Tax Accountant

Dark Horse CPAs is hiring a Tax Accountant to serve esports organizations, content creators, and the businesses behind competitive gaming and digital entertainment.

If you’ve split a tournament purse across a roster in six states, or untangled a creator’s platform payouts across four different 1099s, you already know why this role exists.

Fully remote. U.S.-based. Starting December 2026 or January 2027.

ABOUT THE PRACTICE

You’d work directly with Principal Matt Reese, whose practice is built around esports orgs, streamers and creators, agencies, talent managers, and the people making a living in an industry that barely existed fifteen years ago.

The revenue mechanics are the interesting part. Sponsorship and tournament income. Platform and creator payouts arriving from half a dozen sources, each reporting them differently. Brand deals, licensing, and royalties. Prize splits across a roster spread over several states, and sometimes across a border.

The accounting itself isn’t exotic. The fact pattern behind it almost always is. Most accountants have never seen a P&L where the top line is a streaming payout and a sponsorship invoice, and that’s exactly the gap this role fills.

Esports is the center of gravity here, not a side interest.

This role is roughly three quarters tax and one quarter client accounting. You’ll come in preparing returns and grow into reviewing them. It is not a senior hire. We’re looking for someone early enough in their career that we can build the way you work together, rather than unwinding habits from a firm that does it differently.

WHAT YOU’LL DO

Tax, roughly 75 percent of the role:

•   Prepare individual (1040), S corporation (1120S), partnership (1065), and C corporation (1120) returns

•   Handle the revenue mechanics specific to this space: sponsorship and tournament income, platform and creator payouts, prize distributions, brand deals, licensing, and royalties

•   Prepare multi-state returns and apportionment workpapers for clients whose rosters, tours, and events cross jurisdictions

•   Build clean workpapers that support the positions taken on the return

•   Research federal and state tax questions and summarize findings in plain language

•   Support tax planning delivery, including quarterly estimates and year-end projections

•   Grow into first-level review as experience and judgment develop

Client accounting, roughly 25 percent of the role:

•   Maintain cash-basis books in QuickBooks Online

•   Reconcile accounts and prepare periodic financial statements

•   Clean up records for clients arriving with incomplete bookkeeping

Across both, you’ll manage a portfolio of clients alongside the Principal, keep work moving against deadlines, and escalate early when something looks off.

WHAT WE’RE LOOKING FOR

You don’t need to have done this work before. You need to care about it and be good at tax.

•   Two to four years of tax preparation experience in public accounting

•   Genuine interest in esports, competitive gaming, content creation, or the creator economy, with enough familiarity to speak credibly about how these businesses make money

•   Preparation experience across individual, S corporation, and partnership returns

•   Bachelor’s degree in accounting or a related field

•   Working knowledge of QuickBooks Online and cash-basis bookkeeping

•   Strong organizational skills and the ability to carry a client portfolio without constant prompting

•   Comfort learning new software quickly, including AI-assisted preparation tools

•   Coachable, with a genuine interest in being developed

•   Authorized to work in the U.S. without sponsorship, now and in the future

NICE TO HAVE

•   Hands-on accounting or tax experience serving clients in esports, content creation, sports, or entertainment

•   Direct experience with esports organizations or professional content creators specifically, as opposed to adjacent sports and entertainment work

•   CPA or EA license, or active progress toward one

•   Multi-state and apportionment experience

•   Intuit ProConnect and Karbon

•   Exposure to trust, estate, or international reporting

COMPENSATION AND BENEFITS

Base salary of $75,000 to $95,000, depending on experience, licensure, and location.

•   100 percent remote work environment

•   Medical, dental, and vision insurance contributions

•   4 percent 401(k) match

•   Unlimited PTO

•   Flexible schedule

•   Support toward CPA or EA licensure

ABOUT DARK HORSE

Dark Horse is a modern, first-of-its-kind CPA firm dedicated to creating a better career and life for public accountants while delivering unparalleled outcomes for clients. We primarily serve small businesses and entrepreneurs who are dark horses among their larger, more established competitors, and we build practices around the industries our people actually care about. Learn more at darkhorse.cpa and abetterway.cpa.

Dark Horse CPAs is an equal opportunity employer.