Ea Tax Jobs in Renton, WA (NOW HIRING)

EmploymentFull TimeCompensation$80,000-$105,000, depending on experience, credentials, and demonstrated capabilityTeamTax, with a PracticeDen market specializationReports toLiz Sandstrom, EA, Tax ManagerStart dateFlexible, as early as September 22, 2026 and as late as January 4, 2027LocationRemote within approved U.S. work locationsTravelPossible 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 DoMake 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.

What You Bring to the DenThe must-haves

• Real tax experience. You have at least three years of recent public accounting tax experience, including at least two busy seasons owning returns from client intake through reviewer submission. You can prepare a varied return mix, understand what the numbers mean, and deliver work that is truly ready for review.
• Individual and entity experience. You have meaningful experience with individual and closely held business returns, not just one narrow slice of a return.
• A strong accounting brain. You can read financial statements, reconcile accounts, understand journal entries, and trace activity into a tax return without losing the plot.
• Excel power-user energy. Formulas, lookups, pivot tables, data cleanup, and well-organized workpapers should feel familiar, not frightening.
• An eye for the tiny things. You catch the transposed number, the missing support, and the line that does not tie before someone else does.
• AI and automation curiosity. When you see a repetitive process, you naturally wonder whether a robot should be doing the boring part. You are excited to test better ways of working, but you do not hand the robot the keys and walk away. Approved tools, client privacy, professional judgment, and verified outputs are nonnegotiable.
• Clear communication and sound judgment. You write well, think before you act, and can receive feedback without turning it into a courtroom drama.
• Busy-season stamina. You are prepared for 55+ hours during the heaviest filing-deadline stretches, typically February through April 15 and September through October 15. We hope that is reserved for the worst of times, not the regular rhythm. Busy season should be a season, not a year-round personality.
• Remote-work reliability. You maintain a secure, professional workspace, dependable internet, and availability for Pacific Time collaboration during agreed working hours.
• Professional references from prior employers, supervisors, or clients.

CPA or Enrolled Agent credential is not required. We value demonstrated capability, sound judgment, and a commitment to continued learning.Bonus points for:

• CPA license, EA certification, CPA eligibility, or active progress toward a credential
• Experience reviewing simpler returns or training less-experienced preparers
• Tax-tech fluency with UltraTax CS or another professional preparation platform, e-file and portal workflows, or digital delivery tools
• A useful AI or automation story: something you improved, sped up, or made less painful in a tax or accounting workflow
• Comfort around the broader accounting stack, such as QuickBooks, Workpapers CS, Practice CS, SurePrep, SafeSend, SharePoint, Notion, Missive, Bill.com, Gusto, Double, or similar systems
• Experience with wonderfully complicated owners: closely held businesses, multi-entity structures, real estate, professional practices, or veterinary-industry clients
• Multistate, pass-through entity tax, basis, fixed asset, owner compensation, or closely held business planning experience

You'll probably thrive here if...

• You keep the details on a short leash. Projects, files, open questions, and deadlines do not mysteriously disappear on your watch.
• You communicate before people have to ask. A clear update today is better than a heroic explanation tomorrow.
• You care about service. You want clients and teammates to have a genuinely good experience, and you are willing to take out the trash - literally or figuratively - when that is what helps.
• You can be trusted. You use discretion, exercise good judgment, and protect sensitive client information as if it were your own.
• You are genuinely inquisitive with a solution-driven purpose. You ask why, research and test what you do not know, and turn curiosity into a practical next step instead of collecting interesting questions for sport.
• You own your work. Mistakes happen; hiding them or repeating them is the problem. You speak up, fix the issue, and learn from it.
• You can handle change. PracticeDen is growing, technology keeps moving, and the perfect process may not exist yet.
• You take the work seriously without taking yourself too seriously. Public accounting is demanding. A sense of humor makes the hard days better.
• You build momentum as a form of mutual appreciation. You follow through, communicate early, and move work forward because making teammates chase you is nobody's love language.

How You'll Know You're Crushing It

• Your reviewer can follow your work without a scavenger hunt. Returns tie, support is clear, and avoidable review notes become rare.
• There are fewer surprises. Missing information, odd activity, planning ideas, scope changes, and potential problems surface early.
• People trust your follow-through. Client requests make sense, deadlines stay visible, and projects do not vanish into a status-update black hole.
• The systems get smarter. You adopt new tools thoughtfully and improve processes without weakening accuracy, controls, or confidentiality.
• The numbers work too. You meet the production, realization, timekeeping, and project-delivery expectations assigned to your role and portfolio.
• You get better every cycle. Feedback shows up in the next engagement, and your confidence, judgment, and independence keep growing.

The Practical Stuff: Pay, Benefits, and Where You'll Work
Now, let's talk about the part of the job everyone scrolls for.

• Compensation: Full-time, exempt position with a base salary of $80,000-$105,000 annually, depending on experience, credentials, and demonstrated capability.
• Flexible start: The position may begin as early as September 22, 2026 or as late as Janua