Senior US Tax Preparer (UltraTax) - Full-Time

ABOUT WHYTE CPA P.C.

We're a virtual CPA firm in Gilbert, Arizona serving about 60 monthly clients. Our niche is S-corporation owners and real estate investors. Small firm, lean operation, high standards on the work that goes out the door.

The owner does all final review and signs every return. He's not trying to hand that off right now — he's trying to stop spending it on cleanup. Right now too much review time goes to fixing prep that should have come in clean. This role exists to fix that. We need a senior preparer whose work product is clean, complete, and well-reasoned enough that the owner's review is fast confirmation, not rework.

If you're the kind of preparer who hands up tidy workpapers, flags your own open questions before anyone asks, and never guesses when you could check — read on.


WHAT YOU'LL ACTUALLY DO

This is a year-round, full-time, prep-first role.

COMPLEX RETURN PREPARATION. Federal and state returns: heavy on 1040s with K-1s, 1120Ss, partnerships, and 1041s. Most returns include K-1s (most prepared by us), Schedule E with rentals, brokerage statements, and frequently a Schedule C or Schedule E pg 1. These are not generic 1040s. You prepare the returns that require senior-level judgment — S-corp basis, Section 199A, depreciation, multistate — from source documents through clean, review-ready work product.

QUARTERLY TAX PLANNING PREP. Using UltraTax's tax planner and annualized financials, you build the projection, identify planning opportunities, and flag unreasonable assumptions for the owner's review.

IRS AND STATE NOTICE WORK (LATER). Low volume, a few a month. You won't own this on day one — but as you settle in, routine notices (math errors, balance due, missing forms) become work you draft and handle, with the owner reviewing and signing.

WHAT THIS ROLE DOES NOT INCLUDE: bookkeeping (a teammate owns that), and final review/sign-off (the owner does that for now).

A NOTE ON GROWTH. This is a prep-first role and we're hiring you to be excellent at prep. If you're ambitious and want to grow toward review work over time, there's genuinely room for that here. If you'd rather be the strongest preparer on the team and settle in for the long haul, that's just as welcome. No pressure either direction — tell us honestly where you sit.


WHO YOU ARE

You have 5+ years of US tax experience, with the bulk of it in hands-on preparation of complex returns — not bookkeeping, not entry-level data entry. Be ready to talk concretely about the returns you've prepared.

You know S-corp work concretely: basis tracking, Section 199A computation, reasonable comp analysis, distributions vs. wages. Partnership and 1041 experience is a strong plus.

You have hands-on experience with UltraTax CS, CCH Axcess, Lacerte, or ProConnect.

You write in clear, professional English (C1 or higher). Your workpapers and planning memos need to be readable by a reviewer in one pass, and any client-facing notes need to land cleanly.

You are detail-oriented and self-policing. When you don't know something, you say so and look it up rather than guessing. You flag your own uncertainty before someone has to ask. Your workpapers are organized enough that someone else can follow your reasoning without a phone call.

You are comfortable with AI-augmented workflows. Our process uses Claude and TaxGPT alongside human judgment. Strong candidates are either already using AI tools in their work or genuinely curious to learn — we'll train you on ours. Candidates who view AI as a gimmick are not a fit.

You are self-directed in a remote-first environment. The owner travels for portions of the year and time zone overlap will shift accordingly. We need someone who runs their own queue with minimal oversight.

Real estate experience (rentals, short-term rentals, cost segregation, 1031 exchanges) is helpful but not required. We can teach the niche; we can't teach prep judgment.


SOFTWARE STACK

Required: UltraTax CS (preferred) or CCH Axcess, TaxDome, QuickBooks Online familiarity
Acceptable in place of UltraTax: Lacerte or ProConnect with willingness to learn UltraTax
Not acceptable: Drake-only experience
Used in workflow: Claude, TaxGPT, IRS Solutions, Excel, Adobe Acrobat Pro

If your tax software experience is Drake only, please don't apply. We're not the right fit.


COMPENSATION

Base salary: $3,000/month USD (paid twice monthly via Wise, on time, every time)
13th month: $3,000 paid in December, prorated for partial first year
Internet stipend: $50/month
Health allowance: $75/month
Total annual comp: ~$40,500 USD

Base may increase to $3,400/month for an exceptional candidate after the test process.

Hours: Full-time, salary (not hourly, no overtime). This role follows the tax calendar, and the rhythm matters more than the raw hours.

Filing season — roughly January 20 through April 15 — is the heavy stretch. Expect 50–55 hours with full Arizona overlap, and that time is focused return work. We pull back on admin, training, and process projects during the crunch so the prep gets done.

Outside season, a standard week is around 40 hours, but it's a different mix — return work alongside admin, process improvement, and your own professional development, at a more sustainable pace.

Summer is genuinely lighter. When the workload allows, we run reduced hours — often half-day Fridays, and during the slow stretch those shorter days don't require Arizona overlap at all. That's the firm's call based on what's in the queue, not a fixed schedule you can count on week to week. Light weeks don't cost you pay — you're salaried.

Two short periods — late summer and early October, for extensions — return to a focused 40 with normal Arizona overlap. We give advance notice so you can plan around them.

Time off:
- All standard PH public holidays observed and paid.
- A bank of 15 paid days/year (vacation + sick), yours to manage.
- One long weekend (Friday–Sunday) off during tax season, scheduled with two weeks' notice.
- Outside tax season, you manage your own time — take what you need from your bank, communicate, keep your work current. We don't micromanage the calendar.


HIRING PROCESS

1. Application — Submit per the instructions below. Generic applications are discarded immediately.
2. First screen — 30-minute video call with the owner.
3. Paid prep test — One real client (sanitized data), $400 USD, ~2–3 hours, due within 7 days. You build the judgment-heavy workpapers in Excel and write a short prep memo — no tax software required. We're testing your prep judgment, not your software speed.
4. Judgment interview — a 45–60 minute call discussing your test, plus 2–3 scenario questions.
5. Reference check — One reference from a recent supervisor or peer.
6. Offer

Total process: 2–3 weeks for serious candidates.


HOW TO APPLY

Send your application with the subject line: "Senior Preparer — [Your Full Name]"

Include the following. If your application doesn't follow this structure, we'll assume you didn't read the post. (Strong, clearly-qualified resumes may still get a follow-up — but answering these up front moves you faster.)

1. Experience summary (3–5 sentences): Your years in US tax, how much is hands-on complex preparation, the type of firm you've worked at, and the volume/type of returns you've prepared.

2. Tax software: Which of UltraTax CS, CCH Axcess, Lacerte, ProConnect have you used? For each, name the specific modules (1040, 1120S, 1065, 1041) and roughly how many returns you've prepared in each.

3. DISC scores (if available). If you haven't taken DISC, OnlineJobs.ph has a free 10-minute test — please take it before applying.

4. A complex return you prepared (a short paragraph): Name a specific judgment call — an S-corp basis or Section 199A position, a tricky depreciation or multistate issue — how you worked it, and how you made your work product clean enough to hand to a reviewer. We want one concrete example with real detail, not your whole résumé.

5. AI in your workflow (2–3 sentences): How do you currently use Claude, ChatGPT, or other AI tools in your tax work? If you don't currently use them, how would you approach learning a firm's AI-augmented process?

6. Availability: Earliest start date and any current employment that would need to transition. Confirm you can overlap 4–5 hours with Arizona business hours.

We're hiring for fit, not speed. Process moves quickly for serious applicants — but we'll wait for the right person.


WHAT THIS ROLE IS NOT

- Not bookkeeping — a teammate owns that
- Not the final reviewer (the owner reviews and signs for now)
- Not for someone learning US tax — you should already know it
- Not part-time or seasonal
- Not a stepping stone — we want someone who wants to settle in