Work-at-Home Job Company Profile: Intuit

Financial services and software

Based in Mountain View, CA, this financial software giant owns Quicken, QuickBooks, TurboTax, GoPayment, Mint.com and Intuit Healthcare Solutions. The company has 8,000 employees worldwide.

Intuit has a variety of remote positions in software engineering, sales, marketing and finance in the U.S. and Canada. Qualifications, salaries and requirements will vary widely. However, its work-at-home, online tax advisor jobs, which support its Turbotax product, are a new part of its operations with the release of TurboTax 2011 and are in the U.S.

These 500 to 1,000 tax advisor positions are for certified public accountants (CPA), enrolled agents (EA) and tax attorneys, who will support TurboTax products via phone, chat and email (with no required upselling) and provide written summaries of tax solutions to customers. Unlike a typical tax preparer job, these experts will give advice but won’t actually do tax preparation.

Full- and part-time, seasonal positions are available. Some seasonal agents are promoted to permanent managerial positions. During tax season expect 30 to 40 hours per week of work. The season begins with paid training, which consists of training sessions taking place from November to January, and the season ends in late April. A variety of established schedules that cover the hours of 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. Pacific Time, seven days a week are available. However flexibility to take extra work during peak hours may be required

Successful applicants for the online tax advisor must have active credentials as an enrolled agent or CPA and a preparer tax identification number (PTIN). Additionally tax advisors need a minimum of 5 years of experience preparing federal and state returns, extensive knowledge of tax laws, experience using tax preparation software, excellent verbal and written communication skills and the ability to work with minimal supervision and to research IRS and state publications, regulations, and GAAP publications. Bilingual ability and experience with electronic filing and software troubleshooting are considered a plus.

Advisors need a distraction-free space with a computer and phone and should be willing to commit to work 30 to 40 hours a week. Intuit has a made a point to promote these positions as military spouse jobs.

These tax advisor jobs are employment positions--not independent contractors--with benefits such as medical, dental, and 401K, as well as product discounts.

Intuit has not released the hourly salaries it will pay online tax advisors, but it says its agents who work the whole season can earn a bonus of $8,000. For context on the possible hourly wage, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average salary of a tax preparer is about $15.50 per hour. However, many tax preparers are not as experienced at Inuit’s tax advisors and are not enrolled agents or CPAs, as required by Intuit. On the other hand, work-at-home jobs sometimes pay less than their on-site counterparts.

Apply at Intuit jobs website. Use the keyword “remote” to find all the telecommuting jobs including the online tax advisor positions.