Earlier this week, we ran a blog post about a man literally named Morgan Stanley who, until recently, worked at the bank called Morgan Stanley. This got us thinking about the phenomena of “aptonyms” (names amusingly appropriate to the person’s occupation) and “inaptonyms,” which in turn caused us to wonder: Is there anyone out there with the last name “Tax”? A quick Google search showed us that, yes, there were. This, in turn, led us to wonder: Are there any CPAs in New York named “Tax”? 

This is what led us to find a Mr. John Tax, a partner at Friedman LLP who does not actually work in tax at all, but in audit, specializing in public and private real estate investment trusts, partnerships and other pass-through entities. We gave Mr. Tax a phone call to ask him about his journey through the CPA profession and how his name factors into it.  

Thanks for taking the time to talk to us, Mr. Tax. First, how did you originally get interested in joining the accounting profession? 

I think it went back to high school. I took an accounting class and thought it was interesting. I was good with numbers and decided to go to college to major in accounting. Of course, that’s when all the jokes started and, yeah, yeah, yeah, my name’s Tax. I became an accountant and then got my CPA and worked for about four different firms now. But always on the audit side. 

So your name didn’t really factor into your choice of profession? 

As a 17-year-old high school kid, I wasn’t focused on the fact it was an accounting term. As I went through school, though, it would be, “You’re an accounting major, what’s your name? You’re kidding!” I worked for KPMG to start with, then E&Y then BDO and now Friedman, and it became a very funny thing. People interviewing me, clients I’d talk to, it was, “Seriously? Show me your driver’s license!” 

By now, I’ve pretty much heard every joke you can think of. 

So, you don’t do tax. Did you go into audit because going into tax would be way too obvious? 

What’s funny is I’ve never learned tax. Starting where I started, they have that line between audit and tax, and you do one or the other. And because I was just starting out, most accounting firms don’t hire directly into tax, but send you to audit, so I just started doing audit. I thought of trying out the tax side, but I really liked audit, and so I never thought to transfer, and so I never learned the tax side at all. When I joined this firm four months ago, they were saying, “You’re sitting on the wrong side; we’ve got to introduce you as John Tax from the tax group,” and, since we just got through the busy season, “Oh, John Tax, can you help us out?” And I always say I don’t know anything about tax. I mean, I can do simple forms, but anything complex I’m lost. But give me audit stuff, consulting stuff, I can handle that, I’m good. 

Finally, just how tired are you of people pointing out you’re a CPA named Tax? 

I get tired but I don’t. It’s a great icebreaker when meeting a new client. I hand a business card over and they [say], “Really? That’s your name?” and it breaks the ice and gets the client laughing, gets the client talking. I think of business on a very personal level, I don’t want to know a client on [the] business side only, and when you get someone laughing—and I can take it as a joke—it makes it easier for me to talk to them, and I think it makes for a better relationship. I’ve heard all the jokes already, but I don’t mind it; it makes people more at ease with me, and I can laugh at myself and the situation, and it does make the audit go smoother. 

I’ve done this for some 20 odd years now. The jokes have never stopped. I hope they don’t, though, because that makes my life a little easier.