Gen Z is reviving this boring job that millennials and boomers abandoned—and it’s helping them land six-figure careers straight out of college

3 weeks ago 8

Preston Fore

Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 4:03 AM 5 min read

As millions of boomer accountants cogwheel up for retirement, the manufacture is facing a endowment shortage crisis. While it’s been lamented arsenic 1 of America's astir boring jobs and headed down a way of extinction, Gen Z is realizing the six-figure vocation opportunity—and gaining acquisition by helping individuals record their taxes for free.

The IRS is connected DOGE’s chopping block, the hold of taxation cuts is up successful the air, and Tax Day is approaching successful conscionable days—and accountants are truthful fed up with the accent that they’re leaving the manufacture successful droves.

Some 340,000 accountants person already near their calculators down and discontinue successful the past 5 years, and immoderate estimates suggest that 75% of those remaining are expected to discontinue successful the adjacent decade.

For a tract that is often judged arsenic little breathtaking than others (according to 1 study, it is the second-most-stereotyped occupation of boring people), the situation couldn’t get overmuch worse.

Now, Gen Z is coming to the rescue.

“Accounting is the subject of the concern world,” says Alana Kelley, a third-year accounting and biohealth subject large astatine Oregon State University who has helped dozens of families record their taxes this play arsenic portion of her school’s Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program.

One was a goat husbandman who lone had a landline, but nary entree to the internet. Another was a young pistillate who was financially supporting her sister. Kelley was capable to assistance them get a life-changing $6,000 backmost successful refunds. One of Kelley's peers, Tristan Klascius—a third-year studying accounting and finance—helped an aged pistillate summation entree to her much-needed Social Security income that she different couldn’t fig out.

Kelley and Klascius are conscionable 2 examples of the Gen Zers who are progressively viewing accounting not arsenic a monotonous chore but arsenic a mode to wholly alteration people’s lives.

Their actions are already helping prevention Americans millions of dollars done escaped taxation assistance done a concern with the IRS and adjacent to 2 twelve universities.

The IRS’s VITA programme began implicit 50 years agone astatine California State University, Northridge to assistance low-income and underserved communities successful navigating the progressively analyzable taxation system.

Last twelvemonth alone, an service of much than 280 CSUN students helped implicit 9,000 low-income taxpayers assertion astir $11 cardinal successful taxation refunds and $3.6 cardinal successful taxation credits—plus prevention them implicit $2 cardinal successful taxation mentation fees.

In the weeks starring up to Tax Day, immoderate students enactment from 10 successful the greeting until 10 astatine night, helping families recognize however overmuch wealth they could get refunded oregon beryllium back.