Insights

On September 19, 2017, the Internal Revenue Service extended disaster relief for taxpayers affected by Hurricane Irma to all 159 counties in the state of Georgia. The announcement was issued shortly after the President declared a state of emergency in Georgia and authorized federal relief efforts.

1. Merely Selling to Customers in Certain States Likely Results in a Sales Tax Issue
Businesses must have a “physical presence” (e.g., an employee) within a state before they are required to charge sales tax to in-state customers, according to a landmark 1992 U.S. Supreme Court case.

Beginning in the 2016 tax year, start-ups or new businesses could potentially claim the Research and Development (“R&D”) tax credit against federal payroll withholding. This is extremely beneficial as new businesses often do not owe any income taxes and thus, were unable to utilize their federal R&D tax credits.

The Georgia Department of Revenue issued proposed film tax credit regulations on August 22, 2017.  The regulations are open to comment until September 26, 2017.

Congress recently enacted significant changes to partnerships’ income tax audits. These new protocols will dramatically change the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) partnership audit process and, quite possibly, both the amount of tax liability paid on audit adjustments and the partners who will bear the economic consequence of that tax liability.

The Federal Research and Development (“R&D”) Tax Credit allows companies engaged in qualified R&D activity to claim a tax credit for their efforts. This is a lucrative credit as it is a dollar-for-dollar offset of a company’s tax liability.

News stories exposing many large multinational enterprises (“MNEs”) like Apple, Starbucks, Google, etc. for utilizing tax avoidance schemes are motivating governments and tax authorities around the world to quickly ramp up enforcement of tax rules intended to mitigate the ability for MNEs to implement such schemes.

For many startup companies, money is tight and income (if any) is low. Since these companies are
not having to pay any federal or state income tax, they are generally not interested in spending money
to perform research and development (“R&D”) tax credit studies because they do not believe they can
actually use their R&D tax credits.

The Georgia Construction Outlook Survey indicates that 86 percent of the state’s privately held construction companies project a revenue increase over the prior year. The survey, released on Tuesday, was conducted by Kennesaw State University’s Construction Management Department in cooperation with Bennett Thrasher, one of the country’s largest full-service certified public accounting and consulting firms.

In a recent blog post on the website of Acuity, Brian Hamm, a Senior Manager in Bennett Thrasher’s Financial Reporting and Assurance department, explains new revenue recognition guidance issued by the Financial Accounting Standards Boards