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Accounting Profession Occupational Outlook
Source: The 2002-03 Occupational Outlook Handbook (BLS)

Tax & Revenue Agents

Key Points

• Tax examiners, collectors, and revenue agents work for Federal, State, and local governments.
• Long hours may be required during income tax season, from January to April.
• A bachelor’s degree in accounting is becoming the standard source of training for tax examiners, although some prospective workers may be able to enter the occupation with only a high school diploma and a few months of general work experience.
• Employment is expected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations.

Job Outlook

Employment of tax examiners, collectors, and revenue agents is projected to grow more slowly than the average for all occupations between 2000 and 2010. Opportunities at the Federal level will arise from the relaxing of budget constraints imposed on the IRS, the primary employer of these workers. Also, labor force growth during the 2000-10 projection period will mean more taxpayers—and therefore, more tax returns. Dampening these effects, however, is a decrease in the proportion of tax returns selected for audit and collection. As taxpayers increasingly file their tax returns electronically, computers can examine a larger number of returns. Because much of the work done by IRS tax examiners and revenue agents is now computerized, productivity has increased, leading to smaller employment gains.