Sampling Strategies in Sales Tax Audits: Selecting an Appropriate Methodology and Negotiating With Auditors
Note: CLE credit is not offered on this program
Recording of a 110-minute CPE webinar with Q&A
This course will prepare state tax professionals to establish audit samples for a state sales or use tax audit by reviewing proven sampling strategies used by corporate tax departments in audits across diverse industries.
Outline
- Planning and negotiating a sample
- Population selection
- Choosing the proper sample frame
- Stratum and overall sample sizes
- Sampling fundamentals
- Block vs. statistical sampling
- Stratified random sampling
- Legal issues and background
- Do's and don'ts of sampling: avoiding the wheels-off sample audit
- Examples of sample audits that went badly
- Trends with sampling in big states, including computer-assisted audit process
Benefits
The panel will review these and other key issues:
- Making smart decisions about sample size: Will a small sample work and reduce staff time chasing invoices or will a large sample boost your case?
- Fighting back if the revenue department either tries to keep out data that could land your company a credit or insists on an overly large sample
- Reacting when the auditor clearly doesn't understand your company's compliance system or overlooks accounts that favor your position
- Crafting a proposal to sample data for a refund claim
- Limitations on the state's power to sample and what you do when asked to agree to sampling
Faculty
Jason McGlamery
Director – Audit Sampling
Ryan
Mr. McGlamery is responsible for the design and evaluation of audit sampling methodologies in statistical and... | Read More
Mr. McGlamery is responsible for the design and evaluation of audit sampling methodologies in statistical and non-statistical tax audits. He is focused on services and education surrounding data manipulation, data mining, and data extraction. He lectures on sampling methodologies, audit sampling issues and data manipulation topics.
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Jamie E. T. Szal
Partner
Brann & Isaacson
Ms. Szal focuses her practice on assisting businesses in all aspects of state and local tax controversy, from... | Read More
Ms. Szal focuses her practice on assisting businesses in all aspects of state and local tax controversy, from regulatory and administrative proceedings through civil litigation. She came to Brann & Isaacson following several years at the Massachusetts Department of Revenue. As Counsel in both the Litigation Bureau and Office of Appeals, she focused on complex tax issues facing corporations and pass-through entities. She earned her LL.M. in Taxation and Certificate in State and Local Taxation, both with distinction, from Georgetown University Law Center.
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Brad W. Tomlinson
Senior Manager (non-attorney professional)
Zaino Hall & Farrin
Mr. Tomlinson has more than 29 years of experience in state and local taxation, specializing in statistical sampling... | Read More
Mr. Tomlinson has more than 29 years of experience in state and local taxation, specializing in statistical sampling techniques for multiple taxes. From 2007 until joining the firm, he was an assistant administrator for the Ohio Department of Taxation, Audit Division, while also serving as the manager of the Computer Assisted Audit Group for more than 11 years. In that position he was responsible for the formulation, implementation, and oversight of the Department's statistical auditing practices; including the approval of all data populations, sample designs, and the review of all statistical sampling procedural agreements.
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