Virtual CPA Practice, 38-Year Tax & Accounting Firm (Relocatable)

$900K

Revenue

$572K

SDE

2.9x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a 38-year-old virtual CPA practice built on tax preparation, compliance, and payroll services for a diversified client base. The firm serves roughly 417 individual tax clients, 300 business clients (corporations and partnerships), and 43 trust/other clients, with an average individual tax fee near $1,120. The virtual, relocatable operating model means the buyer inherits the client relationships and workflow rather than a lease or physical footprint tied to Teton County, Wyoming.

The economics are attractive on paper: $900,000 in gross revenue converting to $572,000 in SDE, a 64% owner-earnings margin that is characteristic of a well-run, low-overhead solo CPA practice. The catch is concentration risk. The listing shows a single full-time employee, which means the departing CPA is the practice, and the durability of the earnings depends entirely on how transferable those client relationships are to a successor.

What makes this notable is the combination of long tenure, sticky tax and compliance work, and a semi-retirement seller willing to stay on for a few years alongside one key employee who intends to remain long term. That structure gives a buyer a real runway to absorb the book, get client-facing during at least one full tax season, and re-sign the base before the seller fully steps away. Accounting practices are among the most recession-resilient service businesses because tax filing and compliance are non-discretionary regardless of the economy.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong on the surface with $572,000 of SDE on $900,000 of revenue, a 64% margin that reflects genuinely low overhead in a virtual model. Recurring annual tax and compliance work means the revenue largely repeats each year without re-winning the sale, which is the closest thing services get to an annuity.
The moat is client stickiness and switching friction. Small businesses, individuals, and trusts rarely change accountants because their financial history, filings, and trust are embedded with one preparer, and this book has been building relationships since 1988. That inertia protects retention if the transition is handled well.
Tax and accounting are structurally recession-proof. Filing, payroll compliance, and IRS deadlines do not pause in a downturn, so demand is non-cyclical and pricing power is durable. The average individual fee of roughly $1,120 also suggests room for annual increases without meaningful attrition.
The operator advantage here is clean. A CPA or existing firm can bolt this 760-plus client book onto an existing platform, spread it across staff, and immediately expand margin, while the seller staying on for a few years plus a long-term key employee de-risks the handoff of relationships.

How to improve it

Segment the client base by fee and profitability within the first 90 days and reprice the bottom tier of individual returns. With an average fee near $1,120 and 417 individual clients, even a 10% increase across the base adds roughly $47,000 of near-pure-margin revenue with minimal churn risk.
Convert one-time tax clients into year-round retainers by cross-selling bookkeeping, advisory, and quarterly planning. The 300 business clients are the obvious target, since ongoing monthly engagements smooth revenue and increase per-client value well beyond a single annual filing.
Expand the payroll compliance offering into a fuller managed payroll and compliance subscription. This is already a service line, so packaging it as a recurring monthly product deepens the relationship and adds predictable revenue between tax seasons.
Build capacity beyond the single full-time employee before the next tax season. Bringing on preparers or offshore support lets a buyer take on more of the seller's client-facing work, reduces key-person risk, and creates headroom to acquire more books.
Systematize and document the workflow, client files, and software stack while the seller is still engaged. A virtual practice lives or dies on process discipline, and codifying it protects retention and makes the practice a repeatable platform for tuck-in acquisitions.
Use the retained relationships to drive referrals into a formal growth channel. A 38-year practice almost certainly has an untapped referral base, and a simple client referral program plus targeted digital marketing can add clients without the cost of buying another book.

Diligence notes

Quantify key-person risk immediately. With one full-time employee and an owner who has personally held the relationships since 1988, confirm exactly which clients are tied to the seller versus the practice, and structure the deal so the seller's multi-year stay and the key employee's retention are contractually locked with clawbacks tied to retention.
Scrutinize client retention history and revenue by cohort. Ask for three years of client-level revenue to see churn, fee trends, and whether the $900,000 top line is flat, growing, or declining, since a shrinking book changes the multiple materially.
Verify the SDE build. A 64% margin is plausible for a virtual solo practice but confirm what add-backs are included, whether the seller's compensation reflects the true cost to replace their production, and what the practice earns after paying a market wage for the work the owner performs.
Confirm the asking price and terms, since the listing shows $1,650,000 in the headline but references $1,350,000 at 1.5x gross elsewhere. Clarify which price stands, what is included, and reconcile the 2.88x SDE multiple against typical accounting-practice comps of roughly 1x revenue or 2.5x to 3.5x SDE.
Assess the software and platform stack for transferability. Confirm which tax, payroll, and workflow tools are in use, whether client data and portals move cleanly to a buyer, and that there are no licensing or state-registration constraints given the relocatable, multi-state client base.
Review licensing and liability exposure. Confirm state CPA licensing requirements for the buyer, verify E&O coverage and any open client disputes or IRS matters, and understand how trust and business filings tie into the seller's personal credentials during the transition.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →