Grossman St. Amour starts new equestrian-related practice group

SYRACUSE — Grossman St. Amour CPAs is launching a new practice group focusing on equine-related businesses.

The equestrian accounting services practice group will provide accounting, tax, and consulting services in areas like recreational and competitive sports jumping and entertainment. Clients could include riders, owners, trainers, breeders, horse farms, veterinarians, and others.

Paul Mahalick, the group’s leader and a partner at Grossman St. Amour, spent two years working as a controller at a local horse farm earlier in his career. He says the job gave him insight into the business that an outside accountant wouldn’t get.

As a result, Mahalick was able to develop a client base in the equine industry when he returned to practice as a CPA. That work has been growing so much in recent years that Grossman decided to form the practice group around it, Mahalick says.

“More recently [the work] has been multiplying because people have realized there’s an accounting firm with a specialty in the equestrian world,” he adds. “Now it’s developed to where we need a team of people working on these issues.”

Mahalick’s experience includes international taxation of individual athletes and corporations, equine operations, veterinary practices, real estate, telecommunications, bankruptcy, and entity restructuring.

Grossman has hired five people in the past year, including two who work with the equine group. The group has three people working with it total.

The equine practice has clients throughout the country and Mahalick frequently travels to meet with them.

Travel is one of the unique aspects of competitive equine events that can make accounting for those involved challenging, Mahalick says. Riders, trainers, groomers, and of course the horses themselves all travel around the nation and world for competitions.

It creates a more complex situation for tax purposes. Riders, for example, are treated differently under tax laws depending on whether they’re competing overseas.

The travel also means the equine practice has to stay nimble.

“So much of their business is on the go,” Mahalick says. “You need to be flexible in your approach to providing excellent service to them.”

In addition, the revenue flow for an operation like a horse farm is somewhat more uneven than, say, a manufacturer, he adds.

And understanding those nuances is what will help Grossman’s equine practice to grow further, says Mahalick, who has been with Grossman 16 years.

Grossman St. Amour was formerly known as Green & Seifter CPAs. The Syracuse–based firm employs 45 people and changed its name last year to reflect its current managing partners. Gary Grossman and Steven St. Amour have owned the firm since 2000.

The firm, founded in 1957, provides services in areas including accounting, audits, taxation, business planning and valuation, financial planning, investment management, and fraud examination and deterrence. Its clients include businesses and individuals.

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com