Credits And Refunds
If you pay sales tax to vendors, or accrue use tax on purchases, you may be over-reporting your sales or use tax liability. Even if you had a no-change audit, you may have overpaid the tax. Sales & use tax auditors are paid to assess tax, not refund it. This is a fact of life.
SToRM
SToRM stands for Sales Tax Recovery Methodology. SToRM is the process we have successfully used for years to recover overpayments of state sales and use tax.
Key Benefits of SToRM
* Potential to Recover Overpaid Sales and Use Taxes
* No Refund, No Fees
* Free Review of Sales and Use Tax Collection and Remittance System
Specifically, SToRM utilizes four components to maximize credits and refunds while minimizing the time spent on the project. The four components of SToRM are Research, Playbook, Review, and Refund.
Research
We use state-of-the-art research tools to gather information and track changes in state laws, rules, and regulations, as well as policy and court cases. Our research tools allow us to remain on the cutting edge of changes in the application of sales and use tax laws to companies required to collect, remit and report state sales and use taxes. Many of the changes and updates result in tax saving opportunities that can result in retroactive claims for refund.
Playbook
We track changes in tax laws, policy, or court cases that result in opportunities for companies to recover overpayments or credits of state sales and use taxes. We incorporate these changes into our “Playbook.” The playbook is a proprietary matrix we use to quickly match your company with potential opportunities for sales and use tax refunds.
Using the playbook, we will identify specific areas to examine, and develop a plan to efficiently determine whether a sales or use tax credit opportunity should be pursued. This method has been proven to minimize the amount of client and consultant time spent on recovery projects.
Review
The review process begins with a detailed examination of your sales and use tax returns. This examination is designed to uncover sales & use tax overpayments. Next, we use the playbook matrix to test opportunities identified in the Playbook phase of the review. Depending on the results of the test, we will either expand our examination of these refund opportunities, or determine that the sales tax recovery is immaterial and move on.
If the testing results in a likely refund, and the volume of information is large, we use information management software to perform statistical samples of transactions. Sampling allows us to test a small number of transactions and project the results over a larger population. Statistical analysis allows us to determine the extent to which the sample accurately represents the population of the transactions. Our use of technology allows us to minimize the time spent performing a review, as well as the burden on your staff.
Refund
We use the results of our test to document and support the sales tax credit or claim for refund. We file the claim for you, document the adjustments, and manage the refund claim throughout the entire review process. In the event the sales tax credit can be claimed directly on a sales and use tax return, we will adjust the affected return to reflect the reduction in sales and use tax. Our experience with state tax agencies allows us to streamline the refund process and obtain the refund as quickly as possible.
Because our fees are based on the refunded amount, there is no risk to you in the event a sales or use tax recovery is not achieved.