What are the responsibilities and job description for the Tax Principal position at Prescott Tax and Wealth Management?
This is a senior leadership role with a clear, time-boxed path to ownership. We are hiring our next firm partner — not filling a chair.
About Prescott Tax & Wealth Management
Founded in 1997, Prescott Tax & Wealth Management (PTWM) is a boutique tax and wealth advisory firm headquartered in San Juan Capistrano, midway between San Diego and Los Angeles. We serve high-net-worth individuals, families, and privately held businesses with a fully integrated platform spanning tax planning and compliance, wealth management, financial and retirement planning, and benefits and insurance.
Our team of 15 professionals brings more than 250 years of combined experience and a culture that takes the work — but not itself — seriously. The integration of tax and wealth under one roof is genuinely unusual in our market, and it is the engine behind both our client outcomes and our partners’ economics.
The Opportunity
We are seeking a Tax Principal to run our tax practice alongside the firm’s founder and managing partner. You will own the day-to-day management of the practice, hold ultimate review and sign-off authority on client returns, and lead the tax team. This is a senior leadership role and an explicit partner-track opportunity: the right candidate will move into equity ownership within three to five years based on performance, with a defined framework around book of business, profitability, and leadership contribution.
You will be the tax practice’s most senior client-facing advisor, mentor a team of tax professionals, and have a direct hand in firm strategy. With tax and wealth under one roof, you have the rare opportunity to serve as a truly integrated advisor — addressing a client’s full financial picture rather than one slice of it. That holistic advisory model is what differentiates this role, and it shapes the long-term economics for the partner who helps build the practice.
What You'll Do
• Serve as the lead tax advisor to our high-net-worth clients on planning, compliance, and strategy
• Hold ultimate review and sign-off authority on individual, partnership, and S-corporation returns
• Manage the tax practice end-to-end — workflow, capacity planning, quality control, engagement
economics, and busy-season execution
• Provide expertise in flow-through taxation, estate and gift planning, and wealth transfer strategy
• Identify proactive, multi-year tax planning opportunities — not just reactive compliance
• Lead, mentor, and grow the tax team; foster a collaborative, high-standards environment
• Partner with the wealth management team to deliver integrated tax financial planning solutions
• Contribute to firm leadership, practice development, and long-term strategic initiatives
• Build and protect long-term client relationships through exceptional, personalized service
• Stay current on tax law changes and translate them into actionable client advice
What You'll Bring
• CPA required (EA considered with strong technical background)
• 10 years of progressive tax experience, with meaningful depth in flow-through entities (partnerships, S-corps) and HNW individual taxation
• Strong technical expertise in partnership, S-corporation, and complex individual returns; estate and gift experience strongly preferred
• Proven ability to develop and maintain client relationships and deliver strategic tax solutions
• Excellent leadership, communication, and mentoring skills — you raise the level of the people around you
• Prior experience at a boutique tax advisory, wealth management firm, or public accounting firm serving similar HNW clientele
• Master's in Taxation a plus, not a requirement
• Working knowledge of Lacerte and QuickBooks helpful
• Entrepreneurial mindset — you want to own a piece of what you build, not just collect a paycheck
Compensation & Benefits
Base salary: $200,000 – $300,000, commensurate with experience. The range reflects the spread between a strong step-up candidate and a proven, partner-ready hire — we will pay top of range for the right person.
Performance bonus: Up to 30% of base, tied to firm profitability, book growth, client retention, and team leadership. Upside multiplier available on originated revenue.
Equity / ownership track: Defined three- to five-year, performance-based path to equity partnership.
Integrated practice economics: Your comp participates in the full advisory relationship you build with each client, not just the tax engagement — reflecting the broader value an integrated advisor delivers.
• Benefits: $500/month employer contribution toward healthcare coverage
• 401(k) with 3% safe harbor employer contribution
• Minimum four weeks of PTO plus paid firm holidays
• CPA license fees, AICPA and CA Society of CPAs dues, and CPE budget
• Paid relocation assistance for the right candidate
• Hybrid schedule — in-office presence with genuine remote flexibility
Why This Role Is Different
Most Tax Principal roles are titles attached to senior-employee economics. This one isn't. We are hiring the person who will help us run — and eventually own — the next chapter of this firm. If you've spent a decade building someone else's practice and you're ready to build your own equity, we should talk.
Three reasons strong candidates pick PTWM:
1. Integrated platform — tax and wealth under one roof, which means deeper client relationships and a fuller advisory role than you’ll find at a pure-tax firm.
2. Boutique, sophisticated client base — challenging work without the bureaucracy of a large firm.
3. Written, time-boxed path to partner — not a vague "we'll see how it goes."
Salary : $200,000 - $300,000