June 24, 2015
by: Kevin Stedman, Sr. Tax Manager
As a business owner, paying sales or use tax has most likely become second nature as a cost of doing business. In recent years, states looking for additional revenue sources have adopted changes that have expanded the tax base and increased the tax rate overall.
As an example, Ohio has a proposal to raise the rate .50% and to further expand the base to include some services that have never been taxed before, including cable TV subscriptions, parking, management consulting services, travel services and debt collection services.
With all the recent activity in this area, staying on top of these changes has become more important than ever. Oftentimes the person responsible for determining what is subject to sales tax and filing the necessary tax returns may not have the time or experience to do this. Our webinar on Wednesday, July 8th will address these as well.
And let’s face it…it’s not exactly the easiest area of tax to understand.
But before we begin…What is Sales Tax and Use Tax?
Sales Tax – Tax on the sale at retail(end user) of tangible personal property(items that are visible and take up space) and certain taxable services.
Use Tax – Tax on the storing, using, consuming, and possibly distributing tangible personal property or providing a taxable service. Typically you will be subject to use tax in the state where that event occurs. Use tax is considered a complementary tax.
Our Client Approach to Sales and Use Tax
As part of our tax services portfolio, we offer a comprehensive review of your sales and use tax procedures and tax returns in order to determine whether or not you may be overpaying or underpaying We offer a 3 step process to help analyze your business and provide answers to your questions:
Initial Review
In our initial review stage, we gather information about how the sales and use process works at your business and determine whether or not additional time should be spent further investigating any possible overpayments. Questions we look to answer include:
Once we complete this stage, a decision is made on whether additional time should be spent investigating any potential issues. Our experience shows that after this stage we often become aware of possible tax overpayments or underpayments that may exist.
Return and Process Review
Once we determine that a potential refund claim may exist or that there are areas of concern where there is underpayment, we move on to our return and process review stage. Typically in this stage we look to accomplish the following:
Refund Claim Preparation
We use the results from the return and review process to support a claim for refund. We will file the claim for you, document the adjustments, and manage the refund claim throughout the entire state review process. Our experience with state tax agencies allows us to streamline the refund process and obtain the refund as quickly as possible.
Do You Need This Service?
Many factors contribute to the possibility of overpaying sales and use tax. Some of the high risk factors include:
Benefits
The most immediate benefit from this service is the recovery of excess sales and use tax that was unnecessarily paid. In addition, your personnel will benefit from the information gathered and be better equipped to prepare these returns in the future, keeping more of your money in your pocket.
Still have questions? Join our webinar on Wednesday, July 8th at 1:30pm to see if our panel of experts can help in your situation. Register Now!