There are always questions to be asked and answered concerning state and federal tax recovery. We may not be able to answer all of your questions here, but perhaps we can answer some of the most obvious. Just click on the words State or Federal to take you to the appropriate Q & A. If you don’t see the answer to your question, just email us at info@ashlandgroup.com, or give us a call and ask for an account executive.

Federal

1.	What kind of records will we need to pull for a federal review?
2.	How long will a federal review take?
3.	How can you do a recovery review in such a short time?
4.	Who would we be dealing with at Ashland?
5.	What do you do to minimize my staff’s time commitment to the recovery project?
6.	We are concluding a federal audit and we are concerned about conducting a federal review at this stage of the audit. Is this a good time?
7.	Do you handle all negotiations with the IRS?
8.	We have been notified of an audit and we are concerned about presenting refund issues shortly after the audit starts. How would you handle this?
9.	Can a review be done without coming out to our offices?
10.	Why do you have refund ideas that my tax staff or accounting firm would not know about?
11.	We have one of the Big 4 accounting firms review our returns before they are filed. In this case, why should we need to conduct a recovery review?
12.	Are your issues positions that would have to be reported as “reportable transactions”?
13.	What about “timing issues”?
14.	How would Ashland be compensated for the review?
15.	Do I ever have to pay Ashland any money up-front?

16.	This type of recovery project is not a priority for us. Why should I take the time to conduct this type of a review?

1. What kind of records will we need to pull for a federal review?

To start with, we will need to be provided the 1120’s with all supporting schedules. From these, we will identify potential tax recovery transactions that we will need additional information on. With the review conducted by former senior level IRS Revenue Agents, we do not waste your staff’s time by asking needless questions or requesting information that will not be useful.

2. How long will a federal review take?

Obviously this will depend upon the size of the company we are reviewing and the availability of requested information. Since much of our work can be conducted before we meet with you, the time spent on the review is minimized. Our federal teams are highly trained and experienced in identifying issues that have high potential for recovery and will be focusing primarily on those issues. Most reviews can be conducted within a period of three weeks, with only 2-5 days of this time at your office.

3. How can you do a recovery review in such a short time?

We are not conducting a full audit of your books and records. We have certain issues that have proven to be worthwhile for other taxpayers and we narrow our focus on those issues during the review. Once we identify affirmative issues, we do an overview of the return to identify outstanding liability issues that may offset the refund. In such a short time it would be impossible to conduct a full audit but our trained ex-IRS staff can generally determine if the refund would likely be offset. Assuming that there are no negative issues identified, we will recommend that you proceed with pursuing the recovery.

4. Who would we be dealing with at Ashland?

We assign a Project Manager to each project who serves as your primary contact. They coordinate to have each of our former IRS specialists review your returns for their specialty issues. The report of our findings would be made to you by the Project Manager.

5. What do you do to minimize my staff’s time commitment to the recovery project?

We are aware other consulting firms advertise minimal time commitments when in reality, it ends up taking much too much time away from the day-to-day operations of your staff. We are very sensitive to the time commitments we make and conduct our projects in a way to minimize the actual time expended by your staff. Some of our review is conducted prior to meeting with you for the first time. We then provide you a list of the items needed for our review. Upon arrival, we will meet for about 1 hour to discuss specific areas of your operations and answer any questions you may have. With this information we continue our review. Once we identify transactions, we may need additional information so as to provide you with a short list of additional items needed. It is not nearly as cumbersome as an IRS audit and because we are focusing on a few significant areas of the return, our requests are kept at a minimum.

6. We are concluding a federal audit. We are concerned about conducting a federal review at this stage of the audit. Is this a good time?

It is an ideal time. Now that the IRS audit team has identified the negative issues, you have nothing else to lose by having us conduct a review to identify affirmative issues. These can then be provided to the IRS audit team before they close out the audit and they can approve the positive issues reducing any tax due. We can also review their proposed negative issues to see if they can be reduced.

7. Do you handle all negotiations with the IRS?

Yes we can do that if you would like us to do so. Most clients prefer that we do. If, however, you would prefer that we conduct our review, present our finding to you and allow you to discuss them with the IRS audit team, we will certainly assist you in this fashion.

8. We have been notified of an audit and we are concerned about presenting refund issues shortly after the audit starts. How would you handle this?

Most IRS audit teams would prefer to see the affirmative issues earlier rather than later in the audit process. We generally recommend that the review be conducted as early as possible and we can jointly decide the most opportune time to present the refund issues.

9. Can a review be done without coming out to our offices?

Yes it can. If we are provided the returns, supporting documentation and get all of the answers to our questions, we can conduct the review without being on-site. However, in most cases we have found that for larger companies, it is worthwhile to visit with the tax staff on-site and allow our senior consultants to have face-to-face interaction with the persons that either prepare the returns or provide the information to your return preparers.

10. Why do you have refund ideas that my tax staff or accounting firm would not know about?

Federal taxation is so complex that no one can keep up with all of the rulings, court cases, policy decisions and interpretations. When you have transactions that are similar to others that we have seen with taxpayers in other parts of the U.S., we may be able to offer a new perspective on how to report it in a more favorable way. We conduct reviews of many taxpayers each year, most of which have very competent federal tax departments and/or utilize the services of one or more of the Big 4 accounting firms. In almost every situation, we are able to recover money for these companies. That is why we recover millions of dollars for our clients each year.

11. We have one of the Big 4 accounting firms review our returns before they are filed. In this case, why should we need to conduct a recovery review?

Most all of the major companies that we work with have had their returns prepared by or reviewed by a national accounting firm before they are filed. In spite of this, we are able to bring new issues to the table which results in tax recovery. In some cases, it is decisions or interpretations that have occurred after the return was filed and can be applied retroactively. Many times however, just merely having a team of ex-IRS specialists that have reviewed or audited thousands of corporate returns over the years conduct a hands-on review will identify positive issues that were overlooked. Our success with the Fortune 500 companies speaks for itself.

12. Are your issues positions that would have to be reported as “reportable transactions”?

Absolutely not. We do not propose any tax shelters for our clients or suggest that our clients take any position that would qualify as a “reportable transaction”. We are not in the business of selling tax shelters or aggressive positions in any way.

13. What about “timing issues”?

We do review your return to determine if you have deferred income in the most advantageous way and also taken expenses in the earliest year possible. In some cases we are able to defer the reporting of income to a later year or accelerate a deduction into an earlier year. In these cases, we get credit for the timing issue at a reduced rate, as compared to a deduction that can be taken that has not been previously reported.

14. How would Ashland be compensated for the review?

Although we work with our clients in a number of ways, we normally conduct our projects on a fee-for-performance basis. We only get paid if you realize economic benefit.

15. Do I ever have to pay Ashland any money up-front?

Under our fee-for-performance basis, we never receive any compensation or advances on fees. We cover all personnel costs, travel costs and out-of-pocket expenses, up until the time you have the IRS provide you acceptance of our refund issues.

16. This type of recovery project is not a priority for us. Why should I take the time to conduct this type of a review?

Clients mention this frequently. However, when you consider the amount of money most companies pay for federal taxes, it makes sense to do everything to minimize tax expenses and increase your cash flow, as this directly affects your company’s bottom line. Perhaps most importantly, the refund issues we identify can almost always save you thousands of dollars - and in some cases millions in future years. The real question should be, “How can we afford not to participate in a recovery project?”