BERNTSON PORTER’S STATE & LOCAL TAX SERVICES DEPARTMENT Introducing....Darcy Kooiker

Hi! I’m Darcy Kooiker, Director of State and Local Tax Services, and one of the newest employees at Berntson Porter.

My career has been devoted to the area of state and local taxation (SALT). I started as a revenue auditor with the Washington State Department of Revenue and have many war stories to tell from the experience. Once the head of a nonprofit organization pulled out a knife as I was explaining the audit assessment, and another time, the taxpayer who received the assessment I issued had a fatal heart attack. After those unfortunate events, I decided to end my tour of duty with the government and became a tax consultant.

I enjoy state and local taxation because it is like a challenging puzzle: you put facts and laws together to get the best tax result. The most common areas where we help our clients include:

Tax Reporting Review. If you’re not comfortable that your state and local tax reporting is correct, would you rather find out from a trusted advisor or the taxing authorities? We use the same methodologies utilized by state tax auditors to determine if you are complying with the law. If we find areas of over or under payment, we will work with you to develop a plan to address it. We’ll also discuss ways to make the preparation of your state tax returns less onerous. Regardless of whether we find you have overpaid, underpaid, or are in substantial compliance, you’ll be able to more effectively run your business by eliminating that element of uncertainty.

Audit Management. State tax audits are usually not pleasant experiences. When you are notified of an audit there is the concern about what surprises they may find and the disruption it will have on your business activities. We can help with both of those problems by performing a pre-audit review to identify significant issues and then strategically manage the audit at Berntson Porter’s office.

Planning. Buying or selling a business? Adding a new activity? Expanding into other states? With all of these opportunities comes an array of new tax reporting requirements. There are also incentives that could reduce your tax burden—if you know about them in advance. Talk with your Berntson Porter advisor when you are contemplating a new business opportunity so we can help you get it right.

Training. I enjoy sharing my state tax knowledge and frequently instruct at various classes and seminars. If your staff would benefit from some extra help understanding tax law and how to report your company’s taxes, we can provide a customized training session that focuses on the state and local issues affecting your business.

I have already had the pleasure of assisting many of you, and look forward to the opportunity to meet the rest of Berntson Porter’s clients and friends. Please let us know how we can be of service to you. I can be reached at (425) 454-7990, (800) 876-6931 or dkooiker@bpcpa.com.

State Tax Tip: If you purchase a taxable item and the vendor did not charge sales tax, do not add sales tax to the invoiced amount and remit it back to the vendor. Instead, the tax due should be reported as use tax on your tax return.

While most auditors will not take exception to the practice of remitting additional sales tax to a vendor, some auditors insist on assessing the tax even though it was already paid, which forces the purchaser to obtain refunds from its vendors.