When do you Need Multistate Tax Consulting Services?
I was speaking with a marketing consulting colleague of mine not long ago and in trying to help me hone my approach for continually connecting better with my target audience, he asked me the seemingly simple question “How does someone know when they need your services?” Of course, that should be simple! I’ve been consulting for clients in this market space for many years. And yet, the circumstances when someone may need our services can vary. So, I thought I’d dedicate some time here to give examples of when CFOs, controllers or other accounting professionals might need my multistate tax consulting services.
Your Company is Expanding
Once your company begins doing business across state lines – whether that means setting up additional offices, hiring employees in other states or even just sending a salesforce out to call on clients in other states, or utilizing the services of independent contractors to perform installation, repairs or maintenance services – you are going to begin to trip into tax situations in other states. Read more
South Dakota and the Online Sales Tax Debate
Last month we discussed how two states, Louisiana and Alabama, are taking matters into their own hands regarding the online sales tax debate. Now another state, South Dakota, is forcing the issue.
South Dakota’s Case Regarding Online Sales Tax
If you recall from our previous posts about the online sales tax debate, states are frustrated that they can’t collect the revenue from purchases made via the internet, and retailers claim it’s too difficult to keep track of the wide variety of tax codes for every single state, county and municipality – especially for small internet retailers.
Instead of waiting for Congress to come to some sort of agreement, South Dakota has taken matters into their own hands by passing Senate Bill 106, allowing the state to collect taxes from sales made from online retailers - even if they don't have nexus within South Dakota itself. This challenges the 1992 ruling in Quill Corp. v. North Dakota, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that only businesses with an actual physical presence in the state (or nexus) needed to collect sales tax from residents.Read more
Focus on Connecticut
For this state of the month, we remain on the East Coast to focus on Connecticut. The “Nutmeg State” is the third smallest state according to land size, but its population is actually bigger than 20 other states. Connecticut’s strength lies in its versatile workforce that are skilled in the fields of financial services, bioscience, and even in entertainment.
Business Climate
Connecticut’s business environment is often associated with high business costs and poor economic climate due to the slow recovery from the recession. On the contrary, the state has bright spots in which collaboration among sectors developed a solid foundation for doing business.
Among the state’s key industries are insurance services, bioscience and digital media. The state has rightfully claimed to be one of the major insurance capitals of the world. In the US alone, the state has generated the most jobs in the industry, producing over $16 billion in payroll. Aetna, Inc., The Hartford, The Travelers Companies are just a few industry leaders to call Connecticut home. Accordingly, Connecticut is also one of the healthiest states in America. It has one of the lowest obesity rates and a high number of dentists and doctors per capita.Read more
Rainmaking - The Value of the Next Client
If you’ve been following my Rainmaking blogs, you know that much of what we talk about is developing relationships that ultimately lead to becoming a trusted business advisor to both potential clients and referral partners. Why is it so important to engage in Rainmaking and pick up that next client? Well, aside from the obvious reason - that it leads to cash today, it will also likely lead to cash tomorrow. Once we build a relationship with a customer and provide good service, they will generally become a repeat customer and/or a good source of future referrals.
Customer Lifetime Value
This is where the concept of “Customer Lifetime Value” or “CLV” comes in. According to Wikipedia, in the technical sense, CLV is a prediction of the “net profit attributable to the entire future relationship with a customer”. The term is used mostly in marketing to determine how much to spend in acquiring a client and whether that money is well spent. For instance, if, by using a formula to calculate the CLV of an average customer, we determine it’s $10,000, and the marketing costs associated with securing or engaging the client are $5,000, then the customer is judged to be profitable. (Note that the $5,000 of cash outlay is also known as “cost of customer acquisition”.) Read more
California Tax Incentives: Are They Beneficial or Not?
As California has rolled out additional tax incentives for businesses, the debate over their value has endured. Are they good for the state budget? Do they help give businesses reasons to stay? Keep reading to see two common opinions, as well as how we think California should continue.
For Tax Incentives
In a recent Lodi News-Sentinel article, Steve Hansen writes that California needs to become more business friendly and it seems legislators prefer to turn, "A blind eye." His piece calls for the state to encourage business, rather than to make it so difficult.
As he points out:
- For every 100 people in the private sector, there are now 114 people receiving a government check who are dependent on income created by large and small businesses.
- [California] has been labeled by “Chief Executive” magazine as the worst state out of 50 for doing business. California has received this “award” for the last 10 years in a row.
- [Legislators’] solutions have been to raise taxes, along with adding additional burdens, regulations and restrictions to those companies still trying to survive here. California has the highest income tax rate in the nation. Another has been to raise the minimum wage to one of the highest in the country.
Is it Sales Tax Audit Season?
CPA colleagues across the country just finished tax busy season. And hopefully they are taking a well-deserved break. But I wonder – when they come back up for air, will their clients be pinging them again because they’ve received notice of a sales tax audit?
My practice is based in California, so most of my audit controversy work is in the Golden State. And it seems to me that audit activity has been picking up. I have several audits going on right now in a variety of industries, for clients with a variety of issues. And yet, the areas in question for the State are often similar. So I thought it would be a good time to revisit some areas that companies should be aware of when maintaining their documentation, just in case it really IS audit season and you get tapped on the shoulder, ever so gently, by the state taxing authority:
Be Able to Tie Your Revenue to the Tax Return
While this seems like an obvious tip, it’s really important. When the state comes out to audit, they are trying to verify numbers reported to the State on your sales tax return. Read more
California Business' Take on the State’s Recent Legislation
You may remember that back in November, the Tax Foundation released its State Business Tax Climate Index, which ranked states based on the various tax systems companies need to work within. California businesses were less than thrilled the state ranked 48th out of the 50 states.
Because the report is intended to help lawmakers see areas where they could improve, we thought it would be interesting to take a look at ways the Golden State is both improving and declining.
Legislation California Businesses Appreciate
- The California Competes Tax Credit continues to be popular among California businesses. In fact, the state just provided various companies with $70.5 million in tax credits to expand and offer more jobs within the state's borders.
- California continues to offer credits and incentives to films and television series. Like the California Competes program, this provides tax credits to projects that relocate to the state in an effort to bring business back to Hollywood.
Rainmaking – The Video Experiment (Part 2)
Last week, I posted here about using video in my marketing efforts around my upcoming webinar series, “Jumpstart Your Rainmaking”. If you’ve been following me, you know that I’m a seasoned tax professional, and have spent the better part of 20+ years helping clients with their multi-state tax needs. My firm specializes in helping middle market companies navigate the complex sales tax and income/franchise tax issues that they’ll encounter as they do business in multiple states.
Recently, I’ve been focusing my outbound marketing efforts not so much on my multi-state business, but on a new venture – my training programs for professionals selling services – the “Rainmaking” series of products. My biggest challenge right now is that I don’t want to confuse the message. I’m still, very much, doing multi-state tax consulting. But this newer part of my practice needs some attention and love so that people understand what I’m doing.
So, I decided to roll out a video campaign this week around the Jumpstart Your Rainmaking – wherein every day I rolled out a solid Rainmaking tip, tied to a weather forecast, with the ultimate goal of asking you to sign up for my webinar series beginning May 4th. The videos are available on my YouTube channel here. But I also sent them out via my Facebook page, Linked In and Twitter. Next week, I’m going to try “Boosting” them on Facebook.
How Did We Do?
The truth is, I’m not sure yet. I haven’t had 10,000 people sign up for my webinar yet (but that wasn’t the goal anyway). I haven’t had a bunch of “likes” on Facebook from my friends. (I thought more people would weigh in and I’m not sure why they didn’t.) I tried to post the daily videos to a Linked In group that I’m a member of for “Social CPAs” and it bounced me as spam. So, overall, not great?
But wait, it HAS opened several new conversations. I have had a few registrations. And there have been many views on the daily videos on my Linked In updates. So, I’m getting some traction. What’s that statistic about being seen 7 times before someone even knows who you are? I know that I got in front of a lot of people and my name is out there!
The Campaign
I’m proud that I took the chance and put myself out there with a bit of a corny campaign. As CPAs, sometimes we take ourselves too seriously because we want others to take us seriously. My professional work around multi-state is serious. My clients want the seriously right answer – and I’m going to get it for them. The marketing side of the equation is much less objective, and much less serious. Certainly, this campaign showed a less serious side of me. I don’t want you to think that marketing your CPA practice isn’t serious too. It is, but is doesn’t need to showcase your most serious side. You can have a little fun with it.
I’ll keep you posted on the results from the video campaign. In the meantime, if you like what I’m talking about and think your practice could benefit from some of my tips around building your practice, I invite you to check out my Jumpstart Your Rainmaking webinar. Early bird registration (at $249) is open through April 27th. Then the price jumps to $299. The truth is – the rain doesn’t start until you put some effort into it. A bit of a “raindance”, if you will. I’ve been dancing with this during the week. And, wait, as I look out my window….a bit of rain! Coincidence? I don’t think so!
Focus on New Jersey
Historians are unsure where New Jersey’s nickname the “Garden State” originated from. However, there is a certainty to New Jersey’s fast and energetic environment. The State along the east coast of the United States is accessible to major metropolises such as New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington D.C. Even though the State is relatively small in size, it sits right in the middle of a huge consumer market – a perfect location for manufacturing and distribution facilities.
Business Climate
New Jersey is a hub for sciences and manufacturing. Its location itself is an attractive destination for companies to establish distribution facilities in order to reach the nation’s east coast market. Another contributor to the State’s success is its biopharmaceuticals industry. It is the home to over 400 biotech companies (big names include Johnson & Johnson, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Merck & Co., Novartis, Novo Nordisk and Bayer). New Jersey boasts the world’s highest concentration of scientists and engineers per square mile —more than 225,000 of them statewide. In fact, the number of trained pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical technology workers in the state has more than tripled since 2001. The reason behind this is the State’s education and labor training system.Read more
Rainmaking - Using Video in Indirect Marketing
Hello Rainmaking readers! Several weeks ago, I shared my perspective about the difference between direct and indirect marketing strategies, and how those of us who sell professional services should use a combination of both in order to generate business. I mentioned that the most important strategy (if you could only do one of them) is the direct strategy – the one-on-one contacts with your target audience or referral partners. But, indirect marketing like your website, blogs and video (among others) are a nice complement – and hopefully you have time, resources and a little bit of energy to dedicate to that as well.
Why Use Video?
Images and videos are much more compelling to your audience than simply sending newsletters (electronic or paper…paper??) or link to websites. That’s why my blogs always include an image, always include links to more information, and sometimes include links to video. That’s because, I’ve just recently found an affordable way to share video. I tried it last December. And then had so much fun with it that I’m rolling out a 5 day “Rainmaking Forecast” to promote my Jumpstart Your Rainmaking program.
Green Screen Technology
Check out this video. You can see that I shot it with a screen behind me that featured my graphics, logo, and company colors. I worked with a team of directors at a company called Your Biz Vid http://yourbizvid.com/ to shoot 6 videos in just over an hour. Not a lot of rehearsal, no memorization, and no editing. And I walked away with the videos on a flash drive – ready to use immediately. Green screen is the same technology used by weather people on television, as the various weather maps are displayed behind them. Sounds very complicated. But the team at Your Biz Vid has found a way to make it easy and affordable – mostly by cutting out the editing time. You set it up with them and they work with you to get the best “take” on the day of the shoot, without doing the expensive editing. You can post your videos to your website, YouTube, and social media on the same day. I sound like a commercial – don’t I? But I’m not getting paid to say this. I just feel very strongly about this service. And they are a start-up! Who doesn’t love to support a start-up? Talk about building rapport with your audience, gaining search engine optimization with proper placement, and having multiple places to tie this together in social media.
How Will You Use Your Hour?
Let’s assume that you like the concept. You agree that adding some video to your marketing is a good idea. And you call up and book the appointment. Now what? Consider making a few short videos that will be compelling to view. A good rule of thumb is to make each video last less than 2 minutes. By shooting a few shorter videos (remember you can spend the hour however you want to), you can test out different products, markets, etc. For your first video, maybe you want to introduce yourself and your company. Address your target market with a short introduction about your services, something cutting edge in your industry (or theirs), and a “what’s in it for them” summary. Maybe shoot a series that you will continue in subsequent appointments in front of the green screen. Consider quick posts that you’ll share on Facebook and Linked In, either directly or through the creation of your own company YouTube Account. For instance, here’s my company YouTube account showcasing the various videos I’ve created. (Spoiler alert…part of them include a campaign I’m running next week.)
More information
Interested in learning more about how to use indirect technology like videos in your marketing for service professionals? Check out my “Jumpstart Your Rainmaking” 3 day webinar series, starting again in May. Want to check out Your Biz Vid directly? Contact one of the founders, Buddy Saupe, directly at 650-533-8790. I hope you’ll check it out. What have you got to lose?
