05/ 03/ 2004
It is much too early in the year to worry about Santa Claus, but the time is always right to prepare for Uncle Sam and tax time. The list in question consists of the industry-specific Audit Technique Guides (ATGs) that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) developed for its Market Segment Specialization Program (MSSP). In today's Workshop, Edith Helmich discusses several guides containing a listing of information that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS)wants to know about your business and/or other businesses like yours.
Business owners can learn some useful information from the ATG for their type of business:
- Overview about typical business practices for comparative purposes
- Typical audit-identified errors to identify common trouble spots
- IRS specific battle plan for your industry.
Some selected examples provide an inkling of how useful the information could be in the design and maintenance of your business's financial records:
* Auto body and repair industry -- Discusses some issues that may be encountered including other sources of income, cost of sales, and employment taxes.
* Bars and restaurants -- Includes all types of entities from sole proprietorships to large franchises. Discussion of employment taxes and tip income.
* Beauty and barber shops -- Overview of the industry as well as audit techniques on reconstructing income.
* Pizza restaurants -- Focuses on small, individually owned pizza restaurants. Includes the ingredient markup method for reconstructing income.
* Tour bus industry -- Includes charter tours, scheduled daily tours, airport shuttle, limousine service and car rental agencies paying mostly cash commissions for reservations and referrals made by hotel employees.
As a testament to their ultimate good intention, the IRS will provide a list of all the ATGs that have been developed for use by their auditors at this time. You can get the list from the online internet site, or you can request it in writing or by phone.
Each ATG is available in complete detail and can be downloaded using Adobe Acrobat Reader, provided via a free download from the IRS web site. For print copies, there is a small charge.
workshop.accounting.tue
9.19.00
