Which Tax Firm Tasks Can a Non-CPA Assistant Handle?
A non-CPA assistant in a tax or accounting firm can run client intake, document collection, scanning and file naming, data entry from source documents, scheduling, billing and status updates. The CPA, EA or PTIN-holding preparer keeps return preparation, tax positions, advice to clients, review, signing and representation before the IRS.
What can a non-CPA assistant do in an accounting firm?
A non-CPA assistant in an accounting firm handles the administrative and clerical work around each engagement: client onboarding, engagement letters, document requests, data entry, calendar management, invoicing and follow-up. The assistant prepares the file so a credentialed accountant can make the decisions, review the work and sign.
Group the work by where it lives in your week. Owners who make one long list tend to delegate the easy items and keep the hours that actually hurt.
Client administration covers engagement letters from an approved template, e-signature follow-up, new client setup in practice management, and portal invites. Document work covers sending organizers, chasing missing forms, scanning, renaming and filing into the right client folder. Data work covers keying W-2s, 1099s and other source documents into tax software, entering bank and card activity in the bookkeeping file for write-up clients, and reconciling totals against the source. Front office work covers scheduling review meetings, answering status calls, sending invoices and payment links, and logging every client touch in the CRM or practice management notes.
If you want a calendar for when each of these tasks peaks, the tax season staffing plan lays out the months.
Where is the line between data entry and preparing a return?
The line between data entry and preparing a return is set by IRS PTIN rules. Anyone compensated for preparing, or assisting in preparing, all or substantially all of a federal return or refund claim needs a PTIN, even if someone else signs. Staff who only enter data and gather documents, and give no tax advice, are not considered preparers.
In practice, the line is about judgment. An assistant who types the amounts from a 1099-NEC into the right input screen is doing data entry. An assistant who decides that the income belongs on a different schedule, or that a client's home office qualifies, is making a tax decision. That decision belongs to a preparer.
Write the rule into the assistant's checklist in plain words: "If the source document does not tell you where an amount goes, stop and leave a note for the preparer." Edge cases then reach the preparer before review instead of during it.
Which tasks go to the assistant and which stay with credentialed staff?
Representation is the row owners most often get wrong. Annual Filing Season Program record holders can represent only clients whose returns they prepared and signed, and only before revenue agents, customer service representatives, similar IRS employees and the Taxpayer Advocate Service. PTIN holders without an AFSP record or other credential cannot represent clients for returns prepared and signed after December 31, 2015. An assistant with no credential stays out of IRS conversations entirely, apart from routine status checks the CPA or EA has authorized.
Which tasks should stay with the CPA or EA?
The CPA or EA should keep every task that requires professional judgment or a signature: choosing tax positions, answering tax treatment questions, reviewing and signing returns, advising on planning, and representing clients before the IRS. Those tasks are what clients pay a credentialed professional for, and the signer is responsible for the return no matter who keyed it.
Keeping these tasks also keeps the assistant's job clear. An assistant who is half preparer and half coordinator ends up doing neither well during the busy weeks. If the firm wants someone to grow into preparation, plan that as a separate step: a 2027 PTIN, AFSP coursework if the person wants the Record of Completion (18 hours of continuing education, including a 6-hour federal tax law refresher with a test), and a review period on simple returns.
How should a firm hand tasks to a new assistant?
A firm should hand tasks to a new assistant in order of risk, starting with checklist work and adding judgment-adjacent tasks only after the assistant has shown accuracy. Each task needs a written procedure, a named reviewer and a way to see the output. Delegating everything in week one usually means the owner redoes it in week three.
A delegation order that works for most small firms:
- Week 1: document naming and filing, organizer mailings, portal invites. The owner spot checks every file.
- Week 2: the missing-items list and client reminders, using approved message templates.
- Week 3: data entry on prior-year sample files, compared line by line with what the preparer entered last year.
- Week 4: live data entry with full review, and status calls with a written routing list.
For the client-facing side, the remote intake and document collection workflow has the stages and handoffs in more detail. If most of the work you want to hand off falls in January to April, what a virtual assistant does for a CPA firm covers the tools and setup.
What access does a non-CPA assistant need?
A non-CPA assistant needs access only to the systems their tasks touch: the client portal, practice management, the scanning folder, and data entry rights in tax software. List that access in the firm's Written Information Security Plan, which federal law requires of every tax and accounting practice.
Because the FTC Safeguards Rule counts tax preparation firms as financial institutions, the firm also needs a written program with physical, technical and administrative safeguards. For an assistant, that translates to a named login for every system, multifactor sign-in, no shared passwords, and access removed the day the person leaves. IRS Publication 5708 gives you a template to write the plan from.
If the assistant works from outside the United States and will see return information, Section 7216 consent rules add mandatory language to the client consent, and the offshore staff guide to 7216 consent and the WISP walks through it.
What does a non-CPA assistant cost compared with a preparer?
BLS data for May 2025 puts median pay at $50,670 a year for bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks, and at $54,920 for tax preparers. Those medians help you price the in-house version of the role. The bigger number is the preparer and partner time the assistant frees up, which you can estimate from last season's records.
Pull a hypothetical week from last March. If two preparers each spent a day of that week on scanning, reminders and status calls, that is two preparer days the firm paid for and could not bill. That is the block of hours to hire a pre-vetted assistant for your firm to take over.
How Remote Latinos can help
Take the task table above to your first call with Remote Latinos. In 30 minutes we mark which rows you want off your preparers' plates, which software the assistant will use and the hours you need, and then we screen Latin American candidates on exactly that list. You interview the finalists and choose. Review the financial assistant role or hire a non-CPA assistant screened against that task list.
This article is general information, not legal or tax advice. Confirm the rules for your situation with a qualified advisor.
Frequently asked questions
Can a non-CPA assistant enter data into tax software?
Yes. IRS guidance says staff who only enter data and gather documents, without giving tax advice, are not considered tax return preparers. The entries still go through review by the preparer who owns the return, and the assistant should not choose how an item is treated.
Can an assistant answer client questions at a tax firm?
An assistant can answer questions about status, deadlines set by the firm, missing documents and invoices. Questions about how something is taxed, whether an expense is deductible or which filing option is better go to a CPA, EA or credentialed preparer. A short written list of what the assistant answers and what gets routed prevents most problems.
When does a tax firm assistant need a PTIN?
A PTIN is required for anyone compensated for preparing, or assisting in preparing, all or substantially all of a federal return or refund claim, even if another person signs. If the assistant's role grows from data entry into preparing returns, the assistant needs a PTIN before doing that work. The fee is $18.75.
What should a tax firm delegate first to a new assistant?
Start with work that has a clear checklist and low judgment: scanning and naming documents, sending organizers and portal invites, and keeping the missing-items list. Add data entry once the assistant has learned the firm's software on sample files, and add client calls after they know the routing rules.
Sources
- IRS: Frequently asked questions, Do I need a PTIN?
- IRS: PTIN requirements for tax return preparers
- IRS: Annual Filing Season Program
- IRS news release IR-2026-92: Written Information Security Plan
- FTC: FTC Safeguards Rule, What Your Business Needs to Know
- Rev. Proc. 2013-14, Internal Revenue Bulletin 2013-3
- BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook: Bookkeeping, accounting and auditing clerks
- BLS OEWS: Tax preparers
