Joining the Tax team at Column is one of the most unique opportunities in in the tax industry.
We are the first tax startup in nearly two decades to raise >$25m. We have significant traction and a new business model in the the DIY, income tax space. Our approach, team, and backing make us the first company with a real chance to remake how 70m filers access tax software each year.
What makes this role so attractive:
We have strong traction & a large business opportunity.
We grew 100x last year and have significant traction with large partners. We’re on a fast path to a sustainable, long term business.
We have long term funding to make this happen.
We have over a decade of runway with the money we have raised. We are in this for the long haul as a company.
Your work will help underserved taxpayers.
Our mission is to help the lowest-income Americans receive better tax help. You can read about how we saved low income filers over $1m last year.
We pay top of the market on compensation.
This is both for salary & equity compensation! We want all team members at Column Tax to share in the large upside here. See more in the FAQs below.
You’ll work alongside a world-class team.
Our founding tax, engineering & product team come from world-class companies like Google, Intuit, Slack, Cash App, Robinhood and many more!
You’ll play a big role on the team here.
You’ll own large, impactful projects from day one. You’ll have a chance to build a tax engine the right way, from the ground up!
The Column tax team:
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FAQs:
As a startup, we often get questions about how development & QA is different than Tax Analyst jobs at large tax software companies. We’ve tried to bring together some of those initial answers here! We’d be so excited to share more with you about the role & team here on a call as well.
Joining a startup feels risky. How risky is joining Column Tax?
What makes this opportunity so unique: A combination of low short term risk with an opportunity to still join at the ground floor. There is no risk of Column Tax going away in the short term.
This is the result of our fundraising from large institutional venture capital firms (like Bain Capital Ventures). We have over $20m in the bank to make this happen.
Like all companies, we have to build a long term sustainable business. We are on a fast path there and have lots of opportunity ahead to do so. We can share on a call how we think about the product growth (e.g. # of filings, # of partners) needed to reach this point and the plan we have to get there.
A number of people from our team left jobs at large public companies to come join here (Google, Intuit, Twitter, Slack, Robinhood, etc.). If you want to talk with one of the team members who left to hear how they thought about this, we’d be happy to connect you!
I’ve often heard startups are chaotic, what should I expect if i join Column Tax?
We work very hard to build a sustainable work culture at Column Tax. We are in this for the long haul. We don’t want to build a company or culture where people burn out each tax season. We are building something truly enduring with the team here.
We start with a strong culture of pragmatic planning. We always have a 6 month product roadmap broken down into 6 week milestones. We then set weekly goals with daily standups that have both engineering & tax teams in them. This builds a foundation across the team so everyone is on the same page and in it together.
Other specific ways we are creating a sustainable work culture at Column Tax:
- We offer unlimited paid time off with a 15 day minimum for every team member. We believe time off is key to recharging. Time off is truly off: No slack, email, meetings while you are out.
- We are practical about tradeoffs as a team. We are not a head in the clouds startup! We work hard to set realistic estimates on how long work will take. We balance different priorities. And we don’t believe asking people to work crazy hours can fix this. We’re all in it together as a team and when we add something to our roadmap, we take something equivalent off.
- We do not compromise on accuracy of our product! There is not pressure to “move fast and break things.” That is not the kind of company we want to build. We hire people who are motivated to build something great and we set a high bar for product quality as a team.
What is your business model?
We sell to businesses (like banks and fintech companies) that embed Column Tax as a whitelabel tax solutions in their app. This approach is uniquely suited to change the industry.
Today, the $15B tax market is structured where tax companies (like Intuit and H&R Block) sell directly to customers. Our model is different: Banks/Fintech companies pay Column Tax for each filing. Those partners make money by capturing tax refund deposits in their bank account, increasing retention and using tax filing to acquire new users.
This combination means we are both able to (A) Build a great business at Column Tax and (B) Offer significantly lower prices (often free) on filing to end users.
What makes Column Tax different from something like TurboTax?
For companies that sell directly to consumers the incentives are to maximize upsells, raise prices and sell more products since this is what drives this revenue. There is nothing wrong with this! It’s natural based on the incentives on the business model.
We unlock something new with our embedded approach: An incentive to deliver high quality, low-cost, efficient & reliable products to end users that make our partners look great.
In this new model, our partner pays us and offers our tax products for lower (often free), transparent prices to their users. We are able to do this because of the value we bring directly to the bank partner (capturing deposits, increasing retention, increasing user acquisition).
By building the product in an embedded way, there is also a unique opportunity to reimagine the status quo of tax products from the ground up. This includes:
- Connected user experience. By connecting with financial apps that already have information we can pre-populate relevant fields & cut down on the number of questions a user needs to answer to file their taxes.
- Year-round relationships. By embedding where peoples’ financials lives already are, we have an opportunity to help people beyond just filing season.
- No in product upsells. We do not build the capability to upsell end users in our product. Our partner sets the prices (often free) and that’s that.
What is the pay (salary & equity compensation) for this role?
We pay top of the market on compensation (both salary & equity). We want to build a team with the best talent in the tax industry. In order to do that, we want to be very competitive on compensation.
Our actual salary & equity amounts vary by level (we’ll work with you individually on this) but across the board we will be competitive with any other offer in the industry.
What benefits do you offer?
We offer very competitive benefits for all team members at Column Tax!
- Competitive salary and equity available for all employees
- Health coverage: Medical, dental and vision for you and your family
- Flexible vacation policy: Take the time you need, whenever you need to, with our unlimited paid time off policy
- 401(k) plan
- Flexible work options (100% remote or onsite in New York City)
- Home office stipend when you join to help set up your workspace
- Stipend to cover tax prep each year!
- Annual company offsites and additional stipends for team gatherings
What would my day-to-day look like on the team?
No two days are alike (one of the things that makes this role fun!) In general, you will be responsible for building out parts of our income tax filing product. This will include:
- Translating tax logic/forms into code using our internal Tax Analyst tools
- Building end-to-end tests for tax calculations to ensure accuracy
- Scoping product requirements
- Defining inputs and the interface that end users interact with
- Working closely with engineering to build better tools for our Tax Analyst team
Do I have to be technical to do this role?
You just need to be “tax” technical (strong income tax expertise) to be a very successful team member here! We will teach you anything you need to know on the technical side.
If you have more experience with coding, writing product requirements, or other technical areas that is a bonus! There will be opportunities for you to apply those on your work and specific projects here.