When an Ohio company is subjected to a sales tax audit

For Ohio business owners, there are a variety of situations that can be very alarming ones. Among these is their company receiving an Audit Commencement Letter. This can mean that the state’s Department of Taxation will be performing a sales tax audit on their company.

Laws and regulations related to the state sales tax are among the many rules that Ohio businesses are to comply with. A sales tax audit looks into whether a company complied with these rules and paid the state the amount of sales tax that it should have.

There are all kinds of concerns a business owner may have when they discover that their company will be the subject of a sales tax audit. This includes concerns over:

• What steps and processes the audit will involve. They may worry about how invasive the actions of state tax officials will be during the audit and how likely these actions would be to impact the day-to-day activities of the business.
• How long the audit will take. They may have significant worries about how long their company will have to face the added complications an audit can bring.
• What penalties they and their business could be facing if the audit leads to a ruling against them. They may be afraid that the audit’s results could forever alter their business’ path and future.

As a note, all three of these things can be influenced by a range of factors. What factors are particularly likely to be at play in a given audit depends on the unique circumstances of a business owner, their company and the company’s tax situation. So, what the best approach for a business owner would be during the various stages of a sales tax audit to address concerns they have over their and their company’s well-being and future in connection to the audit is typically heavily dependent on their situation. So, having guidance from an attorney who understands the complexity of sales tax audit cases and the uniqueness of each audit can be important for a company owner throughout the course of their business being audited.