U.S. Tax Reviewer, Small Business Returns

Company Description

BenchTax is building an in-house U.S. tax preparation and review function focused on quality, turnaround time, customer experience, accountability, and cost control.

We are hiring experienced U.S. tax professionals to support small business customers across common filing types, including 1040, Schedule C, 1120, 1120-S, and 1065 returns.

These are not data-entry roles. We need tax professionals who can prepare or review returns accurately, identify when bookkeeping issues affect tax accuracy, communicate directly with customers, explain tax concepts in plain language, document work clearly, and move files forward without constant follow-up.

Candidates must have a valid IRS PTIN. CPA or Enrolled Agent designation is preferred. Experience with R&D credits and Form 6765 is strongly preferred.

Job Description

The U.S. Tax Reviewer reviews prepared tax returns for accuracy, completeness, customer readiness, filing risk, and alignment with the customer’s books and supporting documentation. This is a quality-control and customer-protection role, not a passive sign-off step.

The ideal candidate can identify material tax errors, catch bookkeeping inconsistencies, validate adjustments, review Form 6765/R&D credit items where applicable, communicate clearly with preparers, and support or conduct customer draft review conversations when needed. The reviewer owns follow-through until the return is corrected, customer-ready, approved, filed, or clearly reassigned.

Core Responsibilities

• Review prepared federal and applicable state returns before customer delivery or filing, including 1040, Schedule C, 1120, 1120-S, and 1065 returns.
• Confirm returns align with year-end financials, bookkeeping records, workpapers, prior-year context, and customer-provided documents.
• Identify material errors, inconsistencies, missing schedules, classification issues, unsupported positions, filing risks, and bookkeeping issues requiring correction before filing.
• Validate adjusting entries or request corrections before customer delivery or filing.
• Review returns involving R&D credits / Form 6765 where applicable, including reasonableness of inputs, documentation, and escalation needs.
• Provide clear, actionable feedback to preparers and ensure corrections are completed before a return is sent to the customer or filed.
• Conduct or support draft review calls when technical explanation is needed and explain review findings in plain language.
• Confirm customer approval is informed and filing authorization matches the correct return and year.
• Monitor returns in review, client approval, and filing stages so they do not stall; respond promptly to internal and customer-facing questions.
• Document review findings, decisions, assumptions, unresolved risks, and follow-up items clearly.
• Escalate advisory or complex technical issues to BenchTax Advisors only when necessary, and track repeat preparer issues to support quality improvement.
• With Power of Attorney, communicate with IRS agents in writing and on calls on behalf of the customer.
• Understand IRS notices and explain next steps to customers; offering first time abatement letters when appropriate.
• Prepare and file amendments.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Valid IRS PTIN.
• Significant U.S. tax preparation and/or review experience.
• Strong understanding of small business and entity-level tax issues.
• Ability to review 1040, Schedule C, 1120, 1120-S, and 1065 returns.
• Ability to identify material tax errors, bookkeeping inconsistencies, unsupported positions, and filing risks, and explain corrections clearly.
• Strong analytical skills, attention to detail, written/verbal communication, and remote-work discipline.
• Comfort speaking directly with customers by phone or video when needed and explaining technical tax issues to non-tax professionals.
• Strong computer skills and ability to work efficiently across multiple systems in a remote workflow.
• Independent ownership, responsiveness, and follow-through through correction, approval, and filing.
• Willingness to complete BenchTax’s written technical review assessment.

Preferred Qualifications

• CPA or Enrolled Agent designation strongly preferred.
• Big 4 Experience strongly preferred.
• Experience with R&D credits and Form 6765, including reviewing documentation/substantiation and identifying when specialist/advisor review is required.
• Experience reviewing returns for startups, software companies, engineering firms, product-development businesses, or other R&D-heavy clients.
• Prior experience as a senior preparer, reviewer, tax manager, or quality reviewer.
• Experience reviewing returns prepared by others in a high-volume tax operation.
• Experience with Drake Tax or similar professional tax software.
• Experience with remote workflows and tools such as Slack, Google Workspace, Salesforce, portals,

Shared Expectations

• Growth and development: coachable, receives and delivers feedback continuously and constructively; seeks opportunities to improve our processes and systems to increase efficiency and effectiveness.
• Customer communication: comfortable with phone/video calls, written messages, draft review calls, and plain-language explanations of tax outcomes.
• Ownership and follow-through: acknowledges assignments, provides status updates, documents blockers, follows through on commitments, and escalates before deadlines or customer experience are at risk.
• Prioritization: organized and works on competing priorities with a discerning mindset in a fast paced environment with little direction.
• Bookkeeping and adjustment awareness: understands that tax preparation depends on accurate books and recognizes when financial records do not support the return.
• Remote-work and computer skills: highly comfortable using tax software, customer portals, Slack or similar tools, Google Workspace, CRM/workflow systems, dashboards, shared trackers, and multiple browser-based systems.
• Quality and metrics: comfortable being measured on accuracy, avoidable rework, response time, turnaround time, SLA adherence, workpaper/note quality, customer impact, and ability to move work forward without unnecessary escalation.

Additional Information

• Must be based in the Manila area and available to work North American business hours (8 AM – 4 PM EST or PST)
• Must meet Bench’s minimum hardware and internet requirements for smooth communication and workflow