Mason Price

Title of Work:

Working in an Accounting & Tax Office in Madrid, Spain

Abstract:

In the spring of 2022, I had an internship at an accounting and tax office called Gestoría EMadrid. I had many responsibilities that varied from day to day. Among them: Inputting the numbers of our client's invoices in the accounting software, using the sum of the invoices for each client to calculate the total taxes due, formatting documents correctly so that the government could accept them, traveling to different agencies to obtain a signature, notarization, or specific documentation, taking phone calls to answer a question or provide a service.

My goals with this internship were to improve my ability to speak Spanish, increase my confidence and mental fortitude when handling situations abroad, develop my knowledge concerning accounting and taxation, take advantage of the great opportunity to work in Madrid, and above all, have a good experience.

Title of Work (IGP Language):

Trabajando en una oficina de contabilidad y fiscalidad en Madrid, España

Abstract (IGP Language):

En la primavera de 2022, hice mi práctica en una oficina de contabilidad e impuestos llamada Gestoría EMadrid. Tuve muchas responsabilidades que consisten en cosas muy variables día a día. Entre ellas: Poner números de las facturas de nuestros clientes en el sistema para contabilizar, usar la suma de las facturas por cada cliente y calcular los impuestos cargados total, completar documentos en forma correcta para que el gobierno pudiera aceptarlos, ir a diferentes agencias para dar u obtener una firma o documentación específica, tomar llamadas telefónicas para responder a una pregunta o hacer un servicio.

Mis objetivos con esta práctica eran mejorar mi habilidad de hablar español, aumentar mi confianza y fortaleza mental para manejar situaciones en el extranjero, desarrollar mi conocimiento sobre contabilidad e impuestos, aprovechar la gran oportunidad de trabajar en Madrid y sobre todo, tener una buena experiencia.

Elevator Pitch Video

Elevator Pitch Transcript:

Hello, everybody! My name is Mason Price. I am a student studying to get my bachelor's in finance, and I'm also studying Spanish. So a few months ago now, I got back from Madrid, Spain. I was working, living, and studying there and my internship while l I was there was working in the accounting and tax office. So my responsibilities as an intern there were, I received documents, reached out to clients, made sure we got everything we needed, all the paperwork, and then we would take that paperwork and put it into excel and format it correctly. Once we had everything, and we knew we had all of their income and their expenses input, we would export that from Excel into another software called ContaSol, which is Spanish-based accounting software that formats it in the way that the Government likes to receive it. And so once we have that formatted, sometimes we need to get a notary or signature, but basically, once that was done, we've sent it off to the government and then file it away, and from there we'd get started on the next trimester because Spanish taxes are done in trimesters, and then cumulatively at the end of the year.

So what was interesting about the internship was first and foremost, my co-workers. They are really what made it lively, and they really spiced it up. They made it more interesting. Otherwise, it would have just been numbers, but they definitely made it more personable. So that's us in the bottom right as you can see it was a very small company, just four of us. That's all of us. They didn't speak any English, so it was great for my Spanish. We had lots of conversations while we were number crunching. But yeah, so it's three interns, and our boss, Andres. And another interesting thing was, I got to do a lot of traveling. My boss knew I needed the experience and the practice. And so basically anytime we needed something picked up or signed or notarized. If we needed to go get the mail or go get new filing cabinets he'd send me, and so almost every day I'd take a trip to a different bureau of the city to get something signed or to do this or that, and so I got to see a lot of parts of Madrid that I wouldn't have otherwise seen, and so I really appreciated that he made me the paper runner. Another interesting thing was the trust they had in me. They weren't looking over my shoulder too much. From the first week I was submitting things to the Government, and you have those thoughts in my head that "am I committing tax fraud right now," but apparently in Spain, there's some recourse. If you do happen to get something wrong, you can redact it and correct it. So, I was a little worried at first, because I didn't know that, but I learned that later on. It's like, okay, "so this is why you trust me a little bit." Another thing that was interesting was I got to see first-hand how Inputs change companies' bottom line and how it affects their financial statements. That was really interesting, and that'll be really useful going forward as a finance major. So this internship was really good for me, and it touched all areas of my life, from social to cultural, to professional. It was a really great experience, and I hope all of you going abroad next year get to experience it the way that I experienced it. Anyways, take care.

Digital Poster