I am taking courses now, and will be licensed next month hopefully, l was interested in how much would l make on average? Do you think l should go independant to make the big bucks orshould l do a combination of the both?

At what level. The newby drones at H&R Block and similar places start out at little more than minimum wages. CPAs and attorneys may bill at $250 per hour or more.

You sure you're in the right section (United Kingdom)? l do not understand ur reference to being licensed, do u mean ''qualified'' (i.e. the Chartered Institute of Taxation is exams)?

You can expect a big jump in salary if this is ur first professional qualification (i.e. u r not already an ACA). l got something like a 50% rise, although this was a lot of years ago now! A newly-qualified CTA today would be on between £28-£38k l would say. This would depend on:
a) whether u work in London or not,
b) whether u work for a small or large firm,
c) whether u work in corporate or personal tax, and
d) whether u deal with compliance or advisory work.

You r highly marketable as a newly-qualified, but now is a risky time to be moving jobs - u could be giving up ur redundancy entitlement. If u r already in work l suggest u stay put even if u do think u might be being underpaid, unless the amounts r huge.

If l were u l would call one of the agencies - Michael Page, Hays Taxation, any of the ones who r large enough to advertise in the jobs sections of the taxation magazines. They will be able to give u a much better idea about ur prospects because u will be able to give them all the relevant information about ur qualifications, experience etc.

As for going solo, l do not think l would do that in this climate. If there r massive rounds of redundancies in the tax sector like we saw in the early part of the decade, then u will be up against lots of other people all trying to do the same. That would not put u in a great position to name ur price. l would only do it if u r sure that u know enough people by word of mouth to keep u in business. Do not forget that u will need insurance - l would check out the premiums before u make the leap.