Our Team

Joe Smith began his accounting career at Ernst & Young in 1985 just in time for the Tax Reform Act of 1986. The Tax Reform Act of 1986 eliminated the ability of issuers to recover costs of issuance in the arbitrage yield calculation and expanded the arbitrage rebate requirements to all tax-exempt bonds. In 1992 Mr. Smith joined Grant Thornton LLP for the purpose of building their verification and arbitrage rebate practices. Mr. Smith was a partner with Grant Thornton LLP from 1996 to 2012 and then a Managing Director until Grant Thornton exited the Public Finance Business in February of 2019. During his 26 years at Grant Thornton Mr. Smith was involved in providing verification and arbitrage services to municipal issuers, financial advisors and underwriters across the country. His 30 plus year career serving the municipal finance industry has provided Mr. Smith a deep understanding of the arbitrage rules put in place by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and knowledge of how they and subsequent revisions impact tax-exempt bonds.  The professionals at Robert Thomas CPA, LLC have been serving the public finance industry since 2004.