IN PLAY: Joseph ‘Joe’ F. Bigane III, CPA

Where most see problems as obstacles—something to run from, delegate to others, or escape—Joseph “Joe” F. Bigane III, CPA, sees them as fuel for his engine. He’s made a long career as a state and local tax (SALT) expert doing the work others shy away from, not by claiming to have all the answers but by committing himself to uncovering them.

“Most of the tax projects I work on are run of the mill—I’ve done them before. But others I get to sink my teeth into,” Bigane notes. “Those are the kinds of things that, on a periodic basis, keep my motor running.”

Bigane’s enjoyment in untangling complex tax issues can be tied back to his earlier pursuit of wanting to practice law: “In high school, I thought I was going to be a lawyer, so I went to my father’s cousin who was a magistrate in Illinois, and he suggested I study political science and accounting as a way to prep for law school. I enrolled in both and hated political science, but I loved accounting—I just kind of took to it.”

Bigane looked for work during college related to the accounting field and stumbled into a brief stint at a currency exchange preparing tax returns, followed by a part-time role at the accounting firm serving his father’s business.

Although his plan was to go to law school, Bigane found himself drawn in a different direction. After graduating college, he decided to pursue a master of science in taxation: “To me, tax was the closest thing to practicing law without being a lawyer.”

While pursuing his masters, Bigane was still working at the accounting firm when a specific case came across a colleague’s desk that piqued his personal interest. A notice from the state of New York was sent to the attention of Bigane’s cousin. At that time, partners all over the United States were getting hit hard by the state of New York for a tax regarding partnership shares.

“My cousin was a principal at the securities firm Dean Witter Reynolds, and he received a notice that basically said, ‘You’re a partner in Dean Witter Reynolds. You didn’t file a New York tax return. You owe us money.’ But I knew my cousin was a junior partner, not a full partner.”

As Bigane puts it, being new in your career has its advantages in cases like these: “When you’re just starting out, sometimes you’re ignorant, so you go to the books and read the rules. I read the rules, and in New York it says: If your income comes from being a partner, then we get a shot to tax it, and if it doesn’t come from being a partner, like any other employee in the firm, then we don’t get to tax it.”

Upon this discovery, Bigane wrote a letter to the New York State Tax Appeals Tribunal, and he won the case: “I wasn’t necessarily educated on it, but because somebody in the office had to look into it, I became that somebody.”

In 1981, Bigane moved on to join Wolf & Company LLC as a tax partner. In that same year, his law aspirations would find their way back into his life when he was admitted to practice before the U.S. Tax Court, a privilege non-attorneys are granted if they meet strict qualifications: “It allowed me to indulge in being a lawyer without being a lawyer.”

Following the firm’s merger with BKD LLP in 2014, Bigane stayed on until founding his own SALT firm, JFB Tax Consulting LLC, which he continues to lead today. He also devotes significant time to mentoring and helping others—an effort he sees as a two-way street: “At my age, I’d like to find a successor—there are very few people that do what I do.”

Beyond mentoring future leaders, Bigane also spends time giving back to the profession through his active volunteerism and tax committee work with the Illinois CPA Society. His decades of service were recently recognized through the Society’s 2025 Lifetime Achievement Award—an honor he hopes inspires others to get involved: “Interacting with people in your profession that you don’t necessarily know makes your career that much more enjoyable.”

Ultimately, it’s those relationships—and the thrill of finding unexpected answers—that keeps Bigane going the distance after all these years: “If all you did every day was fill up your gas tank, get into your car and drive, after a period of time, you wouldn’t look forward to taking the drive. But if every now and then you go on the racetrack where you can drive 180 miles per hour, well, that’s a drive to look forward to, and that’s going to keep the passion alive.”

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