PracticeDen Senior Tax Associate

R.D. Barnett PLLC•Spokane Valley, WA

37d•$80,000 - $105,000•Remote

About The Position

PracticeDen is seeking an experienced, hard-working, and self-motivated Senior Tax Associate to prepare a wide variety of returns, hand off thoughtful, reviewer-ready work, and help make tax season run smarter. This role involves working across entity and individual clients, often following the numbers across a veterinary practice, related real estate, and the owner's personal return. The Senior Tax Associate will be responsible for gathering information, building workpapers, preparing calculations and returns, supporting planning, handling e-filing and delivery, researching unusual issues, and helping resolve notices or other technical projects. A strong accounting brain is essential, including the ability to read a trial balance, understand financial statements, reconcile important accounts, propose adjustments, and recognize when accounting needs attention before a tax return can move forward. This role reports to Liz Sandstrom, EA, Tax Manager, who will provide coaching, review, supervision, and act as an escalation point. The Senior Tax Associate will own day-to-day execution, workpaper quality, status visibility, and early issue identification, while Liz will set technical direction, approve material positions, and help the associate grow toward greater independence, planning exposure, client leadership, and review responsibility. Prior veterinary-industry experience is welcome but not required, but curiosity about independent veterinary ownership is.

Requirements

At least three years of recent public accounting tax experience.
At least two busy seasons owning returns from client intake through reviewer submission.
Ability to prepare a varied return mix, understand what the numbers mean, and deliver work that is truly ready for review.
Meaningful experience with individual and closely held business returns.
Ability to read financial statements, reconcile accounts, understand journal entries, and trace activity into a tax return.
Proficiency with Excel, including formulas, lookups, pivot tables, data cleanup, and well-organized workpapers.
Attention to detail to catch errors and missing support.
Curiosity about AI and automation, with a desire to test better ways of working responsibly.
Clear communication skills (written and verbal) and sound judgment.
Ability to receive feedback constructively.
Preparedness for 55+ hours during the heaviest filing-deadline stretches (typically February through April 15 and September through October 15).
Maintenance of a secure, professional workspace, dependable internet, and availability for Pacific Time collaboration during agreed working hours.
Professional references from prior employers, supervisors, or clients.
Curiosity about independent veterinary ownership.

Nice To Haves

CPA license, EA certification, CPA eligibility, or active progress toward a credential.
Experience reviewing simpler returns or training less-experienced preparers.
Tax-tech fluency with UltraTax CS or another professional preparation platform, e-file and portal workflows, or digital delivery tools.
Experience improving, speeding up, or making less painful a tax or accounting workflow using AI or automation.
Comfort with broader accounting software such as QuickBooks, Workpapers CS, Practice CS, SurePrep, SafeSend, SharePoint, Notion, Missive, Bill.com, Gusto, Double, or similar systems.
Experience with closely held businesses, multi-entity structures, real estate, professional practices, or veterinary-industry clients.
Multistate, pass-through entity tax, basis, fixed asset, owner compensation, or closely held business planning experience.

Responsibilities

Prepare federal, state, and local returns for individuals and closely held entities, including Forms 1040, 1065, 1120-S, and 1120, as well as trusts and estates, related real estate entities, and other returns as assigned.
Build clean, complete workpapers with clear support, reconciliations, calculations, notes, and tie-outs to ensure reviewers can easily follow the work.
Connect practice, real estate, and individual filings so every related return tells the same story.
Reconcile balance-sheet accounts, retained earnings, fixed assets, basis, owner activity, payroll, sales or excise tax, and other book-to-tax items.
Enter and validate tax data, carryforwards, fixed assets, prior-year items, and current-year activity in UltraTax CS or a comparable platform.
Identify missing information, inconsistencies, unusual issues, capacity concerns, and potential deadline problems early.
Assist with extensions, estimates, e-filing, secure delivery, tax notices, and other necessary details.
Recognize services outside the agreed scope and bring them to the Tax Manager before committing to additional work, fees, or timing.
Identify potential planning opportunities, research assigned questions, document facts and authority, and bring clear recommendations and unresolved questions to the Tax Manager.
Build traceable workpapers and useful analyses in Excel, clean up data, review trial balances, and propose journal entries.
Learn new tax software, workflow platforms, portals, and collaboration tools quickly.
Explore responsible ways to improve research, documentation, data handling, and repetitive workflows using AI, while adhering to firm-approved systems and protecting client information.
Identify and suggest improvements for clunky processes, test practical fixes, and document what works.
Communicate status, open items, scope, risks, and deadlines proactively.
Draft clear, professional client emails and explain requests without excessive tax jargon.
Apply feedback from review notes to improve future engagements.
Contribute to documentation, training, and the systems and habits of the growing team.
Coordinate with accounting, advisory, and client-service teammates when tax returns reveal accounting issues, planning opportunities, or client needs.

Benefits

Medical, dental, and vision insurance (firm pays 100% of employee premium).
401(k) with a 3% company match.
Six firm holidays plus four floating holidays.
Fifteen vacation days per calendar year.
Paid sick and safe time.
Two paid volunteer days.
Continuing education and growth opportunities, including reimbursement for approved expenses.
Optional cell-phone coverage (participation in firm's Verizon plan).
Personal tax support using firm software and reasonable guidance from principals.
The firm provides the computer and standard technology equipment.