In this episode of the Women to Watch in Sales Tax series, Diane Yetter of the Sales Tax Institute sits down with Meredith Smith, senior tax manager at TaxOps. Meredith shares her journey from starting in public accounting with a focus on income tax to becoming a self-taught sales tax expert at TaxOps. She sheds light on her role within TaxOps' State and Local Tax Group and offers insight into her pride in being adaptable and client-focused in the sales tax domain.
Meredith discusses the importance of being a good listener, particularly in the advisory side of sales tax work. She talks about how sales tax often gets overlooked within companies and the necessity of advocacy for addressing both past obligations and future risks. Meredith’s experience highlights how crucial it is to listen and understand client needs, making a significant impact in the compliance and consultancy aspects of sales tax. She also shares tips for women who are self-taught in sales tax, emphasizing the value of listening and advocating within their companies.
Key Takeaways:
Meredith Smith transitioned from income tax to sales tax, becoming self-taught to meet client needs at TaxOps.
Listening to clients and understanding their specific circumstances are critical in providing effective sales tax advisory services.
Advocating for the importance of sales tax within your company can help address both past and current obligations.
Sales tax knowledge isn't typically taught in traditional education, making self-taught professionals quite common in the field.
Staying updated and attentive to changes within your organization can reveal crucial sales tax implications.
Back with another episode of our women to watch in sales tax.
Diane:
And today I'm thrilled to introduce you to Meredith Smith, who is a senior tax manager at Tax Ops out in Colorado.
Diane:
Welcome, Meredith.
Meredith:
Hi, Diane.
Meredith:
I'm so happy to be here.
Meredith:
And we're on the flip side, stupid on the podcast.
Meredith:
It's great to be here.
Diane:
Exactly.
Diane:
Exactly.
Diane:
So, Meredith, why don't you tell everybody what taxop does and then what you do for them?
Meredith:
So taxops is a boutique tax firm, kind of based out of Colorado, but we have kind of people all over with kind of three distinct business units.
Meredith:
We've got the minimization practice, kind of the core compliance practice, which focuses on income tax provisions and compliance.
Meredith:
And then we have our state and local tax group, which is where I sit, and we do a lot of consultancy, special projects around the state and local tax area.
Meredith:
So we will represent clients in due diligence.
Meredith:
So on the buy and sell side, we will kind of calculate businesses exposures, kind of a Nexus study, and work with them on kind of their past and their kind of remediation effort so that they can be good faith taxpayers going forward, and kind of everything else in between in the sales kind of sales and use tax, income tax.
Diane:
So you've been working in the field for a little while.
Diane:
You've done a number of different things.
Diane:
Is there anything you're especially proud of that you've accomplished in the sales tax area?
Meredith:
Don't kill me, but I started out in public accounting and income tax.
Meredith:
So when I transitioned from big four and came into tax ops, I was kind of self taught sales tax because that's what our clients needed know.
Meredith:
Judy Vorndren came in as our partner and it kind of was the two of us.
Meredith:
And then there were three and four and five.
Meredith:
And now we're, you know, a group of nine to eleven, depending on what day you listen to this.
Meredith:
And so I'm just really proud of being scrappy, being creative, learning on the fly, doing what we need to do, doing what I need to do to learn and to really help our clients and be the advocate for our clients.
Diane:
I think that's great.
Diane:
And you know what?
Diane:
So many people are self taught on sales tax because it isn't anything you learn in school.
Diane:
So for you to have done that, kudos to you.
Diane:
So well done.
Meredith:
Well, thank you.
Meredith:
And yes, I did right, take an income tax class, getting my master's in tax.
Meredith:
But yeah, sales tax was not a part of that.
Diane:
Right, right.
Diane:
So do you have any advice, maybe, to women that might also be self taught, on how to, you know, kind of handle this career in sales tax?
Meredith:
So I think a lot of it comes down to just being a great listener.
Meredith:
Um, you know, when you're on the advisory side, sometimes, you know, especially with sales tax, depending on the company, it gets kind of relegated to an AP person, an AR person, someone who does invoicing.
Meredith:
And so they feel often alone in that field.
Meredith:
So as an advisor, you know, we just.
Meredith:
We kind of just need to listen and meet the client where they're at and just, you know, sometimes be that therapist.
Meredith:
And then, you know, if you are in sales tax from a company perspective and, you know, kind of in industry, not in public accounting, is really kind of keeping an ear out and kind of understanding how your company views sales tax and really not be afraid to kind of advocate for what it means to the company.
Meredith:
You know, that's, you know, past obligations, current obligations, it will always come up.
Diane:
That is great advice.
Diane:
And keeping your ear to the ground and listening what's going on, because as we both know, sales tax touches every part of the business.
Diane:
And so being able to listen for all of those different things that maybe nobody else in tax or finance may key in on, that could be a great savings opportunity or a great risk to help.
Meredith:
Right.
Meredith:
Someone could be moving and, you know, oh, we're not.
Meredith:
We haven't established Nexus error.
Meredith:
Oh, we have a new product.
Meredith:
Oh, we're going to sell this division of a business.
Meredith:
Anything.
Meredith:
You know, just sometimes you just gotta shut up and listen.
Diane:
Exactly what great advice.
Diane:
Meredith, thank you so much for being with me today.
Diane:
And as always, it is a pleasure to talk to you.
Diane:
And Meredith didn't say what she also does, but she is the host of the Tax op Salt Ovation podcast.
