How much can I make preparing taxes?

[Bostonian In MO]

If you are just learning now, do yourself a serious favor and work for someone else for at least two years before striking out on your own. Three to four years would be better. You might be "book smart" but that is only a license to learn; you are in no way prepared to do tax returns for a broad spectrum of clients yet.

You will run into situations that you will not be familiar with and have no experience with, virtually from day one. You will need the advice and counsel of a seasoned professional to become comfortable with handling those situations. It takes experience to develop the judgment and acumen to solve complex tax problems.

Expecting 300 to 500 clients in your first year is utterly outlandish. Even if you do, you'll be in so far over your head that your failure is virtually assured. There are experienced CPAs and EAs who have fewer clients and make a ton of money with them but they focus on high-end clientele with complex tax matters. You might be able to attract 300 simple customers -- single W-2, standard deduction, no dependents -- that you can get $50 a whack from but by the time that you shell out $2,000 for professional software and another $2,000 for computers, a firewall, and secure storage, you'll be lucky to net $10,000.

Business clientele are going to expect you to be able to guide them in handling more than just their tax matters. They will need assistance with bookkeeping and basic to moderately complex accounting matters. You don't need to be a CPA to handle that necessarily but if you don't have experience in such matters and are unfamiliar with accounting standards, you'll be bleeding customers faster than you can attract new ones. And if you get a rep for being eager but less than competent, you won't be able to give away your services for free.