Sales and Use Tax

Review of company sales tax compliance to identify weaknesses and strengths in compliance. State audits are skewed to identify underpayment errors within your current systems. Our review will quantify over-payments to offset underpayments, penalties and interest.

Although it is best to review compliance prior to an audit, in most states errors can be corrected up to three years after an audit is completed.

There are many scenarios in which a business can benefit from a sales and use tax review. This may include administrative changes, relocation to a new state, acquisition from another company, or other major circumstances. In many of these cases, businesses will unknowingly over comply in order to avoid the risk of under complying in taxes. It takes an extensive knowledge of tax laws and systems to receive refunds and credits over past sales and use tax paid in error. That’s where Brown and Associates steps in.

When you work with our associates, you can expect the following from our sales and use tax recovery services:

Review of Past Documents

• Review original accounts payable invoices, purchasing and inventory reports and other documentation recorded to verify that transactions are being classified correctly
• Review the individual transactions input into the accounting & tax systems to verify their accuracy
• Review data coming from the accounting & tax systems to ensure that the systems are accurately capturing and recording relevant information to make correct taxability decisions

Analysis of Current Systems

• Review current payables, purchasing and inventory systems to determine if the system is adequately capturing and approving the correct amount due
• Reconcile the accrual account to the sales tax liability
• Review the taxability decision matrix to identify areas of required adjustment for nature of specific business conducted at each location per each state’s laws

Preparation for Future Savings

• Advise of proactive strategic planning opportunities and best practices on a state-by-state basis to minimize future sales & use tax burden
• File refunds for overpayments
• Provide documentation to support work
• Handle all related questions, inquiries and audits from State Revenue Agencies as a result of our efforts
• Review results of all sales & use tax audits within the open statute of limitations
• Instruct personnel about the results of our review
• Provide exemption certificates to all vendors erroneously charging sales tax to eliminate tax overpayments on future invoices