Dino Marcaccio
President
Former Texas Comptroller State Tax Auditor
ISSUE AT HAND
State 审计师 lacked Texas tax code/tax policy knowledge, almost costing a Texas taxpayer approximately $1.8 million in an incorrect sales tax assessment. Texas Tax Group was not engaged until AFTER the audit was completed by the State 审计师.
一名国家审计员在没有经验丰富的销售税顾问适当代表的情况下约谈了该纳税人.
解决方案
经验丰富的德州税务集团顾问，了解德州的税收代码以及主计长的政策(e.g., asked for a Redetermination extension) was hired to defend taxpayer. Texas Tax Group used its proprietary software. Texas Tax Group consultant obtained valid resale certificates from client vendors. Texas Tax Group team worked on many fronts to defend clients through the entire process.
结果
Texas Tax Group saved the taxpayer approximately $1.8 million in incorrect tax assessment.
AUDIT JOURNEY
Because Texas Tax Group (TTG) was engaged late in the process, TTG顾问(Nick)受到了来自审计师的一份激进的初步应税评估的挑战，该评估在有限的时间内减少了. After conducting an in-progress audit review of the initial documents provided by the client, 结果导致TTG顾问立即要求其内部税务分析师起草一份理由声明(SOG). This SOG is required to submit a Hearing Request for Redetermination, 这将允许TTG顾问在60天内为我们的客户准备针对应税评估的辩护.
When Nick contacted the 审计师 to verify that he had received the Statement of Grounds, the 审计师 could not confirm receiving it but was willing to discuss the audit. The 审计师’s stance was initially aggressive, 拒绝尼克的调查结果，并依靠与客户的面谈来证明应税评估是有效的. 这使得尼克立即要求在TTG办公室举行一次面对面的会议，继续为他的税务评估辩护.
Nick使用审计员的反馈文件夹作为指南，开始建立他反对审计员的案例，并开始收集支持文件，以解决州审计员的反对意见. Nick quickly found documentation specific to the defense of each item in question. Nick started with the Trial Balance and Chart of Accounts, and resale certificates were Nick’s first priority.
At this point, Nick更新了客户，现在他有了一个工作的基础，并让客户知道审计师正在使用与客户的面谈来反对他们，并作为出具税务评估的证据.
Nick在与客户交谈后联系了审计师，并很快发现审计师误解了与客户最初面谈时讨论的许多项目. The 审计师, being aggressive in nature, quickly objected to Nick’s findings. 然后Nick开始为特定的供应商收集支持文件来纠正误解, identifying discrepancies in vendor names/certificates, clarifying the age of permits, clarifying applicable rulings and statutes, explaining which shipments were out-of-state shipments, and emphasizing that a reimbursement expense is not taxable.
与客户的会面也有助于形成在重新确定时间框架后对审计进行竞争的计划, especially if the 审计师 would not accept the supporting documentation. 与TTG管理层的会议建议顾问请求延长重新确定期，基于以下原因:审计师从未通知客户他们有权对不一致的审计提出异议，并且在审计的主要部分期间被忽略, 审计直到收到60天的信后一个月才被包含在审计人员的任务清单中. 还建议召开和解会议和要求召开独立审计审查会议，因为在审计的主要部分忽略了纳税人的权利. It was decided that denial of these requests would require escalation to Audit Headquarters.
TTG开发了复杂的定制软件，以帮助我们的客户跟踪他们的审计历史和每个德州审计署的审计人员的工作历史, tax due ratio, and time at the agency. With this information combined with JD Field’s audit history, 尼克想出了一个制胜策略德州税务集团只能使用我们的专有跟踪软件. Nick discovered that the previous audit resulted in an $18,000 assessment after an assessment of $700,000 in the initial audit.
Nick的持续工作帮助记录了论据，用于下次与审计总监的审计师会议，以减少评估，并作为客户在审计方面的更新. 这份文件包含在发给审计师的电子邮件中，其中有一份声明，说明为什么修改后的调整时间表中的某些项目不属于当前评估的一部分, 因为它们不属于一揽子税收计划的一部分，而且有证据表明，它们在退欧会议召开时已被移除.
The next meeting with the 审计师 resulted in more state 审计师 objections, 具体来说:以不同的名称记账的交易(其中一个名称没有销售税许可证或直接支付号码), and resale certificates rejected because of different names for a taxpayer at different locations. In the discussion, Nick提到可能需要召开一次和解会议和一次独立审计审查会议. Also mentioned by Nick was that he had a previous audit with the 审计师’s supervisor, where it had been possible to conduct a phone conference after the redetermination timeframe had expired. 也有记录显示，审计员的主管没有回复客户代表关于当前审计的邮件. 该审计机构回应称，在与另一家审计机构进行进一步研究和讨论后，大部分交易将被删除
审计师.
The 审计师 still included transactions that negatively impacted the client, and the TTG consultant persisted by presenting additional applicable rulings, statutes, plus the Wayfair Supreme Court decision, with which the 审计师 did not seem to be familiar. Again, this is another example of TTG’s advantage in actual Comptroller experience with State Sales & Use Tax agency procedures, rulings, statutes, and staying current on court decisions.
TTG顾问对主计长审计员和监督员的持续压力继续得到回报，因为更多的交易被从审计中删除. 一些交易被删除是因为支持文档/论据，而一些交易被删除是因为Nick指出它们被包含在不同的审计中.
The TTG consultant then received a surprise email. The Comptroller 审计师 had left the agency and the new supervisor was now in charge of the audit. 通常, 中期审计人员变动对客户产生不同程度的负面影响，因为关系需要重新启动，审计人员必须跟上, thus adding more consultant time. In hindsight, 这对客户来说可能是积极的，因为负责审计的新审计师更愿意接受Nick从一开始提出的有效文件和论据.
Nick’s detailed documentation, detailed research, past Comptroller audit experience, 与财务主任人员和客户代表的一致沟通在将原来的摊款减少1美元方面发挥了重要作用.8 million! The quality of the consultant’s detailed documentation, supported with the applicable research findings, 面对持续不断的无根据的反对意见，这位顾问的专业精神成功地为客户辩护.
