The deal expands Sax’s presence in Monmouth County and strengthens its real estate and private client service capabilities by adding founders Charlie Anastasia and Steven Sewald.

Steven Sewald & Co. merged with Charles Anastasia to form Sewald & Anastasia in 2023.  After nearly two years of growing their firm in South New Jersey, the two lifelong tax professionals and softball teammates saw the opportunity of joining Sax. For 30 years, they have served small to medium-sized businesses in markets such as construction, trucking, health care, and retail. This acquisition will bolster Sax’s capabilities in these vital sectors.

Anastasia, who has been managing partner of Sewald and Anastasia, will join Sax as a partner, helping to strengthen Sax’s real estate practice. Sewald will be joining Sax’s private client services practice as a director. 

“This acquisition is strategic, as both Sax and Sewald & Anastasia are equally aligned in our service philosophies and our dedication to continued growth to best serve our clients,” said Sax managing partner Joseph Damiano in a statement. “We are excited to welcome Charlie and his team to Sax.  This partnership is a significant milestone for Sax, as our firm looks forward to leveraging this partnership to deliver enhanced value and innovative solutions to its clients across the region.”

As a result of the deal, Sax is now a 62-partner firm with 367 total employees and now has five offices between New Jersey, New York, and Mumbai, India, and a remote team spanning 22 U.S. states.  Will Walsh of 1LifeConsulting, LLC consulted on the transaction.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Sax ranked No. 66 on Accounting Today‘s 2025 list of the Top 100 Firms, with $109 million in annual revenue.

“I am thrilled to join Sax and contribute to the firm’s already impressive legacy,” Anastasia said in a statement. “This acquisition represents a unique opportunity to combine our strengths and deepen our commitment to delivering exceptional service to our clients. I look forward to working with Sax’s real estate practice and helping our clients navigate the complexities of the industry with innovative solutions and personalized guidance.”

In 2023, Sax merged in Schall & Ashenfarb CPAs, a firm based in New York. In 2022, Sax acquired David Weiss CPA, also in New York.

Climate change-driven devaluations could drop corporate earnings up to 7.3% by 2035, a report found.

Extreme weather events like wildfires, hurricanes, floods and heatwaves are reshaping economies, disrupting supply chains, raising operational costs and threatening long-term business stability. Big Four Firm KPMG’s 2025 Futures Report, published Monday, found these weather disasters cost U.S. companies $217 billion in 2024, an 85% increase from the year prior. 

Currently only 48% of companies quantitatively assess climate risks, despite its strategic and financial advantages and amid intensifying investor scrutiny. But business strategies will inevitably have to evolve in order to keep up with the ramifications of climate change. 

Benjamin Fanjoy/Bloomberg

“In the near term, we are certainly seeing organizations increase their focus on wrapping their heads around immediate physical risks — to their assets, to their supply chains, to business resiliency,” Marcus Leach, KPMG’s managing director of deal advisory and strategy, said in the report. “A lot of this is still being handled manually, using more static models from historical data. It’s like looking at the one-in-100-year storm event as a benchmark, but that’s no longer enough.”

“In the longer term, you will see mandates around more dynamic modeling, driven by AI and better computing power, to predict things like convective storms, flooding, and wildfires,” he continued. “The risk focus will shift from static assumptions to real-time, constantly updated models. Companies that do not integrate this planning into their risk strategies will be caught off guard as climate events continue to escalate in frequency and severity.” 

(Read more: “ESG: Accountants’ opportunity to lose”)

One of the biggest challenges businesses face in meeting their sustainability goals is lack of funding directed toward areas like upgrading infrastructure, diversifying supply chains and securing stable energy sources. 

“The reality is that many organizations have identified the risks, but they haven’t necessarily done the work to adapt,” KPMG’s U.S. sustainability leader Maura Hodge said in the report. “They know there’s a 27% chance of their operations being interrupted by a flood, but they haven’t built redundancy into their supply chains or made infrastructure changes to mitigate those risks.”

Another major challenge is the ever-changing and inconsistent adoption of regulation across jurisdictions. 

“What we’re trying to help companies understand is that reporting is not just about compliance — it’s about strategy and value creation,” Hodge said. “If you’re spending all your time and resources getting compliant, but not using that data to inform business decisions, then you’re missing the point.”

“Historically, only companies that wanted to be ‘leaders’ in sustainability did climate reporting, and they could pick and choose what they reported,” Hodge added. “Now, with SEC regulations and Europe’s CSRD coming into play, transparency and comparability are being forced onto the market.”

The KPMG report also discussed topics like artificial superintelligence, quantum computing, space economy, computing infrastructure and advanced manufacturing.

Emailing an unprotected return; Sec. 899; IRMMA tactics; and other highlights from our favorite tax bloggers.

Making choices

• Taxable Talk (http://www.taxabletalk.com/): Just send that return for all to see: Missouri has joined New Jersey in the blogger’s hall of shame for encouraging identity theft.
• HBK (https://hbkcpa.com/insights/): How manufacturing clients can survive the tariffs extravaganza.
• Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (https://itep.org/category/blog/): As the D.C. region heads toward a likely recession, local policymakers will need to look to new revenue sources to help lessen the pain. Why lawmakers ought to adopt a simple reform that would raise revenue and make the District’s business tax system fairer.
• Withum (https://www.withum.com/resources/): What to remind them about the mega backdoor Roth.
• Virginia – U.S. Tax Talk: (https://us-tax.org/about-this-us-tax-blog/): OBBBA won’t be so beautiful for foreign persons if IRC Section 899 becomes reality.
• Tax Vox (https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/taxvox): OBBBA does little to increase access to paid family leave but just tweaks a little-known and largely ineffective tax credit, doubling down on access through optional private insurance policies; this leaves workers with their employers’ choices. How, luckily, lawmakers have other choices.
• Current Federal Tax Developments (https://www.currentfederaltaxdevelopments.com/): The Tax Court’s recent Kramarenko v. Commissioner opinion “provides a crucial analysis for tax professionals concerning the interpretation and application of tax treaty provisions,” particularly those related to exemptions for students, trainees and researchers. 
• The Sales Tax People (https://sales.tax/expert-articles/): Why isn’t sales tax just included in the purchase price of items?
• Taxnotes (https://www.taxnotes.com/procedurally-taxing): Guest blogger Sherrill L. Trovato wonders how difficult the Tax Court exam for non-attorneys should be.
• Yeo & Yeo (https://www.yeoandyeo.com/resources): A look at GASB Statement No. 101, “Compensated Absences,” now effective for fiscal years ending June 30, 2025, and subject to audit. 

Games of risk

And counting

• The National Association of Tax Professionals (https://blog.natptax.com/): This week’s “You Make the Call” looks at Edna and Stacy, who each contributed $100 cash to a new LLC taxed as a partnership, Counting Cowgirls. Each has a 50% interest in the LLC, which immediately obtained an $800 loan to purchase a laser printer, qualifying for $320 of bonus depreciation. Can Edna and Stacy deduct this loss against their outside basis, or is the loss suspended?
• U of I Tax School (https://taxschool.illinois.edu/blog/): How to help older clients prep for the dreaded IRMMA on Medicare premiums.
• Berkowitz Pollack Brant (https://www.bpbcpa.com/articles-press-releases/): What to remind biz clients about preparing for hurricane season.
• Eide Bailly (https://www.eidebailly.com/taxblog): West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd, “a lion of the Senate from a different era of politics,” died in office 15 years ago, but his legacy lives on in the “Byrd Rule,” which, on one level, “is why the tax legislation is happening in the first place.”