PracticeDen Senior Tax Associate

R.D. Barnett PLLC; Washington; Hybrid; USD 80,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

R.D. Barnett PLLC is seeking a Senior Tax Associate to prepare a wide variety of returns across individuals and entities, with a focus on a veterinary-practice client base under PracticeDen. The role works remotely within approved U.S. locations and reports to Liz Sandstrom, EA, Tax Manager.

You will own day-to-day execution, build quality workpapers, and identify issues early. It’s about real tax work from start to finish, with opportunities to grow and collaborate across the PracticeDen team.

Qualifications

• Prepare federal, state, local tax returns for individuals and entities.
• Build clean workpapers with support, reconciliations, calculations, notes.

Responsibilities

• Prepare the returns for individuals and entities (1040, 1065, 1120-S, 1120).
• Build clean workpapers with support and tie-outs for reviewer.
• Follow the financial trail to align practice, real estate, and owner filings.
• Reconcile balance-sheet accounts and related tax items.
• Enter and validate data in tax software; know what went into the software.

Skills

Tax preparation

Review & QC

Cross-client coordination

Problem solving

Tools

UltraTax CS

Job description

• Compensation: $80,000-$105,000, depending on experience, credentials, and demonstrated capability
• Team: Tax, with a PracticeDen market specialization
• Reports to: Liz Sandstrom, EA, Tax Manager
• Start date: Flexible, as early as September 22, 2026 and as late as January 4, 2027
• Location: Remote within approved U.S. work locations
• Travel: Possible quarterly all-hands meetings and occasional destination CPE, fully reimbursed within firm policy

Sharp tax work. An accounting brain. A soft spot for better systems.

Job postings are funny

They are often part wish list, part sales pitch, and part collection of phrases no human has ever used in conversation. That does not tell you what the work feels like, who you will work with, or whether you will actually enjoy being here. We would rather be honest, so here is the real story.

About PracticeDen and R.D. Barnett PLLC

PracticeDen grew out of R.D. Barnett PLLC, the tax, accounting, and advisory firm Dean Barnett founded to help entrepreneurs and privately held businesses make smarter financial decisions. Years of sitting beside business owners - not just filing returns for them - made one thing clear: independent veterinary practice owners deserved an advisor who understood both the numbers and the wonderfully complicated business behind them.

That is where PracticeDen comes in. We connect the entire financial picture, from the operating practice and related real estate to the owner's individual tax situation. We work with veterinary owners as they start, buy, operate, grow, and eventually transition their practices. The goal is bigger than accurate filings. We want our clients to understand their numbers, spot opportunities earlier, make confident decisions, and spend less time wondering what their accountant is talking about.

PracticeDen is the veterinary-focused brand of R.D. Barnett PLLC. It is not a separate firm or a tax-only team. This role has a functional home in Tax and works across PracticeDen with accounting, advisory, and client-service teammates so the practice, related real estate, and owner return tell one coherent story.

The Role (and Why It's Interesting)

We are looking for an experienced, hard-working, and self-motivated Senior Tax Associate who can prepare a wide variety of returns, hand off thoughtful, reviewer-ready work, and help us make tax season run a little smarter. You will work across entity and individual clients, often following the numbers across a veterinary practice, related real estate, and the owner's personal return.

This role reports to Liz Sandstrom, EA, Tax Manager. Liz leads the tax side of PracticeDen and will be your primary coach, reviewer, supervisor, and escalation point. You will own day-to-day execution, workpaper quality, status visibility, and early issue identification. Liz will set technical direction, approve material positions, and help you grow toward greater independence, planning exposure, client leadership, and review responsibility.

Tax preparation is the main event. You will gather information, build workpapers, prepare calculations and returns, support planning, handle e-filing and delivery, research unusual issues, and help resolve notices or other technical projects. In other words: you will do real tax work from beginning to end, not spend your days moving numbers from one box to another without understanding why.

This is also not a stay-in-your-lane-forever role. While traditional accounting work won’t be your primary responsibility, a strong accounting brain is essential. You should be able to read a trial balance, understand the financial statements, reconcile important accounts, propose adjustments, and recognize when the accounting needs attention before a return can move forward. Recurring bookkeeping is not part of this role unless separately assigned and scoped.

As PracticeDen grows, this role can grow with it. We do not expect you to know every answer. We do expect you to be genuinely inquisitive with a solution-driven purpose: ask better questions, trace the issue to its source, and move toward a sensible answer. Prior veterinary-industry experience is welcome but not required. Curiosity about independent veterinary ownership is.

What You'll Actually Do

Make tax work look easy

• Prepare the returns. All kinds of them. That includes federal, state, and local returns for individuals and closely held entities, with a core mix of Forms 1040, 1065, 1120-S, and 1120. It may also include trusts and estates, related real estate entities, and other returns as assigned.
• Make review a pleasant experience. Build clean, complete workpapers with clear support, reconciliations, calculations, notes, and tie-outs. Your reviewer should not need detective training to follow your work.
• Follow the financial trail. Connect practice, real estate, and individual filings so every related return tells the same story.
• Bring an accounting brain to the return. Reconcile balance-sheet accounts, retained earnings, fixed assets, basis, owner activity, payroll, sales or excise tax, and other book-to-tax items that are part of the engagement.
• Know what went into the software. Enter and validate tax data, carryforwards, fixed assets, prior-year items, and current-year activity in UltraTax CS or a comparable platform.
• Raise your hand early. Spot missing information, inconsistencies, unusual issues, capacity concerns, and potential deadline problems before they become deadline-day surprises.
• See the process through. Help with extensions, estimates, e-filing, secure delivery, tax notices, and the less-glamorous details that still have to be right.
• Know when the work has changed. Recognize services outside the agreed scope and bring them to Liz before committing to additional work, fees, or timing.
• Support planning without freelancing. Identify potential planning opportunities, research assigned questions, document the facts and authority, and bring clear recommendations and unresolved questions to Liz.

Use technology like you mean it

• Make Excel earn its keep. Build traceable workpapers and useful analyses, clean up data, review trial balances, and propose journal entries without turning the workbook into a haunted house.
• Pick up new tools quickly. Tax software, workflow platforms, portals, collaboration tools-if it makes the work better, you should be comfortable learning it.
• Use AI thoughtfully, not blindly. Look for responsible ways to improve research, documentation, data handling, and repetitive workflows. Use only firm-approved systems, protect client information, verify every output, and remain accountable for the final work.
• Notice when a process is clunky, then improve it. Test practical fixes, document what works, and help us scale without trading accuracy for speed.

Be a great human to work with

• Keep people out of the dark. Communicate about status, open items, scope, risks, and deadlines before someone has to chase you.
• Write like a person. Draft clear, professional client emails and explain requests without burying the point in tax jargon.
• Treat review notes as fuel. Ask thoughtful questions, apply the feedback, and make the next engagement better.
• Help shape the Den. Contribute to documentation, training, and the systems and habits our growing team will rely on.
• Work across the team. Coordinate with accounting, advisory, and client-service teammates when the tax return exposes an accounting issue, planning opportunity, or client need.

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