Steady Hand Tax Advisory™ Let’s talk

For PE-backed middle-market companies

Get clear on what is really
driving your tax risk. Fix what matters.

Steady Hand brings the judgment that makes a lean tax function work inside the business.

Let’s talk

A 30-minute call with a former Fortune 500 Global Head of Tax.

What’s missing

You can have strong tax resources and still lack Head of Tax-level judgment.

The technical answer is only half the job, and your advisors can give you that. Head of Tax judgment makes the technical answer work inside your business.

Here’s where the gap shows up.

  • The handoffs

    Tax runs through many hands, with no single view of the whole.

    In a lean team, tax tasks are spread across finance, and gaps open in the seams.

  • The advisors

    Outside advisors answer the questions they’re asked.

    When no one inside is spotting the issues and framing the questions, the ones that matter most never reach the advisors. Scope drifts, spend follows it, and the real risks go unexamined.

  • The quiet risk

    Tax risk can build quietly, long before anyone finds it.

    Outside compliance is often scoped to file from the data you provide. If that data is flawed, the returns carry the flaw, especially after acquisitions combine systems.

What’s at stake

The buyer should never be the first person to discover your tax problem.

Better to address tax problems during the hold than in the buyer’s diligence, when your leverage is lowest.

  • The deal math

    A problem found late can move the deal price.

    A discrete exposure can affect price or require an escrow. A recurring cost that lowers EBITDA can be magnified through the valuation multiple.

  • The buyer’s confidence

    It can make the buyer wonder what else was missed.

    Added scrutiny can reach beyond tax, slow the timetable, change the terms, or put the deal at risk.

A $200K recurring cost, at a 10× multiple, is $2M off the price.

An illustration: buyers price the business on a multiple of earnings, so a cost that lowers earnings comes out of the sale price many times over.

The hold period is your window. It opens the day the deal closes, and again with every acquisition you fold in.

What good looks like

Match the fix to the risk.

Running without a full-time Head of Tax can be a smart, deliberate choice. You don’t need a “perfect” tax function or a bigger team than the risk calls for.

What you need is that judgment when it counts, to set the function up for success:

  • A clear owner for each piece
  • Systems set up correctly
  • Acquisitions fully folded in
  • Advisors pointed at what matters

Anything more is paying to solve a problem you do not have.

The result is something a CFO can say to the sponsor:

We know our tax risks, we’ve addressed what matters, and we’ll be ready when it’s time to sell.

How we work together

Right-sized to the problem. Built to fit the business.

Shaped by 25 years of acquisition after acquisition.

Common starting points for working together.

  • Something surfaces

    A problem shows up, and no one knows how deep it goes.

    • A property tax lien surfaces unexpectedly.
    • A notice arrives on something you thought was handled.
    • A new billing system goes live with the wrong sales tax.

    The tax rule behind it is often simple. Applying it inside the business is where things break. Steady Hand finds what in the operations gave rise to it, sees how far it reaches, and works with your team to fix it there.

  • A deal to integrate

    The deal is closed, and a lean team has to make it work.

    • The findings

      Diligence named the tax risks. Fixing them after close is the harder part. We build the fixes into the way the business operates.

    • The restructuring

      Your advisors may provide the step plan for rationalizing entities or restructuring operations. Steady Hand helps your team interpret the plan, make the judgment calls, and carry it out without missing a step.

    • Value creation

      During integration, tax planning pays off only when the business meets its technical requirements. Steady Hand helps the business understand them and satisfy them.

  • A broader look

    You don’t have a Head of Tax, and you’re not sure where you stand.

    You may not know which questions to ask. Steady Hand looks across the business, shows you where the risk sits, and recommends what to fix first, often starting with an assessment.

Wherever you start, the work follows the same path.

  1. 1

    Get clear

    Knowing what deserves a deeper look comes first. It starts with a focused conversation and, where it’s needed, a written assessment. Scope is agreed up front.

  2. 2

    Fix what matters

    We agree together on which risks to fix, then build only what the business needs, into how it already runs.

  3. 3

    Make it hold

    When the work is done, the fees stop, with no standing cost to carry. As the business changes, Steady Hand can step back in.

Not sure where you’d start? That’s what the first call is for.

Let’s talk

For the fund side

The same case, one level up.

A recurring tax cost inside a portfolio company works against the value creation plan. Every acquisition, whether a platform or an add-on, brings its own tax history.

Steady Hand works alongside your operating team, from acquisition to exit, so tax is working inside each business well before it could become a diligence finding. If this sounds like one of your portfolio businesses, the first step is the same 30-minute conversation.

The experience behind Steady Hand

Jennifer Doscotch, founder of Steady Hand Tax Advisory

Founded by Jennifer Doscotch.

Jen spent 25 years in senior tax roles at companies including Cargill, Corning, and Accenture, most recently as Global Head of Tax at APi Group, a Fortune 500 company. Acquisitions were a constant throughout: deals of every size, from diligence and structuring through integration, when each acquired company’s tax setup became hers to run.

Over time, the work became less about answering tax questions in isolation and more about making tax work inside the business. Each deal reinforced the point: every company comes with its own risks, processes, systems, and history.

The answer is not to recreate a Fortune 500 tax function. It is to understand what the business needs, fix what matters, and build from there.

Steady Hand grew out of that experience.

See Jen’s full background on LinkedIn

The next step

Be ready when it’s time to sell.

Know your tax risks, fix what matters, and walk into diligence on your own terms. It starts with a short conversation.

Bring whatever is on your mind. You’ll leave with a clearer view of what matters and whether a deeper look makes sense.

Let’s talk

A 30-minute call with a former Fortune 500 Global Head of Tax.