The Impact of the Tax Team at GreatAmerica

Do you love numbers and spreadsheets? Eager to play a part in helping a company’s bottom line? Become part of the Tax Team at GreatAmerica!

Meet Emily. A graduate of Monmouth College in Illinois, Emily has worked at GreatAmerica since January of 2019. We sat down with Emily to learn a bit more about her experience choosing a career in Tax at GreatAmerica.

Emily’s Journey to the Tax Team

“As a little girl growing up in a small, rural Illinois, I vividly remember visiting my grandma at the local grain elevator and playing on what we called her “adding machine.” We would watch the trucks come off the scale and I would watch her add up the numbers in awe of the whole process. Even as a small child, I loved all things numbers and solving problems!

When the time came to think about colleges and what I wanted to study, there was no hesitation in choosing accounting. I knew I wanted to be constantly challenged, working with numbers, and helping to improve a company’s bottom line. As I took more accounting courses, I confidently made my mind up that I absolutely never wanted to work in tax. A couple years after graduation and working as a corporate accountant, I found GreatAmerica, joined the Tax Team, and had to eat my words!”

Emily’s Experience Working with the Tax Team

Emily describes her environment as, “Each day working in the Tax Team is completely different. There are constantly new challenges, new topics to research, new phone calls to make to jurisdictions, and new assets that need to be reported for both sales and property tax. We work with the teams at GreatAmerica, researching new topics brought forth by dealers or customers. We talk with states or localities on sales tax topics and speak with assessors and collectors to work through property tax questions on assessments and bills. On top of it all, we ensure that the appropriate sales tax, property tax, and income tax returns are being filed timely and all tax payments are paid on time.

The world of tax is ever changing. By staying up to date on tax laws, we get to make a difference in the tax reporting for GreatAmerica, which not only makes a difference in our company’s bottom line, but the bottom lines of our lessees, too, when we ensure the correct tax is being calculated and billed on their invoices.

The teamwork that happens here in tax is unparalleled—our teammates feel equipped to suggest process improvements that become strategic initiatives. This promotes efficiencies to allow for more time to enhance our current processes and systems. These experiences help each member of the tax team take charge of their futures by expanding their knowledge and skills while contributing to the overall success of the team and company, ultimately leading to each person’s growth here at GreatAmerica. Watching the light bulbs go off and seeing those transformations happen is truly one of the most exciting parts of working on the Tax Team.

Here in Tax, we ensure that everyone’s voices are heard and we make sure that each person feels like I did when I was a little girl at the grain elevator—in awe of work the Tax Team does for GreatAmerica!”

Would you like to be part of the GreatAmerica Tax Team? Check out our careers page for this and other positions we currently have open.