PWC + ESL = S.E. CPA

From mid-February through mid-April, for a couple weeks at the beginning of October, and throughout the rest of the year when I'm not traveling or painting or cooking, I'm in front of my laptop, corresponding with clients and completing U.S. Individual Income Tax Returns.  I'm a Certified Public Accountant and a Self-Employed business owner, providing some consistency to my life as I move from continent to continent.

If someone would have told me, back in 2004 when I left my job in the International Assignment Solutions Department of PricewaterhouseCoopers in Florham Park, New Jersey, that in a few years I'd open my own Tax Consulting Business, I probably would have laughed out loud.  It wasn't the numbers or the forms or the cyclical nature of working in the tax industry that bothered me; Corporate America just wasn't for me.  I was fed up with the monotonous workdays and the cubicles.  I had some great colleagues, but none of them seemed completely happy or satisfied with life.  I found myself constantly watching the clock or crossing off the days of a calendar until the weekend was here.

When I informed my boss that I was putting in my two-weeks' notice, he reluctantly accepted my Letter of Resignation and asked me where I was heading: to KPMG or Deloitte.  Needless to say, he was a bit perplexed when I told him that I was planning to move to Barcelona to get certified to teach English as Foreign Language.

But life has a way of twisting and turning in the most interesting ways.  I remember completing my own tax return in early April of 2007 in Kigali, Rwanda, halfway through my first overseas ESL teaching assignment.  Somewhere between Schedule C and Form 2555, I realized that I knew exactly what numbers went where, thanks to the countless hours I'd spent filling out these same forms as a PWC Tax Associate.  In the weeks leading up to April 15th, I watched as the Yahoo listserv for my organization at the time, the English Language Fellows Program, reeled with questions, concerns, and misinformation regarding all things income tax-related, as other EL Fellows attempted to figure out what they needed to do in order to fulfill their tax filing obligations.  An idea was born: why not help out these teachers, providing them with a service that could save them time, money, or grief with the IRS in the future?

The following year provided me with enough time to study diligently and pass the two remaining sections of the CPA exam.  (I'd passed the first two parts back in New Jersey, when my employer had generously paid for the materials, classes, and, perhaps the biggest draw: time outside of the office to study for the test.)  With the help of some fancy tax software, Skype, a good Internet connection, and some former PWC colleagues who are willing to answer tough tax-related questions as they come up in exchange for occasional email updates of me out and about in the world, hiking to see Mountain Gorillas in Rwanda or diving with the Great White Sharks in South Africa, I've been able to turn my idea into a fully functioning business endeavor.  And thankfully, there's no longer any need for me to wish away the weekdays.