Barry Chaison

Director – State and Local Tax at Andersen Tax
Andersen Tax

I’m a Director in the Andersen Seattle office. Before joining Andersen, I worked for a year as an Accounting Manager/Tax Specialist for a security company in Portland, Oregon. Prior to that, I worked at Andersen starting in 2011 and re-joined as a Senior Associate in January 2016. My education background includes a Bachelors Degree in Economics from Willamette University in Salem, Oregon back in 2004, as well as an additional Bachelors Degree in Business from the University of Washington – Bothell campus in 2010. I have over 10 years of experience in the state and local tax area, with a primary focus in sales and use taxes. I’ve got significant experience in multi-state sales and use tax compliance as well as consulting. In addition, I’ve done some work in the multistate income and franchise tax compliance and consulting arenas. I serve multiple clients in a wide variety of industries including, retail, technology, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals and service providers. My experience includes preparing and reviewing sales and use tax returns, as well as state income and franchise tax returns. In addition, I have assisted clients in significant multistate compliance projects, including Voluntary Disclosure Agreements (VDA’s), Revenue Agent Reports (RAR’s), as well as numerous tax refund claims for both sales and income taxes.

Connect with Barry on LinkedIn.

Barry on mentorship

I’ve been through multiple careers throughout my adult life. I learned quickly how vital having a reliable and dependable mentor could be to my long term goals and growth. There’s no question in my mind that I wouldn’t be where I am today, and accomplished the growth I have as both a professional, and person, without my mentoring relationships (both as a mentee as well as a mentor). For students looking to figure out a career path, as well as experienced professionals looking to impart their wisdom, mentoring is vital at all levels. Mentors learn just as much, if not more, from mentees and mentees do from their mentors. I’m extremely excited to work with young students looking to either start their careers, make a career change, or just get more ideas on how to navigate the challenges of being a professional.

Specialty topics

• Careers in tax (regardless of specialty)
• Learning how to handle a good work/life balance
• Effective communication and client service skills
• Understanding the ins and outs of working in the confines of a team

Favorite books and learning resources

• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki – This book was the first book about financial education I read when I first started college. It was the foundation to get me excited about a career “working with numbers”.

Fun facts

I actually wrote and self-published a book on Amazon. It’s called Common Ground and I wrote it during the transition in my life between my career as a teacher and obtaining my CPA and going into the tax world.