Santa Barbara Tax Products Group, LLC

Company Overview:

Santa Barbara Tax Products Group (“TPG”) is a San Diego-based provider of financial products and processing services to the tax preparation industry.  TPG provides its services through third party tax preparation firms, including tax preparers and tax software providers.  Customers include on-line tax preparation software companies and approximately 36,000 independent tax preparation offices across the U.S.  TPG was established in 2010 upon the sale of the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust tax products division, which was operated by the current TPG management team for over 20 years.  TPG is led by CEO Rich Turner.

Transaction Background:

TPG’s management team founded and led the Santa Barbara Bank & Trust tax processing division of Pacific Capital Bancorp (“Pacific Capital”) for over 20 years.  Pacific Capital is a Santa Barbara, CA based commercial and consumer bank that experienced financial difficulties as a result of the economic downturn.  In response, Pacific Capital decided to sell the tax processing division in late 2009 to raise capital for its core banking operations. 

Recognizing that Pacific Capital might need to sell the tax division to raise capital, Platform approached Pacific Capital in mid-2009 about acquiring the business in partnership with management.  Platform was well positioned to make the acquisition because of our history investing in the tax industry through the IntelliTax division of our portfolio company, TRE Financial Services. IntelliTax had been a long-standing customer of Pacific Capital’s tax division. 

When Pacific Capital ultimately decided to sell the tax division, Platform was able to quickly negotiate the acquisition in partnership with management.  The division was carved out from Pacific Capital and is now run as a stand-alone business by TPG’s management team, continuing their 20 years of success in the industry.