9 Best CPA Firms for State and Local Tax (SALT) Services in 2026

Key Takeaways

• A strong SALT provider should evaluate more than sales tax. Income and franchise tax, payroll tax, property tax, unclaimed property, credits, and transaction risk may also require attention.
• The right firm depends on operating footprint, transaction volume, internal tax capacity, industry, and whether the immediate need is prevention, compliance, remediation, or controversy.
• Bennett Thrasher ranks first for its practical, end-to-end SALT model spanning exposure identification, planning, compliance technology, remediation, incentives, property tax, and disputes.
• SALT advice creates the most value when it is connected to business events such as hiring, entering a new market, changing software, acquiring a company, or opening a facility.

State and local tax obligations now develop wherever a business sells, hires, stores inventory, owns property, or changes its operating structure. A company can create filing requirements long before its leadership team realizes that a new jurisdiction has entered the picture. That makes SALT less of an annual-return issue and more of a continuous operating risk.

Why SALT Demands a Different Type of CPA Relationship in 2026

Federal tax work often revolves around a relatively stable set of filing entities and deadlines. SALT work is more fragmented. Every state can define nexus, taxability, sourcing, apportionment, exemptions, filing frequency, and administrative procedure differently. Local jurisdictions may add another layer. A rule that applies to tangible goods may not apply to software, data, professional services, digital products, or bundled offerings in the same way.

Economic nexus rules also mean that physical presence is no longer the only trigger finance teams must watch. Revenue, transaction counts, payroll, remote employees, inventory held by third parties, marketplace activity, and temporary project work can all change a company's filing profile. As a result, yesterday's clean compliance map may not reflect today's facts.

This is why selecting a SALT firm should begin with the operating model rather than a generic service list. Businesses need advisors who can reconstruct where obligations exist, determine which products or services are taxable, quantify historical exposure, recommend a remediation path, support registrations and filings, and build a repeatable monitoring process. When acquisitions, audits, or refund opportunities arise, the provider should also be able to move from routine compliance into higher-judgment advisory work.

At a Glance: Leading SALT CPA Firms

The 9 Best CPA Firms for State and Local Tax Services

1. Bennett Thrasher

Bennett Thrasher is the best overall choice for businesses that need to turn a complicated multistate footprint into an actionable tax program. Its SALT practice is designed around the problems finance teams actually encounter: unclear exposure, inconsistent registrations, expanding sales tax duties, legacy liabilities, missed incentives, property assessments, and disputes with tax authorities. That range allows an engagement to begin with a targeted study and develop into ongoing support without forcing the client to coordinate several unrelated providers.

The firm's exposure work covers all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Its advisors conduct sales and income tax nexus studies, calculate potential liabilities, and help remediate prior-period risk. Where voluntary disclosure is appropriate, the team can negotiate with state authorities. Where the business has already entered an audit or appeal, Bennett Thrasher can support dispute resolution. This continuity matters because the facts established during a nexus study should carry into the remediation and defense strategy.

2. Aprio

Aprio is a compelling option for growth companies that want a broad SALT practice with a visible emphasis on multistate compliance and remediation. The firm positions its team as a single-source provider for state and local tax needs, with guidance across all 50 states. Its service set covers the common progression from discovering an obligation to resolving past exposure and maintaining compliance going forward.

Nexus and taxability reviews are central to Aprio's approach. The firm assesses both current and prior nexus, researches how products and services are treated for sales tax purposes, and estimates historical liability. If the review identifies unreported obligations, Aprio can assist with voluntary disclosure agreements. This makes the firm relevant to digital businesses, e-commerce companies, and organizations that have expanded faster than their tax processes.

3. RSM US

RSM US is a strong choice for larger middle-market organizations that require specialist teams across multiple SALT categories. Its practice addresses state income and franchise tax, credits and incentives, payroll and employment taxes, property tax, abandoned and unclaimed property, and indirect taxes such as sales and use tax. This breadth can be useful when a company has a mature federal tax function but fragmented ownership of state obligations.

The firm's income and franchise tax capabilities combine planning, compliance, apportionment, audit defense, and controversy support. RSM also brings dedicated indirect tax services that can address sales and use tax automation, compliance, recovery, and audit matters across U.S. jurisdictions. For finance leaders, the advantage is access to specialists without treating each tax type as a completely separate vendor relationship.

4. Cherry Bekaert

Cherry Bekaert offers a practical SALT proposition for businesses that want planning and compliance advice tied closely to organizational structure. Its team highlights entity review, nexus consulting, credit and incentive identification, overall tax planning effectiveness, and negotiations with state taxing authorities. That combination is useful when exposure results from how a business is organized, where people perform work, or how operations have changed over time.

The firm can help clients evaluate whether legal entities remain necessary and whether their current structure creates avoidable complexity. It also supports businesses in assessing nexus and resolving outstanding state tax exposure. For companies with a history of acquisitions, reorganizations, or decentralized operations, that structural perspective can uncover issues that a return-only review might miss.

5. Forvis Mazars

Forvis Mazars is a credible option for organizations with a wide range of SALT obligations, including less visible categories that may sit outside the normal sales tax conversation. Its service portfolio includes income and franchise tax, property tax, credits and incentives, payroll tax consulting, unclaimed property, insurance premium tax, and telecommunications-related regulatory and tax work. This makes the firm relevant to businesses with asset-heavy, regulated, or specialized operating models.

Within income and franchise tax, Forvis Mazars supports nexus reviews, apportionment and unitary studies, refund reviews, voluntary disclosures, audit defense, entity restructuring, and compliance. It also addresses the state tax implications of mergers and acquisitions through buy-side and sell-side diligence. These capabilities are important because transaction models can understate value leakage when historical SALT liabilities or filing gaps are not identified early.

6. Crowe

Crowe is well positioned for companies that want technical SALT support alongside process optimization. Its state and local tax practice spans income and franchise tax, indirect taxes, real and personal property tax, and related compliance and planning needs. The firm frequently emphasizes using technology and process design to improve how tax data is collected, analyzed, and reported.

For income and franchise tax, Crowe can support planning, compliance, and tax process improvement. Its property tax services include assessment valuation, negotiation and appeals, compliance, bill processing, planning, and audit support. That breadth is valuable for organizations with distributed locations or substantial fixed assets, where property tax work can become a high-volume operational function rather than an occasional advisory project.

7. Baker Tilly

Baker Tilly is a notable choice for multistate companies with demanding sales and use tax operations. Its indirect tax practice supports compliance, nexus analysis, automation, refund reviews, and audit defense. The firm cites a large specialist team and coverage across U.S. jurisdictions, which can be useful for businesses processing significant transaction volume or operating in industries with complicated taxability rules.

The firm's sales and use tax work is especially relevant when tax determination and filing processes need improvement together. Baker Tilly can assess technology, help automate calculations, support return compliance, and review overpayments. Its audit defense experience can also help businesses respond when taxing authorities challenge product treatment, exemption documentation, sourcing, or use tax accruals.

8. EisnerAmper

EisnerAmper provides a flexible SALT offering for businesses, government organizations, and individuals that need customized advice rather than a standardized compliance package. Its services include nexus, apportionment, tax decision matrices, exposure analysis, and remediation across sales and use tax and income and franchise tax. These capabilities are particularly relevant when a company must evaluate several possible operating or transaction structures.

The firm's approach is well suited to situations where facts and commercial priorities need to shape the tax answer. A tax decision matrix, for example, can help leaders compare the consequences of different entity, location, or transaction choices instead of receiving a single conclusion without operational context. Exposure analysis and remediation can then address historical risk uncovered during the review.

9. PKF O'Connor Davies

PKF O'Connor Davies is a strong regional and middle-market option for clients that value a relationship-led approach. Its SALT practice covers income, sales, payroll, personal property, and gross receipts taxes as well as unclaimed property and credits and incentives. This breadth provides a useful foundation for privately held companies, family enterprises, investment structures, and organizations with concentrated operations in the Northeast plus activity in other states.

The firm emphasizes year-round collaboration rather than treating state returns as an isolated annual task. That approach is important because SALT exposure changes with business activity. New employees, customers, entities, property, and transactions can alter the filing map between tax seasons. An ongoing advisor can identify those changes earlier and align planning with compliance.

How to Choose a SALT Firm for Your Operating Model

The best-known firm is not automatically the best operational fit. A company should begin by defining the problem it needs the provider to solve. A nexus study, a national compliance program, an acquisition diligence project, and an active state audit require different staffing, data, and turnaround models. Treating them as one generic request for SALT support makes proposals difficult to compare.

Map the Tax Types Before Comparing Providers

Sales tax receives much of the attention after economic nexus, but a business may have significant exposure elsewhere. Remote employees can affect withholding and income tax nexus. Property may create assessment and filing obligations. Legal entities may owe franchise or gross receipts taxes even when they have limited taxable income. Unclaimed property can accumulate outside the tax department entirely.

Create an initial map of tax types, jurisdictions, entities, systems, and business owners. The map does not need to be perfect. Its purpose is to show bidders where the company already sees risk and where discovery will be necessary. Providers can then propose the right specialist mix instead of assuming the engagement is only a sales tax project.

Distinguish Advice From Managed Execution

Some firms are strongest at high-judgment consulting, while others have extensive compliance operations. Many offer both, but the delivery teams may be separate. Ask who will register entities, prepare returns, approve filings, initiate payments, respond to notices, maintain taxability decisions, update software, and monitor thresholds.

A written responsibility matrix should accompany the scope. It should identify the client owner and provider owner for every recurring activity. Without that clarity, a technically sound nexus study can end with no one responsible for implementing its conclusions.

Test the Data Workflow

SALT compliance depends on transaction-level data. During selection, give the firm a realistic sample of the company's data structure. Ask how it will handle multiple enterprise resource planning systems, marketplace reports, exemption certificates, location codes, customer master data, and product taxability mappings.

The goal is not to demand a complete implementation during the proposal process. It is to determine whether the provider understands the data work behind the promised deliverables. A firm should be able to explain validation steps, exception handling, reconciliations, and how it will communicate data quality issues before deadlines.

Evaluate Remediation Judgment

Historical exposure does not always lead to the same response. Depending on the facts, a company may register prospectively, pursue a voluntary disclosure agreement, use an amnesty program, file prior returns, challenge the nexus conclusion, or document why no filing is required. The right choice depends on liability, lookback periods, penalties, customer relationships, transaction plans, and risk tolerance.

Ask prospective advisors to describe how they frame remediation decisions. Strong teams quantify scenarios, document assumptions, coordinate with legal counsel when privilege or litigation risk matters, and help management understand both the financial and operational consequences.

Confirm Senior Attention and Escalation Paths

The proposal team may not be the team that performs the work. Request named roles, expected time commitments, response standards, and escalation procedures. Determine which decisions require partner review and how the firm handles urgent notices, transaction deadlines, or state inquiries.

Senior involvement is especially important when rules are ambiguous or different tax types interact. Routine filings can follow a defined process, but sourcing disputes, restructuring, audit strategy, and voluntary disclosure decisions require experienced judgment.