Cherry Bekaert, a Top 25 Firm based in Richmond, Virginia, has acquired Tax Advantage Group, a consulting firm in Greenville, South Carolina, that specializes in providing services related to the New Markets Tax Credit to clients across the U.S.
TAG will now operate under the name Tax Advantage Group by Cherry Bekaert, adding six professionals to Cherry Bekaert’s Credits & Incentives practice.
TAG has been working in the NMTC industry since it was founded and so far has secured over $1.7 billion in funding through the NMTC, which provides tax incentives to businesses and private capital to invest in low-income communities. TAG offers NMTC compliance and asset management services, allocation applications, placement and deployment.
“The addition of TAG aligns with the firm’s strategic growth vision to enhance our value-added specialty tax offerings,” said Cherry Bekaert CEO and managing partner Michelle Thompson in a statement Wednesday. “TAG has a long track record of creating a substantial economic impact and making a difference for those that live and work in communities across the U.S. They will continue this record of success as a part of Cherry Bekaert.”
TAG founder Tammy Propst will become managing director of Tax Advantage Group by Cherry Bekaert. “Joining Cherry Bekaert — one of the 25 largest CPA and consulting firms in the country — provides an expanded platform for us to better service the growing demand of our client base,” she said in a statement. “This combination provides the opportunity to expand the economic impact we can have on the communities we care about.”
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Cherry Bekaert ranked 25th on Accounting Today’s 2020 list of the Top 100 Firms, with $219.3 million in annual revenue. The firm has more than 130 partners and over 1,000 employees.
The TAG staff will operate out of Cherry Bekaert’s Greenville office. Cherry Bekaert and TAG are both active in the larger Greenville community. TAG and its affiliate, the Innovate Fund, have deployed $154.5 million of NMTCs into Greenville projects to revive South Carolina’s low-income areas by providing capital and project management for borrowers in the community. TAG has structured and facilitated NMTC investments that have led to more than 14,500 direct jobs; served more than 489,000 clients through nonprofit investments; and helped create over 7.1 million square feet of new and improved commercial and industrial real estate. TAG’s portfolio includes investments in areas with poverty rates as high as 66.6 percent, median family income as low as 14.24 percent, and unemployment rates as high as 31.2 percent.
“The New Market Tax Credits program is an important economic development tool,” said Mark Cooter, managing partner of Cherry Bekaert’s Greenville office and leader of the firm’s Real Estate & Construction industry group, in a statement. “We have seen first-hand the value TAG has brought to the local Greenville market and look forward to expanding the economic impact across the country.”
In February, Cherry Bekaert acquired
