Here are some Frequently Asked Questions and answers
Sales and use tax questions and answers
Does this trigger an audit? No. Your engagement of Geoffrey Bodden & Associates, Inc. will not trigger any type of audit if you take the savings as a credit on your sales tax return. We know that your engagement does not raise any type of red flag because we are former Florida Department of Revenue Sales and Use tax auditors. It is very similar in practice to taking a credit on your federal tax return which does not raise red flags either.
We do not pay very much tax on our sales tax returns. Why do I need to engage your services? The majority of the savings you receive from your engaging our services comes from your accounts payable records and a smaller portion comes from your sales and use tax returns. You do pay sales tax on many of your vendor’s invoices due to a lack of expertise in accurately applying the sales and use tax statutes. You will benefit significantly from our expertise in accurately applying the statutes which enables us to find areas in your accounts payable records where either you have incorrectly applied the statutes or your vendors have incorrectly charged you the tax.
We had this done recently. Why should we do it again so soon? We produce greater savings in these tax areas than other firms in the industry which we have worked behind. You will benefit because we will be able to go back through the same records and generate enough savings to make it beneficial for you. You will be surprised at the results. Some firms in the industry focus only on the large dollar transactions in your accounts payable records. Our consultants find that the often overlooked smaller dollar transactions add up to be over 50% of the total savings. Other firms in the industry use consultants who are less experienced. Some use consultants with as little as 2 or 3 years of experience. Our consultants have 25+ years of experience and regularly out produce them.
We just had an audit so why do we need to do this? Even if you have received your assessment from the state your audit is probably still open and will fall within one of the two categories mentioned below.
1. Your audit resulted in a refund: The state auditor is trained to find money for the state. He is not trained in the area of producing savings for you. Our consultant is trained to produce savings for you. There are always additional areas of refund which the state auditor overlooks. You will benefit from our consultant identifying these areas so that you receive all of the savings legally due to you from the proper application of the statutes. Your refund will not be reduced because of this engagement. It will only be increased.
2. If you owe additional taxes: Your audit liabilities will be reduced by engaging our services. You will benefit from this engagement because our consultants routinely find that items the auditor has assessed against you are incorrect according to the statute or law. Many times an auditor will make errors in determining why an item was taxable and our consultant will dig deeper to show the auditor why it is a non-taxable item. Our consultants have turned our clients state audits that showed additional liabilities due into zero assessments or even refunds.
Property tax questions and answers
We are happy with our property tax assessment and know there are areas where the county has under assessed us. Why should we draw unnecessary attention to ourselves? We have had many clients who believed there were areas in which the county had under assessed them and were initially hesitant to allow us to help them. Our expert consultants were able to develop a different opinion and were able to present a solid case for the assets actually being over assessed which produced significant savings for our client. The counties are over loaded and many of the counties run your assessment on auto pilot year after year. When they do this they do not incorporate all of the varying economic and other factors into the equation which would have lowered your assessment. Our consultants focus on your business and independently inspect and value each asset. They do not take for granted the lump sum assessment many counties have to use due to the lack of resources they have. This effort and attention to detail on your engagement translates into a savings for you.
We had this done just recently. Why should we do it again so soon? There are still opportunities for savings in your assessment. Accurately assessing each of your assets by taking into considering all current operational and economic factors is the focus of our expert consultants. Other firms in the industry have shown that they do not put in the effort of doing a detailed review of each asset to the same high standard we hold our consultants to. The proper presentation of your facts by an expert in the industry will produce excellent savings for you. You will normally receive enough savings to make it worth your while by allowing us to go back through the same records.
General tax questions and answers
Our CPA keeps us up to date on all of the tax laws. Why should we engage you to do the same thing we already pay for?
Mr. Bodden and some of our consultants are CPA's as well. It is because of that fact that we understand that being a CPA doesn't make someone an expert in tax law. There aren't even any questions regarding these tax areas on the CPA exam. It is the experience and expertise of our consultants and their ability to properly interpret and apply the laws and statues that produces savings for you. Your CPA will have some knowledge in these areas much like a family doctor will know some things about your overall health, however, it is a skilled cutting edge surgeon that you want operating on you for specialized surgical needs. Our consultants have the expertise and focus to remain on the cutting edge of tax law which will more greatly benefit your bottom line over anything your CPA could do for you in these tax areas.
We have too many other projects. Why should this be a priority? This is the most profitable project you can undertake when comparing the generous savings generated for you to the minimal amount of time and resources it requires of you and your staff. There are taxes you are paying that you do not legally owe and you are wasting that money every month. All of your other projects and responsibilities require your time and resources to complete. Our consultant’s expertise ensures that you get the maximum savings allowed by law without having to use your time or resources for this project.
We don’t want to expose more liabilities. Why should we risk the exposure? Many times a client thinks something is a liability and it turns out it is not. The real risk is in not being made aware of the real liabilities and the potential areas of savings. We can help you by identifying the liabilities and suggesting ways to reduce or correct them. The savings we will produce will offset your liabilities for years to come.
Would you sign a non-disclosure agreement? Yes. We are professionals and have worked for many of the largest companies in Florida. We sign these agreements as a normal course of doing business.
What format do you need the records in? Any format is fine. Our consultants have worked in many different industries for companies of many different sizes. We do not need you to convert your records to any format which would be different from the way you currently keep them. We will work with hard copy or electronic files. Our consultant works very quickly averaging between 10 to 15 boxes or file drawers worth of records a day.
Are offsite or out of state records a problem? No. We do a true “hands free” engagement. We will go to the records wherever they are. You do not have to spend your time and resources gathering the information.
Does this trigger an audit? No. Your engagement of Geoffrey Bodden & Associates, Inc. will not trigger any type of audit if you take the savings as a credit on your sales tax return. We know that your engagement does not raise any type of red flag because we are former Florida Department of Revenue Sales and Use tax auditors. It is very similar in practice to taking a credit on your federal tax return which does not raise red flags either.
We do not pay very much tax on our sales tax returns. Why do I need to engage your services? The majority of the savings you receive from your engaging our services comes from your accounts payable records and a smaller portion comes from your sales and use tax returns. You do pay sales tax on many of your vendor’s invoices due to a lack of expertise in accurately applying the sales and use tax statutes. You will benefit significantly from our expertise in accurately applying the statutes which enables us to find areas in your accounts payable records where either you have incorrectly applied the statutes or your vendors have incorrectly charged you the tax.
We had this done recently. Why should we do it again so soon? We produce greater savings in these tax areas than other firms in the industry which we have worked behind. You will benefit because we will be able to go back through the same records and generate enough savings to make it beneficial for you. You will be surprised at the results. Some firms in the industry focus only on the large dollar transactions in your accounts payable records. Our consultants find that the often overlooked smaller dollar transactions add up to be over 50% of the total savings. Other firms in the industry use consultants who are less experienced. Some use consultants with as little as 2 or 3 years of experience. Our consultants have 25+ years of experience and regularly out produce them.
We just had an audit so why do we need to do this? Even if you have received your assessment from the state your audit is probably still open and will fall within one of the two categories mentioned below.
1. Your audit resulted in a refund: The state auditor is trained to find money for the state. He is not trained in the area of producing savings for you. Our consultant is trained to produce savings for you. There are always additional areas of refund which the state auditor overlooks. You will benefit from our consultant identifying these areas so that you receive all of the savings legally due to you from the proper application of the statutes. Your refund will not be reduced because of this engagement. It will only be increased.
2. If you owe additional taxes: Your audit liabilities will be reduced by engaging our services. You will benefit from this engagement because our consultants routinely find that items the auditor has assessed against you are incorrect according to the statute or law. Many times an auditor will make errors in determining why an item was taxable and our consultant will dig deeper to show the auditor why it is a non-taxable item. Our consultants have turned our clients state audits that showed additional liabilities due into zero assessments or even refunds.
Property tax questions and answers
We are happy with our property tax assessment and know there are areas where the county has under assessed us. Why should we draw unnecessary attention to ourselves? We have had many clients who believed there were areas in which the county had under assessed them and were initially hesitant to allow us to help them. Our expert consultants were able to develop a different opinion and were able to present a solid case for the assets actually being over assessed which produced significant savings for our client. The counties are over loaded and many of the counties run your assessment on auto pilot year after year. When they do this they do not incorporate all of the varying economic and other factors into the equation which would have lowered your assessment. Our consultants focus on your business and independently inspect and value each asset. They do not take for granted the lump sum assessment many counties have to use due to the lack of resources they have. This effort and attention to detail on your engagement translates into a savings for you.
We had this done just recently. Why should we do it again so soon? There are still opportunities for savings in your assessment. Accurately assessing each of your assets by taking into considering all current operational and economic factors is the focus of our expert consultants. Other firms in the industry have shown that they do not put in the effort of doing a detailed review of each asset to the same high standard we hold our consultants to. The proper presentation of your facts by an expert in the industry will produce excellent savings for you. You will normally receive enough savings to make it worth your while by allowing us to go back through the same records.
General tax questions and answers
Our CPA keeps us up to date on all of the tax laws. Why should we engage you to do the same thing we already pay for?
Mr. Bodden and some of our consultants are CPA's as well. It is because of that fact that we understand that being a CPA doesn't make someone an expert in tax law. There aren't even any questions regarding these tax areas on the CPA exam. It is the experience and expertise of our consultants and their ability to properly interpret and apply the laws and statues that produces savings for you. Your CPA will have some knowledge in these areas much like a family doctor will know some things about your overall health, however, it is a skilled cutting edge surgeon that you want operating on you for specialized surgical needs. Our consultants have the expertise and focus to remain on the cutting edge of tax law which will more greatly benefit your bottom line over anything your CPA could do for you in these tax areas.
We have too many other projects. Why should this be a priority? This is the most profitable project you can undertake when comparing the generous savings generated for you to the minimal amount of time and resources it requires of you and your staff. There are taxes you are paying that you do not legally owe and you are wasting that money every month. All of your other projects and responsibilities require your time and resources to complete. Our consultant’s expertise ensures that you get the maximum savings allowed by law without having to use your time or resources for this project.
We don’t want to expose more liabilities. Why should we risk the exposure? Many times a client thinks something is a liability and it turns out it is not. The real risk is in not being made aware of the real liabilities and the potential areas of savings. We can help you by identifying the liabilities and suggesting ways to reduce or correct them. The savings we will produce will offset your liabilities for years to come.
Would you sign a non-disclosure agreement? Yes. We are professionals and have worked for many of the largest companies in Florida. We sign these agreements as a normal course of doing business.
What format do you need the records in? Any format is fine. Our consultants have worked in many different industries for companies of many different sizes. We do not need you to convert your records to any format which would be different from the way you currently keep them. We will work with hard copy or electronic files. Our consultant works very quickly averaging between 10 to 15 boxes or file drawers worth of records a day.
Are offsite or out of state records a problem? No. We do a true “hands free” engagement. We will go to the records wherever they are. You do not have to spend your time and resources gathering the information.
Click the button above to contact us if you have other questions or you are ready to get started