Senior Tax Analyst

Company Description Lightening The Load is a tax preparation and advisory firm built on a simple idea — taxes shouldn't be something clients white-knuckle through alone once a year. We work as our clients' base camp: steady guidance, clear numbers, and a real relationship rather than a once-a-season transaction. Our clients range from W-2 households with a side business to real estate investors, professional practices, and growing companies that lean on us for accounting and advisory year-round.

Role Description This is the technical engine room of the firm. As a Senior Tax Analyst, you'll prepare and review the returns that carry the most complexity in our book — multi-state, rental portfolios, K-1s, S-corps, partnerships, trusts — and you'll be a first point of contact for clients who have a question mid-year, not just in April. You'll work closely with a Tax Manager who owns the relationship, which means you get to spend your time on the actual tax work rather than chasing scope and invoices.

• What you'll own
• • Prepare and self-review individual and entity returns: 1040 (including Schedule C, E, and multi-state), 1120-S, 1065, and 1041, plus related informational filings such as FBAR/FinCEN 114 and 1099s
• • Build tax projections and planning scenarios that support client planning meetings — entity election analysis, estimated payment strategy, timing of income and deductions
• • Review work prepared by junior staff and give feedback that actually teaches, not just corrects
• • Serve as the day-to-day technical responder on our tax planning retainer — clients ask questions as they come up, and you answer them clearly and promptly
• • Handle IRS and state notices end to end: read the notice, diagnose the cause, draft the response, track it to resolution
• • Research technical positions and document conclusions so the file stands on its own if anyone looks at it two years from now
• • Keep engagements moving in our practice management system, with clean notes and honest status

Qualifications

• • 2+ years preparing individual and business returns in a public accounting or tax firm
• • EA or CPA (or CPA candidate with parts passed) — we'll support you through the rest
• • Real fluency in pass-through taxation: basis, distributions, reasonable compensation, K-1 mechanics
• • Comfort with rental real estate and multi-state allocation
• • Strong written communication — a lot of client contact here is in writing, and clarity matters more than polish
• • Someone who flags a problem early rather than hoping it resolves itself
• Bonus points
• • Trust and estate returns (1041), cost segregation exposure, or international reporting
• • Experience in a firm running fixed-fee packages rather than pure hourly billing
• • QuickBooks Online or Xero literacy — enough to understand where the numbers came from

What success looks like:

• At 90 days: you're preparing the majority of your assigned returns with minimal review notes and responding to retainer questions independently.
• At one year: you're the technical go-to on a defined book of clients, reviewing others' work, and Managers trust your projections without rebuilding them.