The Results Are In…

A few months ago, we wrote about how New York State was considering suspending certain gas taxes to help alleviate the drastic increase in gas prices recently.  However the question arose of will this gas suspension also include a suspension of some of the sales tax on gas?

Shockingly, the answer to this question is yes.  The truth of the matter is the answer to this question is almost always no, and we told you the reason why in our previous newsletter.

If you remember, we told you that NYS made almost $14 billion dollars in sales and use tax last year!  Sales tax is a huge revenue stream for them and one they very clearly continue to pursue.  But, we just said there was relief for sales tax. The question then becomes, how are they continuing to pursue this revenue stream?

While sales tax was included in this suspension, each jurisdiction did not collectively make the same change.  For local sales tax, each county and city were given the power to elect a percentage rate sales tax method.

So, while the sales tax rate has gone down, calculating the sales tax on fuel has only gotten more difficult. Will this lead to more sales tax audits? What do you think?

Make sure you have a great defense in place when it comes time to fight your sales tax bill. Sales Tax Defense can help you reduce the governments sales tax revenue stream.  Give us a call. We are always here to help.

Success Story

Sales Tax Audit Closed with NO MONEY DUE!

A construction company received a huge shock when they received a notice from the NYS tax department that they were under an audit.  They were under the belief that since they were not selling tangible items, they did not have to register or pay sales tax. And as such, they also never collected any Certificates of Capital Improvement.

Realizing they were in over their heads, the construction company made a smart move, and contacted Sales Tax Defense LLC. We got to work quickly. We realized that it appeared as though sales tax wasn’t paid on purchases. But upon further investigation, we were able to prove that the proper sales tax was paid. After going back and forth many times with the auditor, we were able to prove that each job was a capital improvement.  AND we showed that sales tax was correctly paid on all purchases.

The construction company was thrilled when the auditor closed the audit with no tax due!  And, the company learned two very valuable lessons: it pays to contact a professional in areas where you do not have expertise (such as sales tax), and the importance of collecting proper paperwork.

IF YOU ARE A CONSTUCTION COMPANY AND YOU ARE NOT REGISTERED AND FILING SALES TAX RETURNS, (in our opinion) YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING WRONG!