As with many degree fields, a tax accounting education has all the traditional degree options from simple certificates to bachelor and graduate degree programs. Students may opt to focus on business administration with a concentration in accounting, or on the other hand, decide to focus solely on accounting concepts. However, unlike many other career fields, accounting has numerous subspecialties and degree variations that offer excellent opportunities to focus on niche markets or specialized careers. For example, in tax accounting alone student can chose to be a tax accountant, a tax preparer, and accounting auditor, and numerous other specialized areas of tax accounting.

While some students may choose a traditional degree program like a Bachelor of Science in Accounting, other students may want to target their training to cover a specific concentration. When a student selects a tax accounting education as their specialty, the decisions do not end there. They must decide to what level or extent they want to take their education. As such, they have options to choose a certificate program from a local community college or trade school. Other students might decide that an associate of science in a tax accounting subject is more appropriate. Still more students may select traditional four year undergraduate studies such as a Bachelor of Art in Tax Accounting.

The options and choices do not end with a bachelor's degree program. For those who wish to continue their tax accounting education, there are graduate programs available. Students can study and work towards completing their master's degree to land jobs with more responsibilities or higher pay. They can also elect to take their degree studies all the way to a terminal degree, the doctorate. Doctoral studies however, even for tax accounting, are generally for those who wish to teach at the post secondary level or those who want to go into research.

The most beneficial aspect of having so many options in terms of a tax accounting education is that students can start at the bottom and work their way up. Earning a certificate or associate-level degree means students can immediately get a job in their field. Later, they can opt to continue their studies on to the bachelor level and move up the corporate ladder, as it were. Still later in their careers, they can again return to school and pursue graduate degree completion. It is possible that by the time a student completes their PhD studies they could be old enough to retire.