Inez M. Mello has been named principal and director of state and local tax services at Carlin, Charron & Rosen. Mello will be responsible for overseeing the firm’s state and local tax practice throughout New England. Before joining CCR, she had worked as a state and local tax specialist at a Rhode Island-based CPA firm and spent nine years as a corporate senior tax accountant for a Fortune 500 company. Mello has an MBA in taxation from Bryant University.
PBN: What will you do in your new position?
MELLO: It is my responsibility to oversee all multi-state and local tax issues for CCR’s client base. With offices in four major metropolitan areas, I hope to establish a multi-state tax institute that will not only service CCR’s client base but also offer state tax training seminars to the various business communities.
PBN: How have you worked to update our state and local taxation system?
MELLO: I have been involved with the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) since its inception in March of 2000. The SSTP is an effort by state revenue administrators to implement a national uniform, simplified system of sales and use tax compliance. The states hope that by providing a simplified sales tax, members of the U.S. Congress will in turn enact legislation superseding a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prohibited states from collecting tax from remote sellers that did not have a physical presence in a state. Rhode Island became a fully implementing state on Jan. 1.
PBN: As the Northeast regional director of the American Society of Women Accountants, why was it important for you to establish student chapters?
MELLO: As a non-traditional age student, I was very fortunate to have received scholastic assistance from various business organizations such as the American Society of Women Accountants and the Institute of Managerial Accountants. … Education is the greatest gift a person can give to themselves. No one can ever take it away from you. After graduating from the Community College of Rhode Island, I was selected by Bryant University to receive a full scholarship to complete the accounting program there. At that time, the school was looking to attract nontraditional age students, and I was fortunate to be one of Bryant’s first full-time nontraditional age students to receive the award. It has been my turn … to give back to these colleges and various business organizations. •
