Tom Smith
State & Local Tax Principal
CPA
Executive Summary
Tom is a principal in BDO's State & Local Tax practice, leads the Tulsa office, and serves as the firm's national SALT healthcare industry leader.
Tom’s career began as an auditor for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, where he spent over six years performing out-of-state audits. He frequently conducted training classes, performed numerous computerized samples, and was also called upon to testify as an expert witness on several occasions. This foundation with the state gave him special insight as he moved into public accounting, where he focused on the oil and gas industry for many years. He then moved to Atlanta for several years, working and cultivating relationships throughout the Southeast, with a focus on Nashville, Tennessee. During those years he developed significant experience in the healthcare industry and still serves many of those clients today, specializing in acute care facilities.
Back in Oklahoma, Tom joined BDO as the partner in charge of Southwest State & Local Tax after BDO acquired his practice in 2014, and led a team of over 100 SALT professionals in six offices in Texas and Oklahoma.
In 2018 he co-led the creation of the Sales Tax Automation team and eventually led that team until 2023. The team specializes in analyzing tax processes related to sales and use tax, designing new processes, and implementing automated solutions using custom and third-party software.
Tom is a frequent speaker on the topic of state taxation for LAT Seminars, the Oklahoma Society of CPAs, Vertex, Thomson Reuters, and Council of Petroleum Accountants Societies. He also speaks as a subject matter expert at many CPA firms nationwide.