Holly Burow takes on first tax season as CPA in West Concord

Some say things happen for a reason. Some say its karma.
For Holly Burow, her purchase of Rhodes Tax Service in West Concord is a result of “divine intervention at a meatball supper.” 
Burow purchased the business from Vicki Rhodes last fall and officially took over on Oct. 1. 
Burrow, who at the time was working as a CPA in Northfield, graduated from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls with a degree in ag business. Even then, she said, she knew at some point she would like to do tax work for famers.
“I’ve always had in the back of my head that I wanted to do this,” she said.
She and her husband, Jeff, live on a small family farm north of Skyberg that has been in her husband’s family for 125 years.
The family belongs to Hegre Lutheran Church and last fall while working at the church’s meatball supper one of Rhodes clients just happened to mention that Rhodes might be interested in retiring.
Burrow had looked at a few other possibilities for acquiring her own business, she said, but none seemed a good match. She contacted Rhodes and that was a good match resulting in her purchase of the business.
Burow said she grew up in Lake City and graduated from Lake City High School. After earning her degree in ag business, she said, she first worked at Minnesota Family Farms in production and eventually ended up at AgStar in Rochester.
She started at AgStar in home mortgages, moved on to underwriting home mortgages, then as a commercial underwriter and finally in accounting. During this time she earned her Certified Public Accountant certificate.