by Fresh Start Tax | Jul 25, 2013 | Tax Help
If you are looking for professional tax help with the new Louisiana fresh start amnesty program contact us today.
We are a team of tax attorneys, certified public accountants, and former IRS agents and managers who can help you work out your tax situation regarding the new Louisiana fresh start amnesty program.
Act 421 of the 2013 Louisiana Legislature
Act 421 of the 2013 Louisiana Legislature instituted a statewide amnesty program for all Louisiana taxpayers as a way to bring current any delinquent taxes with the Louisiana Department of Revenue (LDR). LA Tax Amnesty 2013:
A Fresh Start will officially begin on September 23, 2013 and will end on November 22, 2013.
During this two-month time period, Louisiana taxpayers will be able to officially apply for tax amnesty and submit payment for all tax periods that are outstanding.
All taxpayers who qualify for the Fresh Start program will receive a letter from the Secretary of Revenue accompanied by a voucher showing tax periods and amounts owed with all necessary account numbers to expedite payment to LDR by November 22, 2013. Upon receipt, electronic application and payment will be the fastest and most efficient way to clear all accounts with LDR.
“This is a time for all Louisiana taxpayers to get a fresh start with their taxes,” said Tim Barfield, Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Revenue.
“We have worked to make this process very simple and easy to use. We want to make certain that this direct benefit to taxpayers will be a way to help them and their families without jumping through a lot of hoops or going through red tape,” Barfield said. I
At that time he will present the program in its totality in preparation for the formal launch on September 23, 2013.
The following taxes and tax periods are included in the amnesty program:
- • The tax amnesty program shall apply to all taxes administered by the department except for motor fuel taxes and penalties for failure to submit information reports that are not based on an underpayment of tax.
- • Taxes due prior to January 1, 2013, for which the department has issued an individual or a business proposed assessment, notice of assessment, bill, notice, or demand for payment not later than May 31, 2013;
- • Taxes for taxable periods that began before January 1, 2013.
A taxpayer is eligible for amnesty under any of the following circumstances:
- • The taxpayer has received a notice for the failure to timely file a return or for the failure to remit the amount owed;
- • The taxpayer has an outstanding tax liability but has never filed a Louisiana return;
- • The taxpayer has an outstanding tax liability but has not been billed by the department;
- • A lien has been issued against the taxpayer’s property;
- • LDR has initiated proceedings under assessment and distraint procedures;
- • LDR has entered into an installment agreement with the taxpayer;
- • The taxpayer has filed for bankruptcy protection;
- • The taxpayer is involved in a field audit;
- • The taxpayer is involved in litigation;
- • The taxpayer’s liability consists of interest and penalty;
- • The taxpayer’s liability consists of interest only; or
- • The taxpayer’s liability consists of penalty only.
The following are not eligible for the Fresh Start program:
- • Taxpayers who are a party to any criminal investigation or criminal litigation, in any court of the United States or the State of Louisiana pending on August 1, 2013, for nonpayment, delinquency, or fraud in relation to any state tax imposed by a law of the State of Louisiana and administered by the department, are not eligible for amnesty.
- • Taxpayers who deliver or disclose any false or fraudulent application, document, return, or other statement to the department in connection with an amnesty application shall be ineligible for amnesty and shall be subject to penalties of fraud.
Louisiana – Fresh Start Amnesty Program – Professional Tax Help
by Fresh Start Tax | Jul 24, 2013 | Florida Sales Tax, Tax Help
Call former government agents to help you with any sales tax problem you are having. Affordable Experts!
We can represent you for sales tax audit, owing back money with the state of Florida and/OR help rectify your problem in full. We are A FULL service firm.
If you are engaging in a Florida State sales tax problem contact us today and we can give you a free initial tax consultation, yes free advise, on how to handle a sales and use tax audit or explain to you how can you can help negotiate a tax warrant lien with Florida sales and use tax division.
If you owe money to Florida Sales Tax
The Florida Department of Revenue is authorized by law to publish a list of the names of taxpayers who have large unresolved tax liabilities.
These taxpayers, businesses or corporation that have failed to pay or arrange to pay their debt, despite repeated attempts by the Department of Revenue to collect the amount due. Some of these businesses may find themselves involved in a criminal investigation because Florida sales tax investigators refer repeat offenders to the criminal division for criminal prosecution.
By Law, they can publish the names of Sales and Use Tax Offenders
The names were selected according to the following criteria:
- Taxpayers who have unsatisfied tax warrants or liens totaling $100,000 or more, and
- In counties where no taxpayer has warrants or liens totaling $100,000, the two taxpayers with the highest amount of warrants or liens are included.
- Taxpayers who are in bankruptcy, who have entered into and are current on a stipulated payment agreement, or who have in place a payment agreement with the Department, are excluded.
Public Record
The warrant or lien is a public record filed with the Clerk of Court or other government office in the county where the taxpayer is located.
The list is published according to section 213.053(19), Florida Statutes.
The list will be updated every 30 days.
If your name or business name appears on the list and you want to resolve your tax liability, contact your local Department of Revenue service center.
You must do one of the following:
1. Pay the amount in full,
2. Enter a stipulated payment agreement,
3.Provide information to prove the amount on the warrant is not due.
The Collection Process of a Warrant or Lien
The Department of Revenue begins the collection process when a taxpayer fails to file a return, fails to make a payment, underpays the amount due, files late, pays late, or owes additional money that was discovered in an audit.
A delinquency notice (Notice of Delinquency) is issued when a return is not filed and a bill (Notice of Amount Due) is issued when a return is filed late or additional money is due.
The delinquency notice issued to a taxpayer indicates a return has not been filed, while the initial bill contains a breakdown of the additional amount due.
It is extremely important to take prompt action for resolution when you receive a billing or delinquency notice.
Penalties and interest
Penalties and interest continue to accumulate until the entire amount of the tax is paid. If the debt remains unpaid for 90 days, the Department will charge a 10% administrative collection processing fee to cover the costs of collecting the debt.
Failure to resolve your debt may result in your account being sent to a private collection agency.
If your account is sent to a private collection agency and the debt includes reemployment tax (formerly known as unemployment tax), you will be charged a separate fee by the collection agency.
The quickest way to resolve a bill is to pay it online. If you cannot pay this bill in full you should contact us today to hear your various tax options and solutions on how to remedy this problem.
If a delinquency notice is received, it is important to file the missing return(s) and pay the tax as soon as possible.
If a taxpayer is already enrolled for e-file and pay, they need to submit the missing returns and payments as they normally would. If not currently on e-file, enrollment for e-Services is easy.
If you do not owe the State Tax
A taxpayer who believes they received a delinquency notice in error, disagrees with the billing amount due, or has already filed or paid the return or billing in question, should contact the Department immediately to resolve the issue.
Failure to respond timely may result in further enforcement actions which could include: filing liens against property, freezing bank accounts, and revoking sales tax registration and other professional licenses.
What to do if it’s not possible to pay in full
If it’s not possible to pay in full, contact the Department by calling your local service center or the 800 number and requesting a stipulated time payment agreement. The taxpayer will be required to provide financial documents that support their inability to pay the debt in full.
They should also be prepared to pay a minimum of 25 percent down and the full balance within a year. If you cannot pay this 25% down there are other options available. By contacting us we can go over some different options for you.
Taxpayer Rights Advocate
The Taxpayer Rights Advocate helps resolve taxpayer problems and complaints not solved through normal channels. Read the Florida Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. If a taxpayer believes that they have not been treated fairly by Department employees, they should try to resolve the issues/problems through normal channels.
If this has already been done but the taxpayer still believes the Department has not addressed the concerns, contact the Taxpayer Rights Advocate at 850-617-8168 or write to:
Taxpayer Rights Advocate
Department of Revenue
P.O. Box 5906
Tallahassee FL 32314-5906
How Are Taxpayers Selected for Audit?
The methods for selecting a business or individual to audit vary from tax to tax.
Here are some examples of sources we use to identify a potential audit candidate:
1. Internal Revenue Service information.
2. Information sharing programs with other states and state agencies.
3. Computer-based random selection.
4. Analysis of Florida tax return information.
5. Business publications, periodicals, journals, and directories.
What Types of Records Will I Need to Provide?
When we notify you of our intent to audit, we will also tell you what records you will need to provide.
The types of records may include, but are not limited to:
- General ledgers and journals
- Cash receipt and disbursement journals
- Purchase and sales journals
- Sales tax exemption or resale certificates
- Other documentation to verify amounts entered on tax returns.
You must keep your records for three years since an audit can extend back that far.
The Department may audit for periods longer than three years if you did not file, or filed a substantially incorrect return or payment. Florida sales tax feels that this may be a criminal tax problem there will be no statute.
We are comprising tax attorneys, tax lawyers, certified public accountants with over 206 years of professional tax experience. We are A+ rated by the Better Business Bureau and have been in private practice since 1982. You can contact us today for a free initial tax consultation.
Florida Sales Tax – Audits, Tax Warrants Liens – Tax Help – Free Tax Guidance
by Fresh Start Tax | Jul 24, 2013 | Tax Help
Use Former Agents to provide affordable, knowledgeable, and expert audit defense, since 1982.
If you have been contacted by the state of Florida that you are going to undergo a tax audit the best advice that we can give you is to be thoroughly prepared and understand the scope of your Florida sales and use tax audit.
The last thing you want to do is to be caught off guard.
With the state of Florida needing revenue the easiest and fastest way to collect dollars from a struggling Florida economy is to conduct sales and use tax audits. The state is well aware that many businesses have cash practices and do not report all their sales as they should. Companies and businesses are easy targets for Florida sales and use tax auditors.
As a general rule, a tax auditor is worth six times their salary in additional money to the State, so only makes sense for the Florida Department of revenue to conduct more and more tax audits.
Florida Department of revenue tax audit guides are available to all taxpayers
Many people are bit surprised to find out that the Florida Department of revenue actually puts out tax audit guides so taxpayers, businesses and corporations can understand how the Department of revenue conducts their tax audits.
Taxpayers may use audit guides to help to understand sales tax issues likely to surface relating to the industry, and relevant laws, court cases, and other technical documents. Even for taxpayers not going through tax audits it will benefit them tremendously just to understand how the Florida Department of revenue audit procedures work.
Before you ever walk in for a sales and use tax audit you want to make sure you are completely well-versed in what will be taking place during the audit and these guides will be very helpful.
You can call us today to learn more about a Florida Department of revenue sales tax audit guide.
These tax audit guides are not available for all industries and businesses please find below a list of the applicable industries the guides are related to.
Available tax audit guides for given Florida Industries
1. Aircraft Dealer,
2. Boat Dealer,
3. Commercial Rental Guide
4. Construction / Real Property Contractor,
5. Convenience Store
6. Grocery Store
7. Hotel / Transient Rental Manufacturers
8. Motor Vehicle Dealer
9. Repair of Tangible Personal Property
10. Restaurants and Bars
11. Retailer / Wholesaler
12. Transportation.
How a Florida Sales and Use may conduct your tax audit: The use of Selecting the Sample
The first step in selecting the sample is to identify the sampling frame.
The sampling frame is a group of items from which the sample is drawn or a listing of sampling units.
In a homogeneous sampling frame, any item in the frame is representative of any other item; therefore, a random selection of all items in the frame will be representative.
The auditor determines how the accounting records are physically stored and available in order to identify the sampling frame.
Typically, accounting records have numbered sampling frames or non-numbered sampling frames, or they may have a combination of both.
Both numbered and non-numbered sampling frames can be randomly sampled using WinSample.
WinSample is a software program developed by the General Tax Administration’s Statistics Team and Applied Technology.
WinSample randomly selects sample points from many possible sampling frames using a seed number.
WinSample may be used when taxpayer records are not available in an electronic format suitable for stratified statistical sampling or e-Auditing. Numbered sampling frames include source documents that are consecutively numbered.
Some examples are:
• Invoice numbers
• Voucher numbers
• Check numbers Non-numbered sampling frames include source documents that have no natural numbering system.
Although not consecutively numbered, a random sample of the transactions may still be identified.
Some examples of non-numbered sampling frames supported in WinSample are:
• Time periods (days, weeks, months, quarters)
• Journals (with page numbers and multiple lines on each page)
• Imaged documents
• Microfiche
After the sampling frame is identified, data integrity tests for each sampling frame should be performed.
Data integrity tests should be performed on both numbered and non-numbered populations.
Why were you Audited by the Florida Department of Revenue
There are a variety of reasons why the Florida Department of revenue is pulling your tax return for a tax audit. You may ask the Florida Department of revenue auditor the reason for your tax audit.
But there is no reason for them not to explain why the State of Florida has pulled your return for a Florida revenue audit.
As a general rule the reasons are the following:
- Enforce Florida tax laws uniformly across all industries,
- Deter tax evasion o businesses and corporations in the state of Florida,
- Promote voluntary compliance among all taxpayers. Sometimes they pull your tax return just because they think you’re cheating.
Other Reason for Tax Audits
You should also know that many times they have received tips from disgruntled employees or customers. Many times these can lead to criminal enforcement.
Be careful who knows your business.
You would also be surprised the number of spouses that turn the other spouse in to both the Internal Revenue Service answer the Florida Department of revenue simply for a revenge factor.
Only one percent of all tax returns are audited by the Florida Department of revenue and much of that is due to a limited manpower.
The Florida Department of revenue tries to take the biggest and the largest offenders and make examples of those businesses or companies by making sure much press is written to ensure compliance from other taxpayers in the state of Florida.
It is very commonplace to see an article at lease once a month in the local newspaper about a criminal prosecution that has taken place within the state of Florida to promote fear within taxpayers and the industry.
The state of Florida audits some returns to verify accuracy and evaluate compliance. Audits do not always result in the taxpayer owing additional tax, penalty or interest.
The auditor may adjust a credit carryover or correct distribution without assessing additional tax. The auditor may even determine that a refund is due.
Selecting Methods for a Sales or Use Tax Audit
The methods for selecting a business or individual to audit vary from tax to tax.
Here are some examples of sources the state of Florida use to identify a potential audit candidate:
1. Internal Revenue Service has provided various information that it feels a state of Florida should look at.
Many times when the Internal Revenue Service picks up an audit for federal reasons and they find flagrant violations of tax laws they will notify the state of Florida. These are common practices among government agencies
2. Information sharing programs with other states and state agencies.
3. Computer-based random selection.
4. Analysis of Florida tax return information. There are certain standards used by the state of Florida in which taxpayers fall within the normal median ranges. Once taxpayers fallout of these ranges it notifies the computer will be reviewed by an agent were decision is made to conduct a tax audit.
5. Business publications, periodicals, journals, and directories. From time to time the state wants to make sure certain industries are within tax compliance of the Florida Department of revenue tax guides and will take a certain industries and widespread sales tax audits to find out trends. Many these audits come up no change.
What types of records will need to be provided?
When the state of Florida lets you know of their tax audit intent, they will also tell you what records you will need to provide. They will always send out a document request so you know exactly the records that will be expected during your tax audit. There is no set procedure and every auditor uses their own judgment to make these determinations.
The types of records may include, but are not limited to:
- General ledgers and journals
- Cash receipt and disbursement journals
- purchase and sales journals
- Sales tax exemption or resale certificates
Record keeping for the State of Florida
You must keep your records for three years since an audit can extend back that far. This is also the same advice given to you by the Internal Revenue Service.
The Department may audit for periods longer than three years if you did not file, or filed a substantially incorrect return or payment.
These are usually omissions of tax of over 25%. There are no statutes for criminal violations.
Criminal Violations
Florida sales and use tax uses their criminal investigators to collect back sales tax.
Many times taxpayers are businesses will receive a letter letting them know they’re under criminal investigation. Many times Florida sales and use taxes looking to collect back dollars and using the fear of criminal prosecution to get taxpayers to pay. If you have been notified that you are under a criminal investigation by Florida sales and use tax you absolutely should contact a criminal attorney. Contact us today to learn more to keep your conversation with us under attorney-client privilege.
Appointment Dates for Tax Audits
After the State of Florida Department of revenue sends you a Notice of Intent to Audit Books and Records, the auditor will work with you to set a date to begin the audit.
It is in your best interest not to miss any of the dates as many times the auditors gets evaluated on meeting deadlines.
The auditor will give you deadlines for providing information or documentation.
If you need additional time to prepare, or need to request a delay for other reasons, contact the auditor.
The auditor will usually make every effort to accommodate your requests.
If you fail to respond or provide the requested information, we may issue an assessment and file a warrant based on the best available information.
After your State Sales Tax Audit is finished
After your audit is complete, you can review the audit findings and proposed changes to your tax liability. The auditor will give you a copy of the work papers and explain your rights, including deadlines for filing protests.
If you are planning to file a protest you must make sure you do so within the given dates or you will lose your appellate rights.
What if I do not agree with the audit results?
If you do not agree with the audit assessment, you can:
- File a written informal protest with the Department of Revenue; or
- File a written formal protest by petitioning for review by the Division of Administrative Hearings or file an action in circuit. If you are thinking about doing this you would be wise to hire a seasoned and experienced professional tax firm to appeal and work out a tax settlement on your case.
Other Audit-Related Information by the Sales and Use Tax Division
Electronic auditing, or e-Auditing,: is computer-assisted auditing using electronic records to complete all or part of the audit. If you use a computer to record your business activity and keep this data electronically, you are a candidate for an electronic audit.
The Florida Department of revenue prefers to examine electronic records because it is the most accurate and efficient method of conducting an audit.
The Certified Audit Program :is a cooperative effort between the Florida Department of Revenue and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA).
Taxpayers who have not received a Notice of Intent to Audit from the Department are eligible. The program gives taxpayers the opportunity to hire qualified CPA firms to review their sales and use and local option tax compliance.
As an incentive, Revenue waives penalties and reduces interest if tax is owed as a result of the audit.
The Voluntary Disclosure Program: allows you to report previously unpaid or underpaid tax liabilities for any tax administered by the Florida Department of Revenue. Once you have paid the tax and interest, Revenue will waive the penalties.
If you think you might owe back taxes and Revenue has not contacted you about the liability, you may be eligible for the Voluntary Disclosure Program. before you do this it is wise to call a seasoned tax professional experienced and experts in this matter. We recommend you call us and speak to us confidentially on these issues.
Standard Industry Guides provide tax information for specific types of businesses. Taxpayers may use them to help understand sales tax issues likely to surface relating to the industry; and relevant laws, court cases, and other technical documents.
Tax clearance letters and transferee liability certificates: When buying a Florida business, the purchaser should ask the seller for documentation of any tax, penalty, or interest due to the Department of Revenue.
A business owner can use a clearance letter as proof of good standing with the Department.
Call us today to receive a free initial tax consultation regarding Florida sales and use tax audit help.
We are Florida sales and use tax help experts. We are comprised of tax attorneys, certified public accountants and former IRS agents, managers , and tax instructors.
Florida Sales & Use Tax Audit Help – Affordable Audit Defense
by Fresh Start Tax | Jul 24, 2013 | Tax Help
How to Get a Transcript or Copy of a Prior Year Tax Return
If you can’t find your tax return, the IRS can provide a copy or give you a transcript of the tax information you need.
Here’s how to get your federal tax return information from the IRS:
1. Transcripts are free and you can get them for the current year and the past three years. In most cases, a transcript includes all the information you need.
2. A tax return transcript shows most line items from the tax return you originally filed. It also includes items from any accompanying forms and schedules you filed. It does not reflect any changes made after you filed your original return.
3. A tax account transcript shows any changes either you or the IRS made to your tax return after you filed it.
This transcript includes your marital status, the type of return you filed, your adjusted gross income and taxable income.
4. You can get transcripts on the web, by phone or by mail.
To request transcripts online, go to IRS.gov and use the Order a Transcript tool. To order by phone, call 800-908-9946 and follow the prompts.
5. To request a 1040, 1040A or 1040EZ tax return transcript by mail or fax, complete Form 4506T-EZ, Short Form Request for Individual Tax Return Transcript.
Businesses and individuals who need a tax account transcript should use Form 4506-T, Request for Transcript of Tax Return.
6. If you order online or by phone, you should receive your tax return transcript within five to 10 calendar days.
You should allow 30 calendar days for delivery of a tax account transcript if you order by mail.
7. If you need an actual copy of a filed and processed tax return, it will cost $57 for each tax year. Complete Form 4506, Request for Copy of Tax Return, and mail it to the IRS address listed on the form for your area.
Copies are generally available for the current year and past six years. Please allow 60 days for delivery.
8. If you live in a Presidential declared disaster area, the IRS may waive the fee to obtain copies of your tax returns.
Visit IRS.gov and select the ‘Disaster Relief’ link in the lower left corner of the page for more about IRS disaster assistance.
9. Forms 4506, 4506-T and 4506T-EZ are available at IRS.gov or by calling 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676).
10. If you need any tax help of any kind call us today.
Get a copy of your Income Tax Return – The Process – Fresh Start Tax
by Fresh Start Tax | Jul 24, 2013 | Florida Sales Tax, Tax Help
Use Former Agents to provide your most affordable and expert tax audit defense.
Florida Department of revenue sales tax and use tax audits are up from previous years. The reason is simple, the state of Florida needs money and the easiest way to collect it is from auditing taxpayers in the state of Florida.
As a general rule, a tax auditor is worth six times their salary in additional money to the State, so only makes sense for the Florida Department of revenue to conduct more and more tax audits.
Florida Department of revenue tax audit guides
Many people are bit surprised to find out that the Florida Department of revenue actually puts out tax audit guides so taxpayers, businesses and corporations can understand how the Department of revenue conducts their tax audits.
Taxpayers may use audit guides to help to understand sales tax issues likely to surface relating to the industry, and relevant laws, court cases, and other technical documents. Even for taxpayers not going through tax audits it will benefit them tremendously just to understand how the Florida Department of revenue audit procedures work.
These are a very valuable tool.
You can call us today to learn more about a Florida Department of revenue sales tax audit guide.
These tax audit guides are not available for all industries and businesses please find below a list of the applicable industries the guides are related to.
Available tax audit guides for given industries
1. Aircraft Dealer,
2. Boat Dealer,
3. Commercial Rental Guide
4. Construction / Real Property Contractor,
5. Convenience Store
6. Grocery Store
7. Hotel / Transient Rental Manufacturers
8. Motor Vehicle Dealer
9. Repair of Tangible Personal Property
10. Restaurants and Bars
11. Retailer / Wholesaler
12. Transportation
As you can see the 12 industries noted above are larger revenue producers for a Florida Department of revenue.
Why were you Audited by the Florida Department of Revenue
There are a variety of reasons why the Florida Department of revenue is pulling your tax return for a tax audit. You may ask the Florida Department of revenue auditor the reason for your tax audit. Some of them may tell you others may keep a secret.
But there is no reason for them not to explain why the state has pulled your return for a Florida revenue audit.
As a general rule the reasons are the following:
- Enforce Florida tax laws uniformly across all industries,
- Deter tax evasion o businesses and corporations in the state of Florida,
- Promote voluntary compliance among all taxpayers. Sometimes they pull your tax return just because they think you’re cheating.
Other Reason for Tax Audits
You should also know that many times they have received tips from disgruntled employees or customers. Many times these can lead to criminal enforcement.
Be careful who knows your business.
You would also be surprised the number of spouses that turn the other spouse in to both the Internal Revenue Service answer the Florida Department of revenue simply for a revenge factor.
Only one percent of all tax returns are audited by the Florida Department of revenue and much of that is due to a limited manpower.
The Florida Department of revenue tries to take the biggest and the largest offenders and make examples of those businesses or companies by making sure much press is written to ensure compliance from other taxpayers in the state of Florida.
It is very commonplace to see an article at lease once a month in the local newspaper about a criminal prosecution that has taken place within the state of Florida to promote fear within taxpayers and the industry.
The state of Florida audits some returns to verify accuracy and evaluate compliance. Audits do not always result in the taxpayer owing additional tax, penalty or interest.
The auditor may adjust a credit carryover or correct distribution without assessing additional tax. The auditor may even determine that a refund is due.
Selected for a Sales or Use Tax Audit?
The methods for selecting a business or individual to audit vary from tax to tax.
Here are some examples of sources the state of Florida use to identify a potential audit candidate:
1. Internal Revenue Service has provided various information that it feels a state of Florida should look at.
Many times when the Internal Revenue Service picks up an audit for federal reasons and they find flagrant violations of tax laws they will notify the state of Florida. These are common practices among government agencies
2. Information sharing programs with other states and state agencies.
3. Computer-based random selection.
4. Analysis of Florida tax return information. There are certain standards used by the state of Florida in which taxpayers fall within the normal median ranges. Once taxpayers fallout of these ranges it notifies the computer will be reviewed by an agent were decision is made to conduct a tax audit.
5. Business publications, periodicals, journals, and directories. From time to time the state wants to make sure certain industries are within tax compliance of the Florida Department of revenue tax guides and will take a certain industries and widespread sales tax audits to find out trends. Many these audits come up no change.
What types of records will need to be provided?
When the state of Florida lets you know of their tax audit intent, they will also tell you what records you will need to provide. They will always send out a document request so you know exactly the records that will be expected during your tax audit. There is no set procedure and every auditor uses their own judgment to make these determinations.
The types of records may include, but are not limited to:
- General ledgers and journals
- Cash receipt and disbursement journals
- purchase and sales journals
- Sales tax exemption or resale certificates
Record keeping for the State of Florida
You must keep your records for three years since an audit can extend back that far. This is also the same advice given to you by the Internal Revenue Service.
The Department may audit for periods longer than three years if you did not file, or filed a substantially incorrect return or payment.
These are usually omissions of tax of over 25%.
There are no statutes for criminal violations.
Make sure you Communicate and Meet Deadlines with the auditor.
After the State of Florida Department of revenue sends you a Notice of Intent to Audit Books and Records, the auditor will work with you to set a date to begin the audit.
It is in your best interest not to miss any of the dates as many times the auditors gets evaluated on meeting deadlines.
The auditor will give you deadlines for providing information or documentation.
If you need additional time to prepare, or need to request a delay for other reasons, contact the auditor.
The auditor will usually make every effort to accommodate your requests.
If you fail to respond or provide the requested information, we may issue an assessment and file a warrant based on the best available information.
After your State Sales Tax Audit
After your audit is complete, you can review the audit findings and proposed changes to your tax liability. The auditor will give you a copy of the work papers and explain your rights, including deadlines for filing protests.
What if I do not agree with the audit results?
If you do not agree with the audit assessment, you can:
- File a written informal protest with the Department of Revenue; or
- File a written formal protest by petitioning for review by the Division of Administrative Hearings or file an action in circuit.
Other Audit-Related Information
Electronic auditing, or e-Auditing,: is computer-assisted auditing using electronic records to complete all or part of the audit. If you use a computer to record your business activity and keep this data electronically, you are a candidate for an electronic audit.
The Florida Department of revenue prefers to examine electronic records because it is the most accurate and efficient method of conducting an audit.
The Certified Audit Program :is a cooperative effort between the Florida Department of Revenue and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants (FICPA).
Taxpayers who have not received a Notice of Intent to Audit from the Department are eligible. The program gives taxpayers the opportunity to hire qualified CPA firms to review their sales and use and local option tax compliance.
As an incentive, Revenue waives penalties and reduces interest if tax is owed as a result of the audit.
The Voluntary Disclosure Program: allows you to report previously unpaid or underpaid tax liabilities for any tax administered by the Florida Department of Revenue. Once you have paid the tax and interest, Revenue will waive the penalties.
If you think you might owe back taxes and Revenue has not contacted you about the liability, you may be eligible for the Voluntary Disclosure Program. before you do this it is wise to call a seasoned tax professional experienced and experts in this matter. We recommend you call us and speak to us confidentially on these issues.
Standard Industry Guides provide tax information for specific types of businesses. Taxpayers may use them to help understand sales tax issues likely to surface relating to the industry; and relevant laws, court cases, and other technical documents.
Tax clearance letters and transferee liability certificates: When buying a Florida business, the purchaser should ask the seller for documentation of any tax, penalty, or interest due to the Department of Revenue. A business owner can use a clearance letter as proof of good standing with the Department.
Florida Department of Revenue Audit – Affordable Expert Audit Defense
