SS – St. Joesphs University
During my summer internship, I was able to get practical experience with a great variety of accounting and business projects. This opportunity allowed me to work with individuals from different backgrounds with distinct areas of expertise. I was often surprised to see the types of engagements that arose as the members of D&S met client needs. This enlightened me to the fact that accountants take on a number of diverse roles throughout the business world.
One of the projects that I was able to work on was the accounting for an estate. Firstly, I had no idea that this was something required by law that must be completed within a certain time period of an individual’s death. I was also unaware of the fact that the accounting can be quite difficult and must be executed in a very detailed and specific manner. The client had made sincere attempts to account for everything that had flowed in and out of the estate, but the commissioner was unable to accept the accountings that had been submitted. Even though the estate was not very complex there were many more transactions to be accounted for than I had anticipated. Detail had to be provided for the sale of all estate assets and the subsequent distribution of these funds to the estate heirs. All debts of the estate had to be paid, and these payments needed to be properly documented and presented. This process became more complicated as the heirs paid bills on behalf of the estate and each other.
I was able to rely on the members of D&S and the reviewer I was working with to guide me through this situation. Corroborating evidence or substantiation had to be gathered for each transaction in order to prove the events took place. In the end there were hundreds of pages of sales, transfers, and payments. I learned the importance of detail as the commissioner eventually challenged transactions down to the penny.
Taking on a full-time position as a tax accountant with little background in the field seemed like it could raise some challenges, and it did. By the end of the summer I had completed tax returns for corporations, partnerships, individuals, estates, and trusts. I was also able to learn a lot on the topic of amended returns as I prepared them for different types of taxpayers. Because of the fact that I had no tangible experience in tax, everything I encountered was new and I ended up learning much more than I thought I ever could in three and a half months.
I expected to learn about taxation and the business environment this summer, but I had no idea how far-reaching the scope of my position would be. I was able to file the forms necessary to register, maintain, and dissolve different types of entities in a variety of states and localities. Working with a reviewer, I prepared monthly and year-end accounting for a large trust. This was a task I did not think I would get to work on since I had taken a position doing “taxes”. I was also able to expand my research skills as a course on this topic was offered by one of the partners for the betterment of the staff. The education and skills I received, at D&S, will surely help me in school, and I can draw on the whole experience to help me determine what professional atmosphere I most want to be in.
CP – St. Joesphs University
1. Why did you choose to pursue an internship at Drucker & Scaccetti?
One of the main reasons why I chose to pursue an internship at Drucker & Scaccetti was because I loved the environment of the office. Because the firm is smaller than some other firms, everyone knows you, and makes an effort to give you assignments. After interning here, I cannot imagine working at a much larger firm where you usually would only work with the same general group of people. Similarly, because D&S is smaller, each employee has the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects. As an intern, I was always doing different types of projects, and that variety made every day different and helped me learn so much more than I thought I would.
2. What was your most interesting assignment?
My most interesting assignment involved both legal and tax issues related to a certain client. I was first asked to go through various documents to determine what percentages each family member held in the different trusts and partnerships. I then prepared flowcharts and spreadsheets that presented all this information in an easy-to-read format. Because I became so familiar with the client, I was then asked to prepare the individual return for one of the family members.
This project originally dealt with more of the legal issues relating to trusts, but once I started preparing the return, I was able to see how those issues turned into tax issues as well. I felt as though I could prepare the return better because I actually understood the various issues that related to the client.
3. What was the biggest challenge you faced during your internship?
One of the biggest challenges that I faced was learning how to adapt to the different ways that each employee completed an assignment. Because I did not have a specific person to report to, I received assignments from everyone. Since each person had his/her own way of completing certain tasks, I sometimes found it difficult to keep track of the different methods. Despite this difficulty, I feel as if I learned just as much by interacting with so many different people than by completing the actual assignments.
4. What was unique about your internship experience at D&S?
I think that the fact that I did not have one specific person to report to really sets D&S apart from other internships. Because the firm is smaller, I was able to work with almost everyone – associates and shareholders – throughout my internship. In addition to learning new accounting / tax issues every day, I was constantly learning how to work with different personalities and how to adapt to different working styles. For me personally, that variety is one of the main reasons why I enjoyed my internship so much.
5. What surprised you most about your internship experience?
What surprised me most about my internship was that I always felt as if I was doing work that was meaningful and important. Coming into the internship, I had very little tax experience and no tax classes at school. After three months, I was amazed at how much I learned and how many different projects I had been assigned. I was never bored because I was constantly learning something new, or being assigned a project I had never done before. Although I did a lot of tax work, I also did a lot of traditional accounting work, which helped me to see the differences between the two and also how they relate to each other. I really believe that I would not have been exposed to such a variety of work at another internship.
6. What is the most important lesson that you learned?
The most important lesson that I learned from my internship was that there are so many other ways to learn besides classroom learning. Having not taken any tax classes prior to my internship, I thought I would be very behind and not able to complete assignments if I had not already learned about them. However, I soon realized that my lack of tax knowledge was not going to prevent me from receiving tax assignments. I realized I could do online research, look at prior year assignments, and most importantly, ask lots of questions in order to complete a specific assignment. Everyone at D&S always took the time to answer questions and even go out of their ways to help me understand a certain issue. This openness among the shareholders, associates, and interns really made the working environment so comfortable.
7. Would you recommend a D&S internship to other students? Why?
I would definitely recommend a D&S internship to any student who thinks he or she might be interested in the tax field. Because D&S is a lot smaller than some of the larger firms, I was exposed to so many different aspects of the tax field. This helped me realize which types of assignments I liked and did not like, as well as helped me realize if the tax field was the right career choice for me. I really believe that the D&S internship is a great experience and anyone who is given the opportunity to intern here, should most definitely take it.