IN PLAY: Diane L. Yetter, CPA

“You don’t have what it takes.” “You’re going to fail.” “You’ll be back begging for a job.” These are the words from skeptics that Diane L. Yetter, CPA, continuously runs through her head to fuel her almost 40-year career. Today, she gets the last laugh, as she’s become one of the most highly sought sales and use tax experts in the profession.

Much of Yetter’s success stems from the challenging lessons she faced early on in her career: “When I graduated college, I didn’t have a lot of opportunities presented to me—the economy was a little tight, and I didn’t have a job. So, I moved back home, which didn’t feel good at all. Thankfully, my dad worked for a company that allowed employees’ kids to intern for two summers. Ironically, I was placed in the tax department.”

While some people may stereotype sales tax work as boring, uncreative, and rigid, Yetter didn’t see it that way: “I think people often view sales tax as a clerical job—meaning, it doesn’t take a whole lot of expertise or experience. People generally don’t understand how complicated and interesting it can be.”

During her internship, Yetter found ways to use her curiosity for solving problems: “We had to send out regular tax exemption certificate renewal notices, but it was a very time-consuming and manual process at that time. So, I created an automated system using Lotus 1-2-3 (the precursor to Excel) to track expirations and renewals and generate letters. I still had to manually print and mail them, but it still saved a ton of time.”

These inventive, technical skills eventually landed Yetter at the Kansas Department of Revenue, Quaker Oats, and Arthur Andersen, where she continued creating automated programs that streamlined processes.

It was during her time at Arthur Andersen that she came to a critical crossroad. Sales tax software company Vertex partnered with the firm to help train their customers on their sales tax software—Yetter became the firm’s lead trainer. In doing so, she saw a great business opportunity: “I went to my partner and said, ‘I think this is where we need to go—sales tax automation. Let me take the next couple of months and figure out what this new service line would be, build it out, and then lead it.’ He said no—he didn’t think there was a future in it.”

That “no” motivated Yetter to finally set out on her own. Since 1996, Yetter has served as president and founder of Yetter Consulting Services Inc. and the Sales Tax Institute. “I knew it was risky at the time. The only saving grace I could fall back on was that Vertex offered me a contract job for a year to teach for them while I worked on building my consulting practice,” Yetter says. “It was low pay, but it covered my basic living expenses. And because I was on the road two weeks per month, some weeks I ate really well (because my meals were being reimbursed), and other weeks I was eating hot dogs and macaroni.”

Yetter’s practice continued to grow, but a breakthrough came in the wake of tax controversy. Following the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court case of South Dakota v. Wayfair, Yetter’s consulting practice quickly became a prominent voice for small businesses. “We knew this was going to be the single greatest thing that was going to impact the people we worked with every day,” she recalls. “So, we just really leaned into that.”

By 2022, Yetter’s expertise on the case and its impact on small business led to her being asked to testify before the Senate Committee on Finance: “I came in as a multistate tax expert and someone who could represent a lot of different businesses.” She was also asked back to testify before the Subcommittee on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth in September 2024.

Today, Yetter undoubtedly represents a lot of different businesses, but her passion also lies in representing women in accounting. For example, her social media series, “Women to Watch in Sales Tax,” has promoted almost 80 women sales tax professionals, allowing them to share their accomplishments and advice for other women working in sales tax. Yetter’s continuous advocacy for the advancement of women led her, in part, to being recognized with the Illinois CPA Society’s 2024 Women to Watch Award in the Experienced Leader category.

“I’ve been in this industry long enough to make my voice heard—and I make sure it’s loud and clear,” she quips. “I’m known for making comments and raising questions, but I wasn’t always that way. Early in my career, I had plenty of doubters and skeptics trying to keep me in place. I never spoke up at meetings. I never felt like I had standing.” Those early words kept ringing in her head.

Yetter recalls when that feeling began to fade. “I was attending a board meeting for the advisory board of the University of Kansas School of Business. That year, I had given a very weird donation amount so I could tell which one was mine—I was the second highest donor to the School of Business on the list. That opened my mind. It helped me realize I had every right to speak up. That’s what I want to help more women realize—like me, they can claim their seat at any table too.”

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