Getting To Know You Tuesday: Samantha M. Besnoff
It’s Getting To Know You Tuesday!
About Samantha M. Besnoff
Samantha M. Besnoff, CPA, is the owner of Your Financial Maven® LLC, a client advisory accounting and tax practice based in Lititz, Pennsylvania.
Samantha has spent more than 30 years in accounting, with experience spanning the public, private, corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors. She started her career as an auditor with the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue before eventually striking out on her own, where she now focuses primarily on helping entrepreneurs and small business owners with tax and accounting matters.
Samantha has also expanded her work beyond traditional accounting into financial education. She’s an independent life insurance agent and the host and producer of the Your Financial Maven® podcast, which earned a w3 Gold Podcasting Award in 2025. She was also named one of the PICPA’s (Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants) Women to Watch in 2023. When she’s not talking taxes, accounting, or financial empowerment, Samantha enjoys spending time with her husband and sons, playing with the family’s fur baby, and—as a Pennsylvania resident with her priorities properly in order—going down the shore.
So, let’s get to know Samantha.
In Her Own Words
- Where are you right now? I live in Lititz, PA, and have for the last 31 years. Grew up in the suburbs of Philly, though.
- What’s your official title, and what do you actually do? CPA/Owner, Independent Life Insurance Agent, and Podcast Host/Producer. I do client advisory services for small businesses, especially women in business, in accounting and tax.
- Where did you go to school, and what did you study? University of Pittsburgh, winter class of ’94. BS in Business Accounting. I have also obtained several Master Certificates over the years in various business-based courses.
- How did you end up in tax? I actually fell in love—yes, fell in love—with tax when I joined a local accounting firm, Simon Lever CPAs, in Lancaster, in the early 2000s, in their tax department. The managers and partners I worked with were amazing and taught me so much. And since most things were still done by hand or with limited computer work, I learned a lot. I ended up there for only one tax season because I started my family, but a year after having my son, I became a tax preparer for another local accounting firm, working only during tax season. I did that for another four years before moving on to become an Executive Director for a local nonprofit. Towards the end of my time as an Executive Director, I realized that I wanted to get back into tax work and started a side business doing individual tax work. 13 years ago, I took the leap and went out on my own.
- What was your first real job? My first real job was at a local accounting firm, Alpern Rosenthal CPAs, in Pittsburgh, where I worked as a proofreader, reviewing and editing financial statements and tax returns.
- What’s one thing people might be surprised to learn about you? I learned how to crochet to try and follow in my late grandmother’s footsteps. I am not great at it, but I can do that and knit too.
- If you weren’t working in tax, what would you be doing? I think I would go back to being involved in the nonprofit world as a professional, especially in the Jewish space.
- What’s the best piece of tax, money, or career advice you’ve ever received? The best piece of advice I think I have ever received was to not make myself small and to be proud of my accomplishments in my career. That took a long time to figure out.
- What tax issue do you think is getting too much attention right now? Probably the new tax law changes, especially in Overtime and Tips.
- What tax issue isn’t getting enough attention? I think, for small businesses, it’s how your business structure affects your taxes. I have seen so many business owners come to me, and they are not necessarily following the tax regulations and laws around their business structure. Especially for S Corporations and payroll for the shareholder who is also an employee.
- What’s the biggest tax myth you’d like to bust? Oh, that’s a good one. Honestly, I am not sure of a particular one, but where social media comes into play and all these influencers that don’t really know what they are talking about but make things sound true when it comes to maybe tax deductions or how to structure your small business.
- What’s a tax question you wish people would ask you more often? I wish my individual tax clients would ask throughout the year if they need to make a tax estimate and what their taxes would look like at year-end. Not waiting until I am preparing the returns.
- What’s one tax rule you would change if you could? I know this is not really a rule, but I wish the federal government would make estimated quarterly taxes actually by quarters/three months, and not how they are currently doing it. Especially since 2nd quarter always messes up my small business clients.
- What’s one non-tech thing in your office that you couldn’t do without? One non-tech thing I cannot do without is pen and paper. Weird, I know, but I still like to have pen and paper to work things out sometimes as it relates to tax or accounting. Especially when still doing T-accounts.
- Which tech tool, platform, or software do you rely on most in your practice? The platform I rely most on now is Claude AI to help me with general overall things as it relates to my business and podcast.
- What’s the best use of AI in tax or tax practice? As mentioned, I use it to help me with my posts for social media, newsletters, and blogs. Plus summarizing my podcast information. For my business, I will ask general tax and accounting questions, not client specifics, but then compare that information with my tax research TaxBook before I do anything with that information. I use AI as support, not my end-all for answers.
- What are you watching right now (streaming or otherwise)? Phillies, and will begin to watch the Eagles and Pitt Football. (Taxgirl’s note: I feel your pain.)
- Coffee or tea? Mushroom Coffee
- Pancakes or waffles? Pancakes
- If you received an unexpected tax refund tomorrow, what would you do with it? I would put some away for savings and use the rest to treat myself and my husband to a mini vacation down the shore.
You can find out more about Samantha on her website and her social media:
About Getting To Know You
If you’d like to recommend a tax pro to be featured, send your suggestions to gtky (at) taxgirl (dot) com with the subject: Getting To Know You Tuesday. Self-nominations are totally okay, and encouraged! If you’ve previously submitted a nomination, please feel free to send it again. I’ll consider all submissions, even those that were selected, so long as they were more than three years ago.
