A tax guru whose contributions go beyond numbers

Patricia Thompson had her sights set on becoming a math teacher when she attended the University of Rhode Island – that is until her first class as a freshman.
After that physics class more than 35 years ago, she returned to her dorm room and flipped through the course catalogue.
Her doubts about being a math teacher had been stirred up by the thought of returning to that physics class and concerns about her job prospects when her schooling was over.
“I started to think about the future,” she recalls. “So I started at the beginning [of the catalogue] and the first thing I came across was accounting.”
She figured it was a profession that involved math – a favorite topic – so she immediately switched her field of study.
In hindsight, the spur-of-the-moment decision was the right one.
More than three decades later, Thompson is a partner at Providence-based Piccerelli, Gilstein & Co. LLP, and she has become one of the top authorities on tax issues in the state.
Thompson also has had a prominent role on the Tax Policy Workgroup assembled by the Carcieri administration last year, and she is a member of one of the committees that helps set policy for the influential American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA).
It’s no wonder she has been named Providence Business News’ 2009 Businesswoman Industry Leader in Financial Services.
There’s no doubt she puts a lot of work into staying on top of the ever-changing tax regulations. She’s reading constantly, and she willingly – even eagerly – makes frequent presentations for various business groups on a wide range of tax topics.
And that’s on top of the day-to-day duties Thompson performs as a certified public accountant and tax partner at Piccerelli, Gilstein & Co., working with local companies and high net worth individuals.
Yes, she has some long days, but Thompson says she loves it all.
“I like puzzles, so I feel like I’m solving puzzles,” she says, explaining her passion for accounting and taxes, topics others might consider a tad dry.
At the start of Thompson’s career, there was little indication of the heights she would eventually reach in the profession.
In 1976, fresh out of URI, she took a job in a three-person accounting firm – her, her boss and a secretary. The workplace, Thompson said, was a bit unorthodox.
The firm owner typically worked from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m., which didn’t make it easy for Thompson to bloom professionally.
“If I wanted to learn anything, I’d have to stay after hours,” she recalls. “And I did.”
At the same time, there was little encouragement to seek a CPA designation. It wasn’t until Thompson worked with a female accountant from a national firm that was auditing one of Thompson’s clients that she realized that she should strive for more.
That’s when she joined Piccerelli, Gilstein & Co. as a senior assistant. Over the years, she has steadily climbed the ladder, from senior accountant, supervisor, manager to partner in the 1990s. At the time, she was the firm’s first female partner.
Along the way, Thompson earned her CPA designation, a master’s degree in taxation from then-Bryant College in 1986 and a personal financial specialist designation from the AICPA in 1996.
“Every 10 years, I was getting a degree,” she says. “But I decided I should start concentrating on my work.”
She has been concentrating on work, but she’s also interested in showing others how it’s done.
Thompson said making presentations on tax issues – she says she has three scheduled in the coming weeks, including one for Family Court officials on tax issues and divorce – satisfies the side of her that wanted to become a teacher back in the early 1970s.
Also satisfying to her was her time as an adjunct professor at Bryant University, teaching a course on partnership taxation.
Then there are the countless committees, boards, panels and workgroups of which Thompson has been a member.
For instance, she’s a past president of the Rhode Island Estate Council, a past president of the Rhode Island Society of Certified Public Accountants and a member of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce’s tax advisory committee.
A highlight of her career has been serving on a 12-member tax executive committee of the AICPA, which represents 330,000 accounting professional nationwide. She had previously served on the AICPA’s tax legislation and policy committee, too.
With those credentials, it’s no wonder she was asked to participate in Gov. Donald L. Carcieri’s Tax Policy Workgroup, which was charged with developing recommendations on overhauling the state’s tax structure to encourage economic development.
Thompson’s subcommittee came up with suggestions to lower the state’s sales tax by broadening the items that can be taxed. It also recommended tweaking the tax brackets.
When she reached the level of partner at her firm, Thompson says, she found herself asking, “What are you going to do next?”
The answer, for now, is simple: “What I really want to do is make a contribution,” Thompson says. &#8226