One of the biggest career fields for Indian commerce graduates is one most students have never heard of: US taxation and accounting outsourcing. Across Gujarat in particular, firms prepare tax returns and manage the books for businesses and accounting firms in the United States, and they hire steadily. Shruti Srivastava, a Parul University MBA student pursuing Chartered Accountancy alongside her degree, entered this field with no US-tax background at all and secured a placement at KMK Ventures, an Ahmedabad-based outsourced accounting and tax firm serving US clients. Her journey is a practical map into the field.
What Is US Taxation and Accounting Outsourcing?
When a US-based accounting firm has more tax returns than it can prepare in a season, it often outsources the work to a specialist team in India. Firms like KMK Ventures act as an extension of those US firms, preparing US tax returns and handling day-to-day accounting and bookkeeping, backed by teams of chartered accountants, certified public accountants, and staff accountants. For a commerce student in India, this means a real, professional career working on international finance, often without leaving the state. It is a large and growing field, and it rewards a strong accounting foundation more than any single specialisation.
Why It Suits Commerce, MBA, and CA Students
The field is a natural fit for students from a commerce background. The core of the work is accounting, journal entries, financial statements, ratios, the very concepts a B.Com, MBA, or CA student already studies. The US-specific tax knowledge is learned on the job.
This is why firms in this space hire freshers for their foundation and their ability to learn quickly, rather than for existing US-tax expertise, a point worth remembering for anyone eyeing the field. Shruti’s own path, a B.Com followed by an MBA at Parul University pursued alongside her CA, is exactly the kind of profile these firms value.
The Skills That Get You In
Shruti was candid that she arrived as, in her words, “a common student” with no exposure to analytical software. Parul University’s Impact Training, a structured one-month placement-readiness programme, built the skills she needed, taught from the basics for students with no technical background:
- Technical tools: Excel, Power BI, SQL, and Python, introduced from scratch, so a commerce student can genuinely follow.
- Interview-facing skills: group discussion practice, aptitude and reasoning, personal-interview preparation, and professional resume creation.
Notably, Shruti did not just attend the programme; she went on to serve as a coordinator across two batches, taking responsibility for how sessions and assignments were run. That initiative, choosing to contribute rather than simply attend, sharpened her management, communication, and group-discussion skills, and she credits it directly for the composure she brought to her interview.
How She Prepared for the Interview
Ahead of the interview, KMK Ventures shared a preparatory document covering a wide range of commonly asked questions, US taxation basics, Indian GST, journal entries, accounting concepts, financial ratios, and financial management. Since she had only studied Indian taxation before, this was new territory. Her method was simple and effective: work through the entire set of questions and answers, then practise them repeatedly rather than reading passively.
I thoroughly go through all that question and answer and I practiced too, so that makes me feel more confident when the actual interview is held. – Shruti Srivastava
That repeated, active practice, rather than any prior US-tax knowledge, is what let her walk in confident. The selection was a personal interview, and the questions leaned on journal entries and core accounting fundamentals, testing the strength of her base and her ability to learn quickly, not advanced expertise. Only five students were selected.
What Actually Set Her Apart
Shruti attributes her selection to a strong, longstanding foundation in accounting, a subject she has always been drawn to and performed well in since school.
No matter what skills I have, accounts is my base, and my base is strong. – Shruti Srivastava
It is a lesson worth internalising: for a fresher, employers are not looking for someone who already knows everything. They are looking for a strong foundation and a quick learner, a theme we explore further in a companion guide on why strong fundamentals beat specialization.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is US taxation and accounting outsourcing?
It is when US-based accounting firms outsource tax-return preparation and day-to-day accounting to specialist teams in India. Indian firms act as an extension of the US firm, preparing US tax returns and managing books, staffed by chartered accountants, CPAs, and staff accountants. It is a large, growing career field for Indian commerce graduates.
Can commerce students get into US taxation without prior experience?
Yes. The core work is accounting, which commerce, MBA, and CA students already study, and firms teach the US-specific tax knowledge on the job. They hire freshers for a strong accounting foundation and the ability to learn quickly, not for existing US-tax expertise, so thorough preparation and solid fundamentals are enough to break in.
What skills do you need for an accounting career?
A strong foundation in core accounting (journal entries, financial statements, ratios) is essential, supported increasingly by tools like Excel, Power BI, and SQL. Employers also value communication and group-discussion ability, aptitude, and, above all for freshers, the capacity to learn quickly.
