Ellis M. Balsam, CPA

Ellis, who was born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, graduated from Rutgers University with an MBA in accounting after also obtaining his BA in business administration (economics) at Rutgers.  Ellis joined Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. (now KPMG) in New Jersey, transferred to Los Angeles and rose through the tax ranks to partner.  His clients included American Honda Motor Co. Inc., Dollar Rent-A-Car, Pacific Theatres, Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. and Univisa (Spanish International Network). He coordinated and completed significant tax projects relating to the sale of a television network, the purchase of a motion picture studio, the sale of an international leasing company, the determination of favorable state tax positions for multi-state manufacturing and distribution companies and for California unitary tax minimization.

Ellis then operated a tax consulting practice. His clients included Marvin Davis Companies (real estate), The Vons Companies Inc. (supermarket chain), The Douglas S. Cramer Company (television series producer) and Fries Entertainment Inc. (television producer and distributor).

Ellis joined Carter & Balsam in 1996. Ellis has published tax articles for Taxes - The Tax Magazine and the California Society of CPAs, and has been quoted on tax matters by The Hollywood Reporter, Variety, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Business Journal and Investor's Daily.