State & Local Tax (SALT)

State income and franchise tax are becoming more aggressive in terms of trying to collect more tax revenue through audits and laws continue to get updated to close loopholes.  Changes to ASC 740 and ASC 740-10 (FIN 48) continue to present challenges to keeping business income and franchise taxes to a minimum.

Drawing on our national resources in every state and locality, our team is able to ensure compliance, while minimizing overall tax burden.

With nearly all localities generating revenue through the collection of property taxes, these taxes are a major source of revenue for local government, and can be a huge regular operating expense for a business. Companies in multiple jurisdictions must manage different rules and regulations, as well as deadlines, while determining the fairness of their assessments.

Our team takes a proactive approach to property tax liability through a variety of techniques from tax return filing, negotiation, and inventory valuation and analysis. We work with businesses of nearly every industry and have extensive experience in managing property taxes in a variety of situations.

As a result of the U.S. Supreme Court case, South Dakota v. Wayfair, businesses must understand their tax exposure now more than ever.  With 45 states currently imposing sales and use taxes, and local jurisdictions numbering in the thousands, it can get complicated quickly as e-commerce and digital services explode in popularity. Understanding sales tax exposure, mitigating risk, and establishing processes and systems to ensure ongoing compliance often requires expertise beyond the scope of your internal team.

SD Mayer is able to create processes and focus on tax compliance reporting, designed to reduce costs by increasing efficiencies. Our access to tax professional in every state and locality allows us the direct access we need to provide technical support, practical advice and tailored services, regardless of the industry.

For our multinational clients, establishing a U.S. base, or for our U.S.-based firms expanding or relocating or consolidating can present significant opportunities to choose a business tax friendly environment that minimizes your state and local tax liability.  Such considerations include sites for production, distribution, sales, back office and custom assistance. Our team is highly skilled in working with economic development agencies to partner with during site selection and incentives process.  We are always working for you to find the best opportunities which could include: income/franchise tax credits, tax rebates, discretionary cash grants, infrastructure assistance and tax exemptions.

Unclaimed property consists of items that a business owes to its employees, customers, vendors, creditors or shareholders, including uncashed checks, voided checks, and unused/unredeemed gift certificates. Every state has it’s own unclaimed property laws that require companies to report various unclaimed property types that have been dormant for a specific period of time. With each state having it’s own laws, including frequent legislative changes, many companies struggle to implement the proper processes and maintain ongoing unclaimed property records and compliance.

As more states become stricter about enforcing these laws, and audits going back 15 years or more, being proactive is essential. The SD Mayer team has extensive experience in creating processes and procedures to ensure complete compliance and reduce audit exposure. We can create voluntary disclosure agreements, audit defense, feasibility studies, M&A due diligence, refund reviews and general consulting.