Annual Procedures
 File all necessary renditions,
or returns, with the affected authorities. If it is beneficial to the
client and within the law of the taxing jurisdiction, some renditions
may not be filed at the discretion of the client.
With information supplied by
you, we will review and analyze every piece of property involved and
with our knowledge of the practices of the taxing jurisdiction,
negotiate the assessed valuations for the current year on personal
property, utilities, industrial, minerals and real estate.
Appear on your behalf before
Boards Of Review or Boards Of Equalization to appeal any overstated
assessments when necessary.
Provide council with support
data and testimony at no additional cost should it become necessary to
appeal a Board's decision to the next appeal level. Travel expenses
are billed when this process becomes necessary.
Report to you concerning your
final assessed values and provide an estimate of the current year's
tax liability at midyear for accrual adjustments.
Audit and process tax
statements for correctness and forward to you for payment at the
appropriate time allowing time for early discount payments.
Prepare for you a final report
of assessed values, a working summary breakdown of each item of
property, tax rates and comparison to previous year for each location,
as well as a separate tax savings report and appraisal copies if
desired.
Provide for your office a copy
of every important document concerning your property from rendition to
final reports so that a dual file system will be in effect from year
to year.
File and maintain all
necessary documents such as Freeport Exemptions, Abatements, TNRCC
Reports, Homesteads, Ag. Exemptions and any other forms necessary in
the field of ad valorem taxation.
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Oil & Gas Representation
Property Rendition - Proper
returns are filed each year with the taxing agency, net interest,
legal description, etc.
Preparation For Negotiation -
The operator provides us with copies of production reports, lease P&L
statements and reserve surveys which we use to prepare our appraisal
of the property for ad valorem tax purposes.
Value Negotiation - In Texas,
Kansas and most other states, negotiations regarding final assessed
values are conducted with the valuation engineers employed by the
jurisdiction to assess this class of property.
Tax Statement Processing and
Reporting - We request that all tax statements be received in our
office for verification of assessed value and proper credit for short
interests. Audited tax statements are then transmitted to the operator
for payment by jurisdiction. At any time during the tax year an
estimate of the current year's tax liability is provided at the
request of the operator.
This is a basic outline of our
function, the purpose of which is to secure for the operator the
lowest possible assessed values each year on all properties. In this
connection we also handle any pipelines, compressor stations and
processing plants which the operator may have.
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Tax Administration Program
We will design and implement an annual tax program, which best fits
the needs and operation of your company. The process of administering
your program will consist of the following activities:
The appropriate returns (renditions) are filed with the appropriate
taxing authorities (when necessary) based on information furnished by
you. Timely filing is insured to avoid penalty and to meet all legal
requirements for out of state returns.
Upon receipt of any notice proposing an increase in assessed valuation
and in most cases prior to the notices being printed, a meeting with
the taxing authority to discuss the proposed assessment, examine the
appraisal, make a comparison to similar properties and negotiations to
lower the assessed value is conducted.
Failure to secure the desired assessed value at this level will be
followed by a presentation before the jurisdiction's Board Of Review
or Appeals Board in some states. Careful preparation and detailed
presentation are most important when appealing a value to this level
because if you don't receive a favorable answer at this level, the
next step in the process is District Court in Texas and Superior Court
in some states. In any case it is most important to know what you are
doing on this playing field.
After values have been settled, tax statements should be forwarded to
us for audit as to the correct value and tax. Audited statements are
forwarded to you under our transmittal for payment at the appropriate
time. The transmittal also makes you aware of special payment options
or discounts that are available to you as a taxpayer as well as the
delinquent dates for each taxing entity.
After all tax statements have been accounted for, audited and
forwarded to the client, the Annual Report is compiled for the current
tax year. This report gives you last year's value, tax rate and taxes
compared to the current year's value, tax rate and taxes by taxing
district and type of property. The next report gives you a breakdown
of the current year's value, tax rate and taxes by taxing
jurisdiction. Another report gives you the current year's proposed
value, the current year's settled value, the difference between the
two multiplied by the current year's tax rate gives you the total tax
savings by taxing jurisdiction. The Annual Report is completed by
adding the working summary. The working summary is a detailed account
of each item of property or category of property for the current year.
This report is very useful to our clients when addressing property
taxes.
Dealing with the various taxing jurisdictions requires knowledge of
their practices, methods and laws. Appraisal methods vary from state
to state and jurisdiction to jurisdiction so it is important for us to
keep in touch with the changes in local laws and guidelines for each
taxing authority.
Pertinent data effecting each assessed value will be requested from
you, i.e. age, use, occupancy, etc. for real estate; and original
cost, date of acquisition, condition, production to capacity ratios,
etc. for personal property. This information is confidential and will
not be released to anyone without your consent.
An on-sight inspection of the physical property is made to determine
economic, functional or technological obsolescence in the property as
well as any other condition that might have an effect on the market
value of the property. Existing assessed values on real estate will be
examined to determine possible areas and/or reasons for adjustments
due to age, physical, economic and functional conditions.
Oral and/or narrative presentations are presented to the assessing
authorities reflecting our findings, appraisals and requested value
adjustments. Negotiations are initiated with assessing personnel to
secure desired values and subsequently presented to the Boards, if
necessary.
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Expense
Control
Many people assume the posture that property taxes are an
uncontrollable expense and pay as assessed without any effort or
examination to the contrary. Property taxes are a controllable expense
through the proper processes of filing returns (if applicable) and
negotiation of proposed assessed valuations. Specific knowledge of the
practices of individual jurisdictions are required and this
information can only be secured through the examination of appraisal
methods and general levels of assessment.
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Interim Services
During the year we are available to provide estimates of current year
tax liability and will report any significant changes in anticipated
tax expense. We also provide information and research relative to
potential tax liability on new facilities or future proposed
operations. We will handle extra-ordinary situations such as tax
audits, audit hearings and settlements on your behalf. Our office is
open to you for complete year-around tax consultation.
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In-House Support
If your
company maintains an in-house tax department but lacks the resources
to stay ahead in this ever changing environment, Consolidated Tax
Service, LLP will come to your office, evaluate your current property
tax situation and make appropriate suggestions to bring your staff up
to speed.
CTS can also introduce you and your staff to the latest software to
ensure that we can minimize both your cost of property tax compliance
and your property taxes.
Consolidated Tax Service, LLP will assist you and your company with
whatever it takes to make your ad valorem tax administration work for
you and not against you. Whether you out-source your property taxes or
have your own tax department, we can help you get the most for your
money and minimize your ad valorem tax expense. Consolidated Tax
Service, LLP is your complete property tax service.
SALES &
USE TAX SERVICES:
Consolidated Tax Service, LLP will review accounts payable records
over an initial agreed upon representative period. Invoices are tested
for the possibility of vendor sales tax overcharge or some specific
exemption that may have been overlooked. CAPEX projects will also be
examined for taxability issues. After the assessment has been
completed, the results will be presented to you and/or the appropriate
officer. If you wish to proceed at that point, we will begin a
detailed review of the past four years of accounts payable records.
With your approval, Consolidated Tax Service, LLP will then collect
all pertinent information and sort the documents into categories by
exemption type and vendor. Each vendors invoices will be summarized
and transactions stratified by exemption type. At this point, the
documents will be presented to you for a precursory examination. No
re-fund will be requested without your specific approval.
We have found that the most critical piece of any professional audit
review is the in-house training of your personnel. The knowledge
received in Consolidated Tax Service's training will let you take a
more proactive role in future tax savings in the purchasing accounts
payable area. Because your Company has initiated a more decentralized
approach to payables, CTS will not only conduct training in your
Company headquarters but will also conduct training at your various
other locations, when necessary, to assure you of a well educated
staff to carry forward what they have learned into the future.
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Your Image - Awareness Of Clients Public
Image
All relationships with a governmental agency should be conducted
with an awareness of a company's image to project a professional and
nontransferable position. We are extensions of our clients and
represent our clients with this in mind, yet we are not deterred from
going for what is right when the situation dictates these activities.
Our clients' community image is very important to us and we conduct
ourselves in a very professional manner at all times.
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Fee Structure
Personal Property/Industrial: Generally the fees to administer
personal property, industrial property or utilities are based on an
estimate of time, expense and number of locations and quoted as a flat
annual fee per location and size of the facility. Non-typical travel
expenses are not calculated into the fee because this expense may not
be an annual occurrence and will only be billed if it becomes
necessary to travel in order to settle a dispute. These expenses are
always cleared with the client prior to the expenditure. Contingency
fees are available in special types of property or special projects.
Real Estate: Several fee structures are possible for real estate
properties as follows:
Flat fee per property per
year.
Administrative cost plus a
percent of tax savings per property.
Contingency fee: The fee will
be a percentage of all tax savings per property.
Oil and Gas: Generally a flat fee is used based on an estimate of
time, expense and number of jurisdictions quoted on a per well or per
lease basis.
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Current Legislation
Brusniak's Texas Legislative Updates
The firm of Brusniak and Blackwell maintains a complete list of
new legislation effecting ad valorem taxes.
Geary,
Porter & Donovan
Geary, Porter & Donovan are respected ad valorem tax attorney's
that have been in the business for many years.
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Service Areas
We proudly serve clients in the
following states on an annual basis. Consolidated Tax Service will,
however, provide tax administration for any location or region
throughout the United States, Canada or wherever the needs of our
client dictate.
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Alabama
Alaska
Arkansas
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Florida
Georgia
Illinois
Indiana
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Michigan
Mississippi
Missouri |
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Pennsylvania
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Virginia
West Virginia
Wyoming |
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Summary
The
benefits sought by Consolidated Tax Service in preparing your
individual tax program may be summarized as follows:
Year round tax service offering qualified tax knowledge of assessing
practices, law, renditions, exemptions, appraisal and tax payment
deadlines.
Providing proven tax expertise on any and all types of property
without the client having to endure overhead, benefits or personnel
problems internally.
Insuring fair and equal assessments based on local assessing practices
thus helping to regulate your company's tax liability.
By outsourcing property tax functions, you are relieving your staff of
time consuming paperwork, travel time and expense handling your
property taxes while replacing this function with proven experts in
the profession.
Maintaining good relations through our awareness of your public image.
Obtaining a minimum tax liability and providing an organized
administrative program.
Offering mid-year tax estimates to assure proper tax accrual and
eliminating "surprises" at the end of the year.
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The
above functions are for the purpose of securing for you the
very minimum possible tax expense each year. What makes us different
in this profession is that we are large enough to handle your business
yet small enough to care about your business
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