The Helmus Group has a unique and intentional focus on specific state and local taxes and services, which we believe provides us the opportunity to showcase our in-depth knowledge and expertise in these specific areas. We are proud of this approach and its resulting success, and it has made us the service provider of choice in the marketplace.
Hospitality & leisure businesses face significant state and local compliance and reporting challenges, particularly with regard to hotel occupancy taxes. If not properly calculated, the liability for payment of these taxes can shift from the guest to a hotel operator upon examination. Hospitality & leisure businesses across the United States turn to us to assist them in managing these and other indirect taxes to ensure proper compliance.
We assist businesses in addressing their state and local pass-through entity taxation issues, from an income, gross receipts and net worth perspective, and are often retained as strategic and technical advisor to company tax directors in dealing with their outside tax return preparers. We also represent individual taxpayers with state and local tax income tax examinations, including residency and domicile issues.
Many localities across the United States impose a separate tax on businesses operating therein. These taxes can be based on payroll and/or gross receipts, and can represent a significant hidden cost if not properly addressed. The Helmus Group provides a variety of services to help companies properly address these taxes and minimize their cost.
All businesses leasing space for commercial purposes in Manhattan (south of the 96th Street center line and outside the “World Trade Center Area”) and paying $250,000 or more for such space are faced with paying this tax. The Helmus Group has assisted many different types businesses with tax liability determinations, compliance, audits and examinations, due diligence and successor liability issues.
Many businesses have had to face a state and local withholding tax examination which can be difficult and costly. Similar to sales tax, withholding tax is a fiduciary tax, whereby businesses are considered an agent for the taxing authorities and thereby responsible for withholding the proper amount of personal tax from its employees. Failure to collect the proper amount of tax due could result in an employer actually held liable for an employee’s tax liability and often pays amounts of interest on payment shortfalls over the course of a tax year. Companies turn to The Helmus Group to help represent them in such matters and to address such significant pitfalls to minimize risk in future periods.
A significant number of jurisdictions across the country impose a tax on the value of a businesses’ tangible personal property. There are ongoing valuation and “ghost” asset issues that businesses need to monitor in addressing these taxes, as well as compliance and other business issues. The Helmus Group offers strategic tax advisory, compliance and outsourcing services to help businesses improve their personal property tax reporting, advising them on asset records verification and classification issues.
Realty transfer tax is one of the most significant costs in a business transaction where real estate is involved. Its potential cost can often impact the fate of a deal. The Helmus Group understands this, and brings to the table extensive multi state and local realty transfer experience gained from numerous transactions involving well over 100 billion of real estate value. Whether property is located in New York City, Washington, Philadelphia or San Francisco, real estate professionals consistently turn to The Helmus Group for structuring advice, return preparation and tax minimization strategies. We work closely with all members of the deal team (legal, valuation, title insurance, tax), to ensure the most efficient structure is created from a tax and business perspective, while minimizing the overall realty transfer tax cost.
Compliance with complex and often confusing sales and use tax rules and regulations continues to represent a significant challenge for businesses from both a compliance and risk management perspective. Revenue hungry governments across the country continue to increase their examination activity to tap new sources for desperately needed funds. Leveraging off of our extensive experience with these taxes, we help businesses address these challenges from both a technical and practical business perspective.
We represent acquirers of businesses across the country in identifying and quantifying potential state and local tax exposure issues that could have a material effect on their decision to make a particular acquisition. We also offer strategic and practical solutions for compliance with the complex state and local bulk sale notification requirements, and dealing with successor liability issues.
We represent businesses with examination matters before state and local taxing authorities across the United States. We are strong advocates for our clients and always strive to achieve the best possible examination result; and, importantly, we make sure the correct examination result is achieved so our clients have a clear and accurate understanding from a prospective compliance standpoint.
We identify state and local tax incentive opportunities for clients starting-up, acquiring or constructing business properties within the United States. We ensure that all statutory state and local tax credits available are maximized, and all opportunities to obtain favorable negotiated incentives from the applicable state and local governments are explored.
We assist clients in enhancing their overall state and local indirect tax compliance function, thereby optimizing risk minimization and compliance with all of their applicable state and local indirect tax compliance obligations.
We provide real estate, hospitality & leisure, restaurant and entertainment businesses outsourcing of state and local indirect tax compliance services, whereby we fully manage the compliance and reporting function and prepare all required indirect tax returns. The indirect taxes for which we solely provide outsourcing services are sales & use, hotel occupancy, personal property, local business license, commercial rent and occupancy, and realty transfer.
We focus on minimizing state and local transaction tax costs with regard to client and property acquisitions and dispositions, and help ensure that the most efficient and favorable entity structure is in place for prospective tax reporting purposes.
We focus on minimizing state and local transaction tax costs with regard to client and property acquisitions and dispositions, and help ensure that the most efficient and favorable entity structure is in place for prospective tax reporting purposes.
We assist our clients in complying with the complex and burdensome unclaimed property laws imposed by governmental agencies around the country. We also represent businesses in examination and controversy matters, and negotiating favorable voluntary settlement agreements regarding past unpaid liabilities. We provide process improvement recommendations to enhance internal controls to strengthen future compliance and records retention.
We represent businesses across a wide variety of industries in voluntarily approaching state and local taxing authorities to negotiate settlements of unpaid taxes without penalty payment. This service includes securing limited look-back assessment periods, where applicable, to minimize settlement liability amounts.
To find out more about us, our relevant experience, and our ability to help you and your business, please reach out to us. We will always take the time to understand your issues and concerns to provide a suggested course of action and identify where we can help. The Helmus Group – The leading advisors to the leaders in business.