About
Privateer Tax Partners helps clients navigate the technical complexity behind those decisions by coordinating the strategies, structures, procedures, and documentation needed to implement them with confidence and clarity.
Meet Dirk.
As a teenager, Dirk’s family lived in Yellowstone National Park, where his parents worked. After enlisting in the Navy, he spent the next eighteen years living in Sicily, Crete, Guam, Washington, Florida, and Colorado while serving on three different ships and completing multiple deployments to the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea.
During his Navy career, Dirk earned a commission as a Naval Officer and completed a bachelor’s degree in Religious Studies while living in Boulder, Colorado. After rising to the rank of Lieutenant with his sights set on commanding a ship of his own, a career-ending injury unexpectedly changed his course.
His time in Boulder had created a strong connection to Colorado, and after leaving the Navy, Dirk returned to begin a new chapter. He used his GI Bill benefits to study accounting and earn a Master’s Degree in Taxation from the University of Colorado Denver.
After entering public accounting, Dirk joined a respected CPA firm led by thoughtful people who genuinely cared about both their clients and employees. He poured himself into building a successful career, with the goal of eventually becoming a partner. Within three years, he had already been promoted to Tax Manager and discovered that much of what he did in the Navy — coordinating complex operations, planning training and maintenance activities, and briefing senior leadership — translated surprisingly well to helping business owners untangle multiple companies, investments, and tax returns that all eventually come together.
Several years into the grind, Dirk finally stepped back to take an honest look at his own financial future. Starting over later in life meant he needed to save and invest far more aggressively than he ever had before, yet as a single parent already working 50–60 hours a week, there were only so many expenses left to cut and only so many hours left in the day.
The math kept pointing to the same conclusion: if he wanted to put his kids through college and eventually retire, he needed to find ways to create income outside of his day job.
What started as a search for additional income gradually changed the way Dirk thought about investing, taxes, and long-term planning. He became increasingly interested in how different investments produce very different tax outcomes, with some creating immediate tax deductions while also generating additional income and building long-term assets.
Privateer Tax Partners grew out of that journey. What began as a search for additional income eventually led Dirk to invest in the asset he understood best — himself.
Technology, team growth, and better systems are all designed to create a business that not only supports the life Dirk wants to live, but also gives team members the opportunity to build more intentional lives for themselves and their families as well. Along the way, Privateer has also become a way for him to teach his sons many of the financial lessons he learned later in life — lessons about ownership, investing, and being intentional.
When the boys are not meeting with clients and giving their dad advice, they can usually be found playing soccer, building Legos, playing video games, watching movies, camping, riding bikes, or traveling to Taekwondo tournaments together — including celebrating back-to-back gold medals in sparring for the Colorado District AAU Championships.