Director, Compliance and Regional Sections, FTA
Charlie Helms serves as Executive Director of the Southeastern Association of Tax Administrators (SEATA). He also serves as Director of Compliance and Regional Sections for the Federation of Tax Administrators (FTA). In these roles, he works with state and local taxing agencies in all fifty states and the District of Columbia to identify hot topics and best practices in tax administration. He is responsible for all aspects of the national FTA Compliance Workshop and four regional tax conferences including agenda development, speaker identification, site selection, budgeting, contracting, and sponsorship development.
Prior to his work with FTA and SEATA, Charlie served as a career employee with the North Carolina Department of Revenue (NCDOR) for 27 years, retiring in July of 2016. He began his NCDOR career as a revenue officer trainee and worked his way through senior management, serving as Director of the Collections and Customer Services Divisions during his last 11 years. Post-retirement, he worked with private sector accounts receivables management companies as an account representative for two and a half years before becoming a full-time conference planner and consultant.
Charlie is a 1988 graduate of NC State University (NCSU) and earned Certified Public Manager (
www.cpmconsortium.org) designation in 2000. Charlie and his wife of 33 years, Jill, have two children. Their daughter recently graduated with her masters in math education from NCSU and is currently teaching high school math. She hopes to eventually teach at the collegiate level. His son is set to graduate in May 2024 from NCSU's Jenkins Masters of Accounting (MAC) program with a master's degree in accounting with a focus in tax. GO WOLFPACK!