Does your company have an AP (accounts payable) tax compliance process in place? Why is this critical? If you don’t have a complete process in place, you may be at risk for audit and penalties.
What is a Reverse Audit?
A reverse audit is typically undertaken by tax practitioners and is similar in many ways to a state government review. However, it can also uncover gaps in your sales and use tax process and help you identify areas in need of improvement. For example, you may be charging sales tax when the sale should be exempt. Or, you may be inappropriately charging tax because there’s no exemption claim or you have an invalid exemption certificate on file. In these, and other scenarios, you may end up paying tax that is not legally due. By detecting overpayments of sales and use tax paid to vendors or remitted to governmental authorities, you can seek out and get refunds to your organization. During a government audit or review, they will only be looking for underpayments. Moreover, a reverse audit is an effective way to justify the benefits of a tax engine. KPMG will complete a reverse audit and only be paid if/when the organization gets money back. In some cases, the refunds may offset the cost of a tax engine.
Sovos Resources and Solutions
- Learn more the process of reverse audits, how they work and their effectiveness by listening to our webinar.
- To talk with one of our sales tax experts about your determination, filing and exemption certificate needs, contact us.
