Senior Tax Associate

Distinct | North America; Chesapeake (VA); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid flexibility

Job summary

Distinct, a mid-sized CPA firm in Chesapeake, is seeking a Tax Senior who has strong tax technical skills and now wants more than just handling larger returns. You’ll work with a varied client base and gain exposure to planning and advisory work.

The role blends ongoing return work with more review, planning, and direct client conversations. You won’t be boxed into one corner, you’ll contribute to business discussions, and develop toward supervisory responsibilities.

Qualifications

• Solid public accounting tax experience.
• Willingness to take ownership and grow beyond basic returns.
• Ability to advise clients and communicate clearly.

Responsibilities

• Prepare tax returns and supporting work.
• Increase involvement in planning and client conversations as experience grows.
• Provide advisory and consulting support to diverse clients in various industries.

Skills

Public accounting

Tax experience

Client communication

Review and planning

Education

CPA designation preferred

Job description

There’s a sweet spot in public accounting that’s surprisingly difficult to find.

A firm big enough to give you interesting clients, proper resources and somewhere to progress, but small enough that the Partners still know who you are and what you’re good at.

That’s roughly what you’re getting here.

This is an established, mid sized CPA firm in Chesapeake with a broad tax practice, long standing client relationships and a culture that puts a lot of weight on how people treat each other. For a Tax Senior who’s become good at the technical work and now wants more from the job than simply preparing a larger number of returns each year, it’s a very sensible next move.

Why this role is worth considering

The nice thing about joining a firm like this is that you don’t have to specialise yourself into a tiny corner of tax before you’ve worked out what you actually enjoy.

The client base is genuinely varied, spanning industries including real estate, construction, professional services, healthcare, restaurants, nonprofits, transportation and other privately owned businesses. The tax work itself stretches across individuals, businesses, estates and trusts, with planning and consulting sitting alongside traditional compliance.

That gives you room to become a genuinely rounded tax professional.

You’ll still prepare returns. Of course you will. But as your experience grows, so does your involvement. More review, more planning, more client conversations and more opportunities to understand why something is being done rather than simply getting it done.

The work itself

You’ll work across a varied portfolio, with exposure to areas including:

• Individual taxation
• Partnerships and S Corporations
• Closely held and small businesses
• Trusts and estates
• Tax planning
• Client advisory and consulting
• Research and more complex tax issues

What makes that breadth useful is the client relationship sitting behind it.

The firm openly talks about treating client relationships like partnerships, maintaining regular communication and measuring its own success through the success of its clients.

That philosophy changes what being a Senior can eventually look like. You’re not being developed purely to become quicker at compliance. You’re learning how to become someone a business owner actually wants in the conversation.

Good values are usually behaviours, not words on a wall

I quite like the way this firm talks about its values because they’re remarkably straightforward.

Honesty and integrity. Quality. Professionalism and knowledge. Dignity and respect.

Nothing revolutionary there.

But perhaps that’s the point.

In practice, it means doing work properly, continually developing your knowledge, treating clients and colleagues well and being someone people can trust. The firm also talks about passion, innovation and collaboration as part of the environment it wants to create.

For a Tax Senior, that matters more than it might sound. You’re at the stage where you’re starting to learn what sort of senior professional you actually want to become. Technical ability is part of it, but so is judgement, communication and how you work with the people around you.

Being brilliant at tax but horrible to work with is, apparently, not the career hack some people think it is.

The advantage of a mid sized firm

People sometimes assume moving away from a huge firm means sacrificing interesting work.

Usually, what changes more is your proximity to it.

You’re closer to the client here. Closer to Partners. Closer to the decisions being made. If a business owner has a question, there’s a much better chance you'll eventually be part of that conversation rather than hearing about it three layers later.

And because the firm provides more than tax compliance, including planning, management consulting, accounting and broader business support, you naturally start seeing more of the client’s world.

For someone ambitious, that exposure is useful.

Technical tax knowledge gets you so far. Understanding people and businesses is usually what takes you further.

You can build a career without making work your entire personality

This is also the sort of environment that can appeal to someone who's had enough of the bigger firm treadmill but doesn't want to sacrifice development.

You still get deadlines. It’s public accounting, not a wellness retreat.

But you’re working in a more personal environment where collaboration happens naturally and experienced people are accessible. The firm also invests in continuing education and technology because staying technically current is explicitly part of how it defines professionalism.

There’s hybrid flexibility too, giving you a useful middle ground between learning alongside the team and having the freedom to work independently.

Where could it take you?

Senior doesn't need to be somewhere you sit for five years waiting for somebody to notice.

As you become more confident reviewing work, managing client relationships and supporting the people around you, there’s scope to continue towards Supervisor and Manager level.

And because this isn't an enormous organisation, progression tends to be visible. People see what you're doing. Clients start asking for you. Junior staff start coming to you. Partners start trusting you with more.

Career progression has a funny habit of following those things.

Who tends to thrive here?

This would suit someone with solid public accounting tax experience who's ready to take more ownership without losing the support around them.

You’ll probably enjoy it if you like variety, want more direct client exposure and would rather become a well rounded advisor than spend your entire career tucked away in one tiny corner of tax.

CPA or progress towards your CPA would be attractive, but just as important is the mindset: dependable, curious, collaborative and somebody who takes genuine pride in doing things properly.

Because the best Tax Seniors eventually realise the job isn't really about tax returns.

It's about becoming useful enough that people want your opinion before they make the decision.

That’s a much better career to build.