A Highly Specialized Career Requires Careful Planning
For the past eight years, I've been working in different European countries in investment banking, corporate finance and my own small business, an Internet site. I'm currently at an investment bank in Paris, performing private placements and providing mergers-and-acquisitions advisory services to technology companies. I've worked on a number of different tax issues for clients and myself, and I've decided I'd like to become an independent international tax adviser to wealthy individuals.
I've consulted with several law professors and tax professionals as to how I might proceed, but they've had no suggestions, not even books or basic degree requirements, i.e., law, accounting or tax.
Does one need a degree to legally offer such advice in the European Union? If so, which would you advise? Are there tax degrees? It seems everyone has either a law degree with some tax expertise or an accounting degree, but neither focuses on the practical aspects of individual taxes. I'm not interested in getting a law degree. What path do you suggest following? An easy route might be to train at a big accounting firm and eventually split off.