Alabama Convenience Store Sales Tax Audit Attorney
If you are a convenience store owner in Alabama, then, you must be on the lookout for a sales tax auditor. Over the last one year, sales tax audits in Alabama have been on the rise.
Common pitfalls:
- Not keeping receipts or z-tapes for sales made to customers
- Not keeping receipts or proof of payment for purchases
- Not keeping track of spoiled goods
- Not keeping track of employee theft
The four points mentioned above are the most common reasons that our clients end up with a large tax bill after an audit. It is absolutely necessary to keep z-tapes, otherwise, the auditors will look at your cost of goods purchased for the year or simply your bank statements to estimate the amount of sales that you had.
The requirement of keeping proof of payment for your goods for resale is also very important because the auditor is checking to see whether or not you have already paid sales tax. If you have paid sales tax on the wholesale items at the time of purchase (at Wal-Mart), then you need to prove this. It is not enough to say that everybody must pay sales tax at Wal-Mart.
If you do not keep in track of your spoiled goods, then, the auditor will assume that 100% of your items purchased at wholesale were sold. That means that all of the chocolate that melted, drinks that exploded, and bottles that broke are levied sales tax even though they were never sold.
Employee theft is the most painful. If you have a bad employee, you have wasted your money on their salary, lost customers due to their negligence, and then, you will be levied sales tax on all of the product that they stole as well as what they stole from your register.
The 4 pointers above encapsulate the bulk of the problems faced by convenience stores around Montgomery, Alabama. Call us to learn more.
Alabama Convenience Store Sales Tax Audit Attorney