Whether your team is navigating shifting regulations, planning for an IPO, or scaling internationally, CFGI’s Tax practice helps you simplify complexity and accelerate decision-making. Our service offerings span federal, state, and international compliance, R&D credits, transactional tax, tax technology, and ongoing tax accounting support, delivered with a “sat in the seat” mindset that bridges the gap between tax strategy and execution.
Tax is no longer a back-office filing function. CFOs, tax directors, and audit committees are being asked harder questions, on tighter timelines, with smaller teams. These four trends keep coming up in every conversation we have with the office of the CFO.
Generative AI is moving tax work from manual to model-driven: data aggregation, compliance monitoring, scenario modeling, and audit readiness. Tax departments that wait are getting outpaced by the ones already deploying it.
Today’s political and business climate places heavier regulatory pressure on tax consulting, income tax filings, reporting, and disclosures. Material weaknesses and restatements tied to tax are landing in the headlines.
The OBBBA Section 174A retroactive election lets small businesses recover R&E costs capitalized between 2022 and 2024. The July 6 election deadline means tax teams are scrambling to model, file, and amend in parallel.
SALT nexus, indirect tax, and international transfer pricing now matter for almost every growth-stage company. Where you sell, where you hire, where you ship: each opens a tax footprint that has to be modeled.
CFGI’s Tax practice works directly with your internal tax department or operates as a fully outsourced provider. The service offerings can be tailored to the needs of any client, from a private start-up running its first provision to a public company managing global compliance.
Provision analysis and preparation, audit readiness, IPO registration support, purchase accounting, valuation allowance, stock-based comp, and SOX controls.
Income tax return preparation, R&D credit attribute studies, state and local income tax consulting, sales and indirect tax, and transfer pricing.
Temporary VP of Tax, Tax Directors, Tax Managers, and staff. State tax and technical specialists. Staff augmentation and loan staffing for project work.
Tax due diligence, IRC 382 calculations, tax purchase accounting, reverse mergers, carve-outs, and post-deal integration support.
Tax provision software, indirect tax systems such as OTP and Avalara, ERP set up for tax, and data quality remediation across the tax function.
A free 30-minute call with a CFGI tax SME on whatever is on your team’s mind: provision questions, R&D credit opportunity, SALT nexus exposure, audit defense, or technology platform fit.
Best for: leaders who want a sounding board before scoping a project.
A structured review across four domains: General Tax, Tax Technology, SALT, and R&D Credit / IRC 174. CFGI surfaces exposures, missed credits, and process gaps that drive material weakness risk.
Output: a written readout with prioritized opportunities and remediation paths.
Start with one capability (provision, R&D study, SALT nexus, tax tech selection), then expand. Limited-scope through fully outsourced managed services, sized to the team and the moment.
Output: a defined deliverable on the first phase plus a roadmap for the next.
The CFGI Tax practice was established by leaders with decades of Big 4 and in-house tax experience, then built around a boutique delivery model where senior partners stay on the engagement.
If the firm running your audit is also preparing your provision, you have independence risk. The closer you get to going public, the harder that conversation becomes. The fix usually has to happen before the IPO clock starts.
If you have R&D spend, you likely have federal and state credits available. Even with NOLs, the credits can offset state taxes, carry forward, or surface during M&A diligence. Most companies are not maximizing them.
Where you have sales, employees, inventory, and offices each creates a nexus question. Sales, use, and indirect tax exposures often surface only during diligence, when leverage is gone. A formal nexus and taxability study closes that gap.
If the tax team spends more than 30 percent of cycle time preparing data, the issue is upstream. Spreadsheets as the primary system of record, ERP gaps, and missing tax data requirements in past implementations all show up as material weakness risk.
If the company has net operating loss carryforwards in the United States, auditors may require a 382 calculation. Ownership changes can limit or write off available NOLs, and most companies do not see it until M&A diligence forces the issue.
Buy-side, sell-side, carve-out, reverse merger, IPO: each has tax implications that move the deal economics. Tax purchase accounting, structural diligence, and post-close integration all benefit from being in the conversation before the LOI.
CFGI’s Kevin Murawinski walks through the practical applications of AI inside the tax function: data aggregation across siloed systems, intelligent compliance monitoring, scenario modeling and what-if analysis, audit readiness, and natural-language interfaces that surface answers without writing a SQL query.
Tax departments that wait are getting outpaced. AI is closing the gap between strategic intent and execution, and the talent equation is shifting in favor of teams that adopt it early. The piece ends with concrete starting points for tax leaders who want to move from pilot to production.
CFGI’s Bill Barnes and Kevin Murawinski break down the OBBBA Section 174A retroactive election for small businesses. The new election allows recovery of domestic R&E costs capitalized between 2022 and 2024, with eligibility tied to the Section 448(c) gross receipts test and interaction with the Section 280C credit calculation.
The election deadline is July 6. Companies under the 31 million gross receipts threshold need to model the cash impact, evaluate the Section 280C interaction with R&D credits, and decide whether to amend prior returns or accelerate deductions.
Managing Partner | Tax Services
Helped lead the establishment of CFGI’s tax practice. 20+ years across corporate tax accounting, IPO readiness, and outsourced tax leadership.
Partner | Industry Services Group
13+ years across technology, software, and pharmaceutical clients.
Partner | R&D Tax Credit Practice
Leads CFGI’s R&D tax credit consulting practice. Deep expertise in credit studies, Section 174 and 174A, and IRS examination defense.
Partner | SALT and M&A Tax Services
10+ years of state and local tax experience, including nexus studies, indirect tax, and M&A tax structuring.
Start with the free 30-minute Expert Access call, a Tax Health Check across the four domains, or a phased engagement on the capability that needs help first. Same team, sized to fit.