Imagine what life is like inside one of your most successful and fast-growing clients\u2019 businesses. Maybe it\u2019s an exotic spice shop at the farmer\u2019s market, a car detailing shop, or even a landscaper who sells plants and trees. This client built its going concern through pluck, luck and, of course, your excellent advice. The business hired employees, scraped up some financing, developed a loyal customer base, weathered downturns and built on early successes. It marketed effectively, matches 401(k) contributions and has its accounting house almost in order.<\/p>\n
Life is good for your client. Right?<\/p>\n
Maybe not. Your client could be reckoning with a new challenge: an imminent sales tax audit. The company\u2019s successes did not adequately prepare it for this day. Alas, \u201clet\u2019s build a bulletproof sales tax compliance solution\u201d wasn\u2019t included on the list above, was it? Frankly, sales and use tax compliance rarely raises serious concerns for young, fast-moving companies. Until today, that is.<\/p>\n
Chances are good that your client got some kind of warning, so preparations have been made; but as the day draws near \u2013 \u201cthe auditor will be here, in this office<\/em> at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday!\u201d \u2013 here are a few ideas to help ensure a positive outcome:<\/p>\n A sales tax audit presents diverse and unique requirements on an auditor; besides detection of fraud and adherence to generally accepted accounting principles, a sales tax audit requires an application of a myriad of geographic boundaries, product and service specific rules, overlapping rates, multiple flavors of special exemptions, and quirky traps for the unwary. It is imperative that your clients approach sales tax audits with confidence and professionalism, in order to offset the native complexity of sales tax compliance experienced by auditors and accountants alike.<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note:<\/strong> Be sure to read other articles by Avalara’s tax experts on the Intuit\u00ae ProConnect\u2122\u00a0Tax Pro Center: “Global Tax Compliance for Small- and Medium-Size Businesses<\/a>”\u00a0by Shane Ratigan, and “Blockchain Technology and What it Means for Tax Professionals<\/a>”\u00a0by Peter Horadan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Imagine what life is like inside one of your most successful and fast-growing clients\u2019 businesses. Maybe it\u2019s an exotic spice shop at the farmer\u2019s market, a car detailing shop, or even a landscaper who sells plants and trees. This client built its going concern through pluck, luck and, of course, your excellent advice. The business<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107201116,"featured_media":5908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rkv_reviewed_by_select":[],"rkv_browse_by_id":0,"rkv_cta_id":0,"rkv_optimize_for_pagespeed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"useModifiedDate":false,"customPublishDate":"","customModifiedDate":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[509474089],"tags":[10585],"intuit_collection":[],"intuit_series":[],"coauthors":[509474195],"class_list":["post-5906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tax-law-and-news","tag-small-business"],"header_image":"","yoast_head":"\n\n
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