Partners Profile
Dr.Patrick R. Colabella CPA Ed.D Dr. Colabella is the managing
partner of Colabella & Company LLP he also has been a
member of the St John’s University faculty since
1987. He attained his undergraduate degree and his doctorate in
instructional leadership at St. John’s University and
holds an MBA in taxation from Pace University. He began his
teaching career at CW Post University by training US Army cadre
on basic taxation at the West Point facility. He has been a
licensed, practicing Certified Public Accountant since 1973 in
the State of New York. Dr. Colabella’s 2008 doctoral
dissertation “The Effect of Public School
Districts’ Property Values on State Educational
Funds,” centered on the negative impact of assessed
property valuations, property taxes and local district school
budgeting. He has authored numerous news articles on tax reform
and scholarly papers in peer-reviewed journals, on various
matters in taxation and accounting, among them “The
CPA Journal” and “Bank Accounting &
Finance”. He has made numerous presentations before
the American Accounting Association on forensic accounting and
has recently been included in international scholarly forums in
Poland on the shadow economy. In South Korea he was a featured
presenter of his “Withdrawals Tax System”
to the Korean Institute on Taxation. In national and regional
forums, he has presented scholarly papers on the underground
economy, academic accounting matters concerning the five year
accounting program, and the development of accounting
principles, and ethics. He is a recognized expert and advocate
of fundamental tax reform. He has made presentations before
congressional committees on taxation reform in Washington DC
and has contributed to the President's Tax Consultative Task
Force in 2004. His body of work in tax reform extends to the
governments of South Korea and Australia. He has appeared on
numerous News programs and spent two weeks as a CBS Tax Tips
expert. He annually participates in the Daily News tax call-in
forum during tax season. He obtained his accounting tax and
audit experience at Deloitte, Plender, Haskins & Sells (now
Deloitte). He was later the Director of Taxes of the Equitable
Life Assurance Society’s Holding Corporation and he
is the managing partner emeritus of Colabella & Company,
LLP which he founded in 1974. His firm is a member of the
AICPA, Private Companies Practice Section and the NYSSCPAs. The
firm is active in all phases of accounting, auditing, taxation,
management advisory services, litigation support and consulting
services. He is also qualified to perform firm on firm peer
reviews under the AIPCA Practice Monitoring Program and he is a
qualified Business Valuation Analyst recognized by the National
Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. He currently heads
the Global Institute for Taxation GIFT at St. John’s
University which engages students and scholars in research of
public finance and taxation issues. GIFT was established in
1999 and has a distinguished advisory board consisting of
representatives from international accounting firms, major
banking institutions and noted scholars from USC Stanford and
NYU Law School. The institute is endorsed by several Washington
think tanks such as the Heritage Foundation, the CATO
Institute, the Tax Institute, IRET, and the Robert Schalkenbach
Foundation. The institute is currently working on the societal
automation of tax collection. Dr. Colabella has several notable
non academic achievements. He has been recognized by Beta Alpha
Psi as an outstanding faculty advisor and he was the recipient
of the PricewaterhouseCoopers “Excellence in
Education Award”. He has received teacher of the year
honors on three separate occasions on both the Staten Island
and Jamaica campus. He has been nominated six times. He
occasionally ventures into acting roles and singing
engagements. He is a member of the St Bernadette’s
Choir. He is an avid car enthusiast who restores classic cars
and is a qualified Bush Grand National auto racer and a member
of the Sports Car Club of America.