Institutional deal discipline, applied to the lower middle market.
NexTax Advisory exists to give serious buyers and sellers the analytical rigor of a seasoned deal team, without the cost, delay, or guesswork. The work sits where most lower-middle-market transactions never get real financial scrutiny, and brings the standards of institutional M&A to deals in the $500K to $10M range.
Steve Morello
Steve spent two decades in tax, M&A structuring, and financial operations before founding NexTax. His transaction background includes private equity and real estate fund tax at EY and Morgan Stanley, where the work covered partnership, corporation, and REIT structures, fund M&A documentation, and the tax elections behind new investments.
Alongside that transaction experience, he led corporate tax functions through acquisitions, reorganizations, and systems migrations, including building an inaugural tax department from the ground up. That combination, deal-side structuring and the discipline of running a tax function, is what NexTax Advisory brings to buyers and sellers who would otherwise never get that level of analysis on a lower-middle-market deal.
He also builds AcquiFlow, pre-LOI underwriting software for SMB buyers, which applies the same analytical logic to the screening stage of an acquisition.
Give every serious buyer and seller the analytical edge of a seasoned deal team, without the cost, delay, or guesswork.
Too many buyers rely on broker-provided numbers, surface-level comps, or manual spreadsheets that miss the risks that matter. Too many sellers go to market on financials built for tax filing, not for a buyer’s diligence team. Combining tax expertise, transaction data, and structured underwriting logic turns both starting points into disciplined decisions.
Signal over noise
The work surfaces the right numbers, not more of them. Every adjustment and flag is there to improve a decision, not to fill a report.
Lender-grade thinking
Analysis reflects how lenders and experienced operators actually evaluate a deal, from debt-service durability to earnings quality and structure risk.
Honest about the data
One valuation basis per analysis, never two. When benchmark coverage is thin for an industry, that is stated plainly. A modeled estimate is labeled as one, never dressed up as market data.
Built for real decisions
This is transaction work, not a dashboard. The point is to move from “this looks interesting” to “this is a disciplined decision” without losing rigor.
Every figure in an analysis has a defined source and a defined limit. Valuation and margin benchmarks are built from licensed closed-transaction and financial-statement data, presented as blended NexTax Intelligence rather than raw records, and size-matched to the business whenever the sample supports it rather than defaulting to national averages.
What the analysis is: a review that organizes the decision, pricing against market, debt-service coverage, risk flags, and diligence priorities, built to be handed to your lender, CPA, and attorney.
What it is not: lender approval, a quality-of-earnings conclusion, or legal, tax, or investment advice. When a deal needs verification, the work says so and means it.
Preparing for an acquisition or exit?
A confidential call is the fastest way to see whether the numbers hold up.
Schedule a Confidential CallNexTax Advisory provides financial and tax advisory services. It does not provide legal services or formal audit or attest engagements. Analysis is intended to inform your decisions alongside your attorney, lender, and independent quality-of-earnings provider, not to replace them.