient personal and corporate financial management. In order to make the selection, you must know the basic differences between them in their area of work. In this article we will be discussing about the difference between them in detail so that the selection becomes easier for you.
What role does an accountant play?
The role of an accountant is considered as one of the most diverse roles in the finance industry. They should have the ability to give suggestions on various topics in this field and stay updated about the same. There are different types of specialist accountants and their roles are generally associated with the following
- Giving advice to companies regarding accounting process
- Making profit and loss statement for a company
- Guiding companies in producing company budget and cost saving measures
- Setting up accounting process for new companies
- Analyzing business performance and budget etc
- Tax preparation service in Mississauga or tax preparation in Etobicoke
Accountants hold the ability to perform tasks ranging from daily bookkeeping services to acting as a virtual finance director for a company. They need to show their skills and efficiency in broad and common areas of tax advice but it is counted as one of the areas that they must cover. So it is quite evident that their knowledge of tax can never be able to beat the in depth knowledge of a tax specialist.
What role does a tax advisor play?
Tax specialists usually take their first step in their career as accountants but eventually they move forward to develop specialized skills in taxation, gaining professional tax qualification. They go through a specialist training in the field of personal business and corporate taxation along with a thorough knowledge of VAT on both domestic and overseas transaction.
This level of specialization particularly suits with those who are looking for more complex tax advice for personal or more complicated business structures. Tax laws cover a huge and complex area and it is almost impossible for an accountant to have such an in depth knowledge on tax.
Should you go for an accountant or a tax advisor?
The answer is completely dependent on the type of financial assistance you are looking for. If you are an owner of a startup company, you are recommended to stick to accountants as they can help you with almost every financial aspects of your business along with tax planning and compliance advice that are mostly required at this level. however, in case your tax affairs are complicated then a tax advisor will be more helpful for you in this regard as a tax advisor can better guide you to create higher level of tax savings and compliance.
Selecting a firm that offers both the services of accountants and tax advisors is a smart choice for some people as they can have the access to both the areas of specialism under the same roof.
