Sales & Use Tax Recovery & Compliance

With over 30 years of experience in sales & use tax recovery, Brown & Associates specializes in finding tax overpayments and future opportunities for your business to save money. Our expertise enables us to align your accounting systems with current tax laws to maximize benefits and minimize tax burden.

Our Sales & Use Tax Services

Sales & Use Tax Audit Mitigation

We review your company's sales tax compliance to identify both weaknesses and strengths. While state audits are skewed to identify underpayment errors, our comprehensive review quantifies over-payments to offset underpayments, penalties, and interest.

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

Sales & Use Tax Recovery

There are many scenarios in which a business can benefit from a sales and use tax review:

  • Administrative changes
  • Relocation to a new state
  • Acquisition from another company
  • Other major operational changes

In many of these cases, businesses unknowingly over-comply in order to avoid the risk of under-complying in taxes. Our extensive knowledge of tax laws helps secure refunds and credits for sales and use tax paid in error.

Our Process

Review of Past Documents

  • Review original accounts payable invoices, purchasing and inventory reports to verify that transactions are being classified correctly
  • Review individual transactions input into accounting & tax systems to verify accuracy
  • Review data from accounting & tax systems to ensure they're capturing relevant information for 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 requiring adjustment based on the specific business conducted at each location per each state's laws

Preparation for Future Savings

  • Advise on proactive strategic planning opportunities and best practices on a state-by-state basis to minimize future sales & use tax burden
  • File refunds for overpayments with thorough documentation
  • Handle all related questions, inquiries and audits from State Revenue Agencies resulting from 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 vendors erroneously charging sales tax to eliminate overpayments on future invoices

Why Choose Brown & Associates for Sales & Use Tax?

  • Contingency-Based Fees: We operate using contingency-based contract terms. You pay nothing unless refunds and credits are received as a result of our efforts.
  • Specialized Expertise: Our senior level staff members perform full analyses of your past sales & use tax documents and systems.
  • Proven Results: Over the past five years, our firm has saved our clients over $15,000,000 in sales/use tax overpayment.
  • Minimally Invasive Process: Our experience and skills allow us to review documents and systems without requiring constant oversight from your team.
  • Comprehensive Documentation: We provide detailed support for all claims and prepare all necessary documentation for State Revenue Agencies.

Contact us today for a no-obligation assessment of your sales and use tax recovery potential.