Audit Relief

Did You Know…..

In Georgia alone, over 45 counties are in the midst of aggressive county-wide personal property tax audits.

One audit firm alone boasts that it has discovered over $18,000,000,000 in underreported taxable personal property and has returned over $173,000,000 to local taxing jurisdictions.

On average, taxpayers with personal property tax bills in excess of $30,000 account for 61% of all audit revenue.

Another audit firm boasts that less than 1% of its audits are ever appealed.

If you are audited, the audit period will most likely cover 4 years.

You can expect penalties of at least 10% per year on all underreported tax.

Don't Defend Yourself Alone ….The Risks Are Enormous!

The Valuation Group Provides Audit Expertise and Relief

Counties are hiring outside property tax pros and so should you. Our tax professionals have an average of 15 years of property tax experience and are able to step in at any stage of the audit process and provide immediate help.

We can handle all aspects of the audit, provide you with a professional opinion on your status and proactively prepare for each of the remaining steps of the audit.

If you have already received an audit assessment, we will review it carefully. If our analysis indicates that any portion of an audit assessment has been unjustifiably levied, we will work on your behalf to get the assessment eliminated or reduced. When we have completed our work, you can feel confident that your company will have paid no more than its fair share of tax.

In addition to reviewing the audit, we will also review prior year returns for errors that would entitle you to tax refunds. If appropriate, we will file refund claims and work on your behalf to secure any refunds due to your company.

Numerous clients will attest to the quality of our work.

Assessment Reduction

Are you being taxed fairly? Have you conducted a comprehensive review of your property tax liabilities?

Our staff of CPA and MAI tax specialists have the knowledge and experience to determine if opportunities exist to further reduce your property tax obligations. For clients that qualify, we offer a contingency-based fee structure in which we will only earn a fee if we are successful in saving your company money. From return preparation to tax bill reconciliation, we work on your behalf to insure that your company pays no more than its fair share of taxes. Our proactive approach to reducing your property taxes includes:

Fixed asset review

Classification analysis

Depreciation review

Market analysis

Obsolescence review

Disposal and transfer analysis

After we complete our review, we will incorporate our findings into the return we prepare and file for you. We will also provide the assessor's office with a comprehensive report so that they can easily understand how we arrived at our determination of value. We will informally work with the assessor's office to resolve any valuation issues, but we will file formal appeals, if necessary, to insure that your assessments accurately reflect the value of your property. For the services outlined above, we typically only earn a fee if we are successful in saving you money and that fee is a percentage of the savings achieved.

Refunds

While the tax assessor's office will often conduct audits to uncover errors and omissions that lead to underreporting and payment of taxes, these same audits are rarely used to uncover errors or omissions that result in over reporting and payment of taxes. Though our proactive work will insure that your future tax liabilities are at a minimum, it is also important to determine if opportunities exist to recover past overpayments of tax. To meet this end, our experienced staff will conduct a "reverse audit" in conjunction with our standard services.

If we determine past errors have resulted in an overpayment of tax, we will work on your behalf to amend the applicable returns and seek a refund of taxes paid. We handle all aspects of the refund procedure and typically only earn a fee if we are successful in saving you money.