THE TOP TAX FIRMS
As with our Top 100 overall, 2011 was a better year for the Top Tax Firms in the country — with the notable exception of franchiser Jackson Hewitt,
which filed for bankruptcy shortly after last tax season; needless to say, the company didn’t report any figures for 2011. Those tax firms that made it
through, though, mostly reported growing their revenues, despite ongoing problems finding banks to provide RALs. Even H&R Block, which reported
a slight decrease in overall revenue, noted that it had prepared over a million more returns in 2011 than in 2010.
Firm
H&R Block P 1
PwC§
Deloitte§
Ernst & Young §
KPMG §
McGladrey & Pullen2
Liberty Tax Services3
Grant Thornton
Ryan
CBIZ / Mayer Hoffman McCann
BDO USA
BKD
Crowe Horwath
WTAS
Moss Adams
Dixon Hughes Goodman
Headquarters Chief executive
Rev.
from tax
($mn)
$2,912.36
2,564.76
2,387.80
2,325.00
1,393.86
491.84
333.51
332.37
233.50
161.33
160.16
125.18
121.83
120.30
113.05
106.20
%
from
tax
77
29
20
31
26
36
100
29
100
27
28
32
23
100
35
36
Total
revenue
$3,774.30
8,844.00
11,939.00
7,500.00
5,361.00
1,370.42
333.51
1,146.12
233.50
597.50
572.00
391.20
529.71
120.30
323.00
295.00
%
chg.
-2.58
10.08
9. 15
5.63
9.65
-0.61
14.34
5.57
7.85
1.17
-2.22
0.10
8. 15
4.70
2.22
52.85
Offices
11,068
73
100
78
88
85
3,590
56
46
150
41
30
28
14
19
30
Total
staff
107,200
32,993
51,262
26,500
22,278
7,046
416
5,847
790
4,023
2,566
1,844
2,420
501
1,741
1,616
Notes: P Figures compiled from public company reports. ƒ Franchise. Figures may not include franchise operations.
NA Not available/applicable § Gross revenue
1 Staff figures include seasonal workers. 2 Reported fee split as both dollar amount (given here) and percentage.
3 Franchise; revenue includes franchises; employee figure represents only corporate employees.
STRATEGIES
from page 8
initiatives, chief among them WCF Advisors, a corporate finance subsidiary. Augmenting those initiatives was a new digital
forensics lab, and TechPro, a proprietary
tool that allows nonprofit and government
organizations to manage their information
security and governance IT.
The newly created Warren Averett
— a 550-member power in the Southeast
with 11 offices — under an agreement with
Rodl Warren Averett, its joint venture concern, opened a Korean business services
office in Alabama in the Korean Automotive Corridor, which specializes in serving
U.S.-based subsidiaries of Korean entities.
In July, Pennsylvania’s Reinsel Kuntz
Lesher expanded its reach to include se-
nior services, acquiring the Senior Living
Consulting Group of ParenteBeard, a move
that added one partner and one principal
to the firm. Internally, RKL expanded the
use of its client portal, giving its clients
24/7 access to documents, and completed
the virtualization of the firm’s servers and
implemented an HR information system
to help address a number of recordkeeping
and operations issues.
SOCIAL MEDIA AND YOUNG STAFF
A number of T100 Firms have boosted
their use of social media, most notably
New Jersey-based WithumSmith+Brown,
whose two highly publicized in-house
dance videos went viral online. The most
recent one also highlighted its end-of-the-
year merger with EisnerLubin, as well as
serving as a recruiting conduit to lure new
and prospective young employees to the
firm. WS+B’s Garden State competitor, J.H.
Cohn, also used various social media out-
lets to attract employees, and as a vehicle
to keep clients abreast of news in the firm.
