Tax Director

Distinct | North America; Barrington (IL); On-site; USD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

A Deer Park-based independent CPA firm is seeking a senior tax professional to lead review work for sophisticated clients, including high net worth individuals and corporate officers.

You’ll collaborate with partners, manage complex returns (S corp, partnership, C corp), and contribute to international and transactional projects. CPA license and strong review expertise are essential; onsite collaboration is key, with a focus on quality and timely delivery.

Qualifications

• CPA certification or license required.
• Strong review experience on tax returns and complex tax matters.
• Ability to research and resolve unusual tax issues.

Responsibilities

• Serve as senior reviewer for high-net-worth individuals and corporate officers.
• Handle partnership, S corp, and C corp work alongside international tax projects.
• Provide technical guidance and support to the team during busy season.

Skills

Review experience

Tax technical knowledge

Education

CPA license

Job description

There’s an assumption in public accounting that if you want the really interesting, sophisticated work, you have to work for one of the biggest firms.

This is an established, independent CPA firm in Deer Park with a client base and level of work you might not expect from a firm of their size.

They work with complex privately held businesses alongside public companies, and there’s a strong transactional side to the practice too. Think M&A, due diligence, tax structuring and businesses going through genuinely interesting periods of change.

Now they’re looking for someone senior on the tax side.

This is primarily a review role. They already have good people who can prepare the work, so they need someone who enjoys being the person the team can turn to when things get more complicated.

There’s a lot of partnership, S Corp and C Corp work, alongside complex individual returns for high net worth clients and corporate officers. There’s also scope to get involved with international and transactional work depending on your background.

You might already be a Tax Director or Partner.

Or perhaps you’re at a larger firm, you’ve built a strong technical background and you’ve reached the point where you’d quite like to keep the interesting work without everything else that comes with a huge firm.

They’re open minded about where you’ve gained your experience, too.

You’ll need your CPA and strong review experience, but you don’t necessarily need a Big 4 name on your resume. If you’ve worked with sophisticated clients, you’re technically strong and you’re comfortable researching the answer when something unusual lands on your desk, they’ll be interested.

It’s a fully onsite firm, which is worth knowing upfront. A lot of their work is collaborative and time sensitive, so they’ve deliberately kept everyone together rather than moving towards a remote model.

The trade off is a genuinely team focused environment, where you’ll know the people you’re working with rather than disappearing into a huge department.

Busy season on the tax side tends to start later than at many traditional tax firms and runs through April 15. They offer PTO and comp time around the additional hours, alongside a particularly generous retirement package.

They’ve been patient about this hire because they’re looking for the right person rather than simply another person.

Someone technically good. Someone they can rely on. And ideally someone who wants to stick around and become an important part of the firm.

We support the CPA firms we partner with in building diverse, inclusive and equitable workplaces, and the right attitude often goes further than ticking every box.