Many companies are faced with an ever-growing element of risk in their business. State and local governments are cash strapped and jurisdictions are looking for every opportunity to close their budget deficits. Your clients are likely targets of these jurisdictional efforts in the form of increased sales and use tax audit activity, increased voracity of sales and use tax audits, and less leniency displayed by the jurisdictions.
All of this adds up to potentially a “material” weakness in your clients’ financial statements. While this is a real concern, most local and regional CPA firms do not employ a full-time multistate sales and use tax expert. In many situations, these firms serve clients with a professional who has some limited exposure to sales and use tax issues, but sales tax is not their primary client service focus. Your clients’ sales tax issues must be surfaced and proactively addressed before material contingent liabilities are created for the company and personal liabilities are created for the owners and officers.
Some of the common risk areas for your clients include:
- Failure to register and file in proper jurisdictions
- Improper or missing exemption certificates
- Failure to self-assess use tax on taxable purchases
- Out of date invoicing procedures resulting in the incorrect collection of sales tax
- Mishandling of sales tax notices or questions from the jurisdictions
How Does CPA Advantage Work?
TaxConnex provides the local and regional CPA firm with a free 30-minute consultation to any of your clients that you suspect may have an unrecorded sales and use tax liability. Simply call us and schedule an appointment. From there, you call the shots. You propose and contract, using TaxConnex as a subcontractor. Or you may choose for us to propose and contract directly with your client. Either way, it’s up to you.
What Do I Do Next?
TaxConnex offers a number of options to take the next step. We frequently provide “lunch and learn” webinars and in-person seminars to educate your staff on how to identify risk areas for their clients. Some firms choose to tie CPE credits to these seminars. We offer a low-cost “Risk Diagnostic” engagement where we specifically review and quantify key risk areas for your clients. Finally, feel free to peruse our website and take advantage of any of the free information available.
If you have a question or would like someone to call you, please email us at cpaadvantage@taxconnex.com.