It just amazes me that you could spend your whole life working as a tax panner in a family office, when you aren't even related to that family. An entire career devoted to helping a single super rich family avoid taxes. What a life!
Substantially every business owner you know -- the ones with top line revenues of $100k, $1 million, $10 million, and $100 million -- employ 0.05 to 100+ full-time accountant equivalents for the same purpose.
I am on uncomfortably good terms with my friendly local tax office and they're all but begging me "Mr. McKenzie, it will be easier for all of us if you just get a pro to do it for you this time." (Tax agencies essentially delegate surveillance duties to CPAs; a Japanese CPA signing off on my return means the Meguro tax office doesn't have to trouble their heads about how Japanese tax law interacts with an American LLC owned by a Japan-resident American covered by a really complicated treaty.)
I don't know who best fits these criteria in Tokyo yet but would welcome an introduction. I have a strong suspicion that I was the best qualified person in Gifu.
Hence me trudging down to the tax office a few times a year with a notebook, a stack of forms, and a highlighted copy of a National Tax Agency publication with the query "So I've got an odd one for you..."
A few off the top of my head are Cox Enterprises which does 17B in revenue and is owned 99% by the family, SC Johnson which does 11B and my understanding is it's mostly held by the family, and Hallmark which does $3.8B and is held by the family.
We also could trace back family shareholders of large corporations who have gone public - Wal-Mart, Ford, etc.