Most companies born inside another company don’t survive the separation. KBKG is an exception — and then some.
What started in 1999 as a niche service line inside Krost CPAs, a Pasadena firm with deep roots in the restaurant industry, has since become an independent specialty tax consulting firm. Although KBKG originated within Krost, the companies have operated separately for years. Today, KBKG operates in seven cities and employs a multidisciplinary team of engineers, attorneys, and tax professionals with 400+ years of combined experience. As of 2026, it has helped clients unlock more than $11 billion in tax benefits throughout its history. KBKG remains headquartered in Pasadena, where it has continued to grow as an independent firm.
The Idea That Started It All
The origin story begins with restaurants and real estate. Krost CPAs had spent years serving Southern California restaurateurs, and the firm noticed something: clients who owned their buildings were sitting on an underused tax strategy called cost segregation.
Cost segregation is an engineering-based analysis that breaks a commercial property into components such as specialized flooring, electrical systems serving equipment, and certain fixtures. It then reclassifies them for faster depreciation. Instead of writing off an entire building over 39 years, owners can accelerate deductions on qualifying components in as few as five years. The cash flow impact in the early years can be substantial.
Greg Kniss, one of KBKG’s co-founders, recognized the opportunity extended beyond Krost’s client base. Cost segregation was a legitimate strategy that required real engineering expertise to execute properly, and almost no one was doing it at scale. The group began offering the service to their firm’s clients and quickly saw results.
But to grow it credibly, they needed an engineer.
That’s when Gian Pazzia entered the picture. Recruited from PricewaterhouseCoopers, Pazzia brought the technical and engineering foundation the practice needed to stand on its own. KBKG was spun out as an independent entity — no longer a service line inside a CPA firm, but a standalone company with a focused mission.
Building Trust in a Skeptical Market
The early years were harder than the founders expected because cost segregation sounded too good to be true. This skepticism still shapes how the firm operates.
Real estate owners were unfamiliar with the strategy. CPAs who hadn’t encountered it were cautious. Telling a client they could pull hundreds of thousands of dollars in additional first-year deductions from a building they’d already purchased without changing anything raised eyebrows.
Rather than pushing against resistance, KBKG focused on education. The firm presented at California Society of CPA events, published technical content, and built relationships with accounting professionals who could credibly validate the methodology. Over time, this strategy produced a referral network that became the backbone of the business.
“We are not just doing tax consulting. We are protecting someone else’s relationship,” Pazzia has said of the firm’s foundational philosophy. When a CPA introduces KBKG to a client, that referral carries the weight of a professional reputation. The firm treats it accordingly.
That orientation has remained central to how KBKG operates. The firm explicitly positions itself as a non-competing partner to accounting practices, a specialist brought in to handle work that requires engineering depth and technical credentials beyond what a generalist firm can efficiently provide.
Growing Beyond Cost Segregation
As the firm established itself in Southern California, inquiries arrived from across the country. KBKG flew engineers to all 50 states. The firm responded by building a national footprint, opening offices in New York, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, and beyond to serve clients locally while maintaining a national platform.
At the same time, KBKG expanded its service lines: Enterprise Zone Credits in 2005, R&D tax credits in 2008, and energy incentives under Section 179D in 2009. Later additions included transfer pricing, IC-DISC, repair-versus-capitalization review, and negotiated state and local incentives. Each expansion followed a consistent logic: find tax code provisions where engineering or deep technical expertise creates value that generalist advisors cannot easily replicate.
The firm also invested early in technology. In 2016, KBKG launched the Residential Cost Segregator®, the first self-guided cost segregation software of its kind, designed to make the service accessible for smaller residential rental properties. In November 2025, that platform became CostSegregation.com, expanded to cover commercial real estate, with studies starting at $495 per report. A separate platform, Dash.tax, provides R&D tax credit analysis for small businesses and startups.
The Credentials Behind KBKG’s Cost Segregation Dominance
KBKG’s technical standing in cost segregation is hard to overstate. The firm holds more Certified Cost Segregation Professionals (CCSPs) — the highest credential issued by the American Society of Cost Segregation Professionals — than any other provider in the country. KBKG professionals have collectively served more than 30 years on the ASCSP Board of Directors, including two principals who have served as president. Gian Pazzia was inducted as an ASCSP Fellow in 2022, a recognition reserved for members deemed historically significant to the profession.
The team also includes former IRS Engineering Officials. For a firm whose work is subject to IRS scrutiny, that experience matters — both in structuring studies defensibly and in understanding how the agency evaluates them.
KBKG has also been recognized by ITR World Tax in the U.S. transfer pricing rankings and has been registered with NASBA as a continuing professional education sponsor and with the American Institute of Architects as a continuing education provider. The firm has issued more than 50,000 hours of CPE credit over its history — a figure that reflects how deeply education has been embedded in its growth strategy from the beginning.
Leadership for the Next Stage
In 2022, Pazzia was named CEO, succeeding co-founder Greg Kniss. In 2024, Jason Melillo took over as CEO, with Pazzia moving to Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer — a transition that reflects the kind of leadership development both men have publicly championed.
Melillo — a USC graduate who describes himself as “an entrepreneur that happens to be a CPA” — brings a profile that extends well beyond the firm. He currently serves as Chair of the AICPA Large Firms Group and has been a member of the Pasadena Tournament of Roses Association since 1991, serving in numerous committee leadership roles; he will serve as President for the 2030 Rose Parade and Rose Bowl Game.
Under Melillo’s leadership, KBKG has set an ambitious target: helping businesses save $33 billion in taxes by 2033 through deeper CPA partnerships, continued technology investment, and the development of the next generation of leaders within the firm.
Twenty-five years after becoming an independent specialty tax consulting firm, KBKG remains headquartered in Pasadena while serving clients nationwide. The business has changed considerably, but its focus on technical tax expertise has remained constant.
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