Atlanta Convenience and Grocery store sales tax audit

Atlanta Convenience and Grocery store sales tax audit
If you are a grocery store owner in Atlanta, then, you might want to know what is taxable and non-taxable as a product. For example, is you grocery item truly a grocery item, or is it subject to the regular sales tax rate. Is a power bar truly a breakfast alternative to a glass of milk and an apple? Not when it comes to sales tax. Many of our convenience store and grocery store sales tax audits get tricky when the business owner considers their store to be more of a quick grocery stop rather than a convenience store. What does that mean in sales tax audit language? It means the store owner is not charging sales tax on everything that they should be charging sales tax on.
Here is a typical sales tax audit story: A client will call our office to speak about a sales tax audit. They have most of their books and records, but the auditor is looking at levying very heavy penalties on sales tax that was not collected on non-grocery items. Since our client did not keep all of his books and records organized, you can’t really tell what part of a gross receipt is taxable. This means, their customer bought milk and cigarettes on the same bill. That is confusion! Since the auditor has already seen a number of books and records that were not properly recorded and the sales are not divisible, the auditor has chosen to estimate the non-taxable and taxable sales. This is where we come in to make sense out of the audit.
Georgia does not require sales tax on food, but this exemption does not hold for any local (county, city, etc.) taxes.  Further, the exemption for “food and food ingredients” does not include prepared food, alcoholic beverages, dietary supplements, drugs, over-the-counter drugs, or tobacco.
Atlanta Convenience and Grocery store sales tax audit