State, Local, & Multistate Tax

Guiding You Through the Maze of State and Local Taxes

Determining one’s filing requirements and identifying tax incentives, deductions, and exemptions are common challenges for all taxpayers and tax types. How do you meet obligations, while maximizing opportunities for savings and minimizing your risk?

At the same time, compliance requirements are become more nuanced and more burdensome. It is not unusual that taxpayers are unclear of all requirements and may not be compliant in all state and local tax matters. Clark Nuber’s SALT team can identify and quantify the risk and help strategize to minimize risk going forward.

The seasoned SALT professionals on our team have extensive experience helping businesses and individuals with multistate income/franchise, gross receipts, and sales tax issues. We work with you to determine return filing requirements; take advantage of tax incentives; identify and help to mitigate state tax risk; develop advantageous income tax apportionment strategies; and advocate on your behalf with authorities to resolve tax disputes and liabilities.

Our goal is to make sure you fully understand the risks of an audit, your compliance requirements, and your tax exposure, so you can make informed decisions. We partner with you to navigate these areas of business and mitigate your existing risks.

How Clark Nuber can Help

Business and Occupation Tax Consulting and Review

Both businesses and not-for-profit entities may reduce their Washington state and city B&O tax liability by taking full advantage of available credits, deductions, and exemptions. The apportionment rules for state and city B&O taxes are also complex and need to be properly applied by multistate businesses.

We are available to review prior filings and provide advice on future filings, assist with applying any apportionment rule changes, or simply answer routine questions as they arise.

Sales and Use Tax Consulting and Review

Are you unsure of where to collect taxes or how large your exposure is due to non-compliance? We can help you determine where you have nexus, when you established nexus, and how large your state tax exposure is to date and help you to mitigate that exposure. We also assist in identifying exemptions, so you can avoid costly overpayments. We have helped clients recover millions of dollars in sales and use tax refunds.

Voluntary Disclosure Agreements

Many states periodically offer voluntary disclosure agreements (VDAs) and amnesty programs whereby unregistered taxpayers can come forward and pay previous tax liabilities, without painful penalty assessments and unlimited lookback periods. We help our clients stay informed on the latest programs available for resolving undisclosed liabilities. We can also initiate conversations with state taxing authorities on an anonymous basis to determine your eligibility and, ultimately, help you become compliant and reduce your exposure.

Multistate Income, Franchise, and Sales Tax Planning and Consulting

Is your business operating in more than one state? We help clients identify and mitigate exposure to other states’ income, franchise, and sales taxes; evaluate alternative apportionment and tax filing methods; and assist with implementation of tax efficient business realignment.

Audit Representation

We have helped clients achieve successful audit outcomes by working proactively with auditors to minimize business disruption, manage audit scope and duration, constructively resolve issues, and, when necessary, pursue administrative appeals. We can help lessen the anxiety associated with a state tax audit.

Property Tax Consulting and Review

Property taxes impose a substantial burden on both businesses and individuals, but they are often misunderstood. We can help you grasp the real property and personal property taxes you pay and identify any opportunities to reduce them. We can also help not-for-profits secure applicable property tax exemptions and advise on how to maintain and protect the exemption once it is received.

Real Estate Transaction Taxes

We assist buyers and sellers with evaluating their real estate excise tax liabilities, including for controlling interest transfers, and help prepare real estate transaction tax returns and/or affidavits.

Due Diligence

Whether you are looking to sell a business and want a clear understanding of your own risk profile, or you are negotiating to acquire another business and need to understand any state or local tax risk you would inherit, our SALT professionals can help you with the assessment.

We work side by side with you defending your positions when being acquired, or we can help you quantify any added risk you’ll be taking on when you acquire a business.

Sales and Use Tax Compliance

Are you looking for an alternative when it comes to preparing and filing your monthly/quarterly/annual multistate sales tax returns? We can partner with you and assist in many different capacities tailored to your specific needs. You will have the same team involved from the initial nexus/filing analysis to the actual filing of sales tax returns.

Income Tax Compliance

As part of our general tax compliance services, we will assist with all your state income/franchise tax filings. Whether they are routine annual filings or one-offs pursuant to Revenue Agent’s Report (RAR), we can help.