New solution simplifies use tax compliance

CHICAGO (March 2, 2015) – Use tax is assessed by a state or local government on taxable purchases regardless of where the purchase took place. Use tax compliance is often a time-consuming and inefficient process – and if done incorrectly can cost thousands of dollars in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest. To assist businesses with their use tax obligations, Crowe Horwath LLP, one of the largest public accounting and consulting firms in the U.S., has introduced the Crowe Use Tax Simplifier, a cost-effective and easy-to-use tool that facilitates the use tax verification process.

The Crowe Use Tax Simplifier applies customized criteria to purchase data to make efficient, standardized and fully documented use tax decisions. The data used is available in a company’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. The solution can be configured to work with any type of ERP system, and was designed to work for a variety of industries including retail, construction, financial institutions, for-profit healthcare and manufacturing and distribution.

According to Mike Cantrell, a director in the state and local tax (SALT) group at Crowe, use tax processes vary greatly from one business to another. “Some companies have limited or no use tax decision-making processes in place; they simply pay whatever tax is charged by vendors and hope they’ll be okay if they get audited. Other organizations have more robust use tax processes in place, but often these are manual and very time consuming,” he said.

“The Crowe Use Tax Simplifier was designed specifically to address use tax decision making,” added Will Ault, a director in the SALT group at Crowe. “It was created for companies that need to have efficient processes and standardization with respect to their use tax analytics, but cannot justify the costs or operating requirements associated with the solutions currently available.“

The Crowe Use Tax Simplifier:

• Provides a use tax automation solution at a fraction of the cost of other specialized applications;
• Identifies valuable tax underpayments;
• Helps mitigate the risk of costly surprise assessments of use taxes, penalties and interest;
• Increases staff efficiency by decreasing monthly use tax compliance time;
• Reduces or eliminates manual use tax review processes; and
• Saves professional fees arising from refund recoveries and tax audit defense.

For more information on the Crowe Use Tax Simplifier, please visit: www.crowehorwath.com/usetax-nr.

About Crowe Horwath
Crowe Horwath LLP (www.crowehorwath.com) is one of the largest public accounting and consulting firms in the United States. Under its core purpose of "Building Value with Values®," Crowe uses its deep industry expertise to provide audit services to public and private entities while also helping clients reach their goals with tax, advisory, risk and performance services. Crowe and its subsidiaries have offices coast to coast with more than 3,000 personnel. The firm is recognized by many organizations as one of the country's best places to work. Crowe serves clients worldwide as an independent member of Crowe Horwath International, one of the largest global accounting networks in the world, consisting of more than 150 independent accounting and advisory services firms in more than 100 countries around the world.