State and Local Tax

Accounting Services
Tax

State and Local Tax Estate and Succession Planning International Tax

Assurance & Advisory

Accounting Resources

Elliott Davis can provide you or your company with a full array of State and Local Tax Services (SALT). We understand the importance of the State and Local Tax burdens to the corporate or individual "bottom line" and we are here to help. We can assist you with state income taxes, sales and use taxes, property taxes and other requirements in this area. We customize our services to meet the needs of each client, and we will work with you to make sure that the level of services you need is the level that you receive.

Our services include:

• Compliance
  This is the traditional service that you would expect from us. We can prepare any state or local tax filing (such as income tax returns or monthly sales tax return requirements), assist if filing applications for state ID numbers, and assist clients in setting up the reports from general ledger systems to file the returns efficiently.
• Day-to-Day Consulting
  We realize that you may need assistance and have questions in the State and Local Tax area as you work daily with complex rules and regulations. Much of the needed assistance will not be "projects" but will be questions and general guidance that come up as you do business. We enjoy helping these clients with these day-to-day challenges and make our teams easily accessible for those unexpected needs that require quick response.
• Sales and Use Tax Reverse Audits
  In addition to helping you with your monthly returns, we can help you be proactive. In a reverse audit, we can review your records, interview your people and tour your facilities to identify potential assessment areas BEFORE an audit notice is received from a state jurisdiction. Many states are willing to abate penalties if problem areas are fixed before an audit. In a reverse audit, we can also identify areas of OVERPAYMENTS, such as missed bad debt deductions (when allowed) or other exemptions or exclusions. Refund requests can also be made for all returns in statute. Many times we can also identify areas of process improvement as well.
• Voluntary Disclosures
  If underpayments exist, we can negotiate with the state to abate penalties (and sometimes interest or back taxes) on a balance due if proposed before a state takes action. The state may agree not to audit back periods if the client will agree to begin filing. The state wins with a new taxpayer with little collection or audit costs and the client wins with little or no penalty.
• Nexus Reviews
  We can walk you through the issues in the states where you operate to determine if a filing requirement exists. We can also help train the personnel that may be receiving correspondence from state about terminology on the nexus questionnaires. We review the responses before a questionnaire is transmitted to the state to limit exposure.
• Credit or Penalty Reviews
  We use questionnaires and procedures to determine if additional credits (such as Georgia or South Carolina jobs credits) are available to you or if you are exposed to penalty risk in your tax function and State and Local Tax positions.
• Procedure Reviews
  A procedure review will assist you in determining if the processes you have in place are working effectively and efficiently. As a part of this service, we can (if requested) develop a procedure manual that you can use internally to monitor procedures and train staff. We can also help with one part of the process (such as Exemption Certificate maintenance), instead of a full procedure review.
• Audit Support
  We can represent you with the state jurisdiction and train your staff on what to do when the auditor is in the office to minimize the audit risk.
• Training
  We can deliver seminars for your staff or presentations for organizations at any appropriate level or depth. The most popular topics are around sales & use taxes regarding how the actions of many departments affect the outcome of the tax due. 
• Property Tax Consulting
  We can assist you with process and protests, fee-in-lieu analysis and implementation, exemption implementation and consulting, appeals and other assistance.