Recovery, amendments, and filings that stay right
For fuel jobbers, distributors and dealers. We find what was overpaid, get it back, and fix the process that caused it.
Six things, and they fit together
Most clients start with a recovery and stay for the filing. The order matters less than the fact that the same people do both.
Tax Recovery
Getting back what was overpaid.
We review your filed returns line by line against the exemptions that applied at the time, build the refund claim, file it with each agency, and defend it if anyone asks questions.
- Federal and state excise tax
- Sales and use tax
- Penalties, fines and the interest charged on them
- Claims documented to survive review
Amended Returns
Correcting the record, period by period.
Recovery is only real once the amended returns are accepted. We prepare and file the amendments for every period still open to you, in every state you operate in.
- Every period still inside the statute
- Multi-state, handled state by state
- Filed and tracked through to acceptance
Automated Sales Tax & Pre-Tax Filing
The monthly filing, without the monthly work.
Our software takes your transaction detail and prepares the filing, so the return goes out right the first time and the overpayment does not start building again.
- Reads the data your back office already produces
- Pre-tax and sales tax handled together
- Cuts the preparation down to a review
Tax Aggregation
One picture, across every agency you answer to.
Jobbers file to several authorities on different schedules with different rules. We pull it into one place so a discrepancy shows up as a number rather than as a notice six months later.
- Cardlock, remote sales and bulk detail together
- Rates checked against the day they applied
- Discrepancies surfaced early
Tax Consulting
A CPA who knows this industry, on the phone.
Notices, audits, licensing questions, a new state, a new product line. Fuel tax is its own discipline and it does not reward generalists.
- Notices and audit correspondence
- Entering a new state or product
- Process review before a problem compounds
Software & Training
Tools your team runs themselves.
Cardlock Analysis, the fifty-state rate table and the filing aids are the same tools we use on recovery work. Your team is trained on them as part of the engagement.
- Cardlock Analysis
- Sales tax rates for all 50 states
- Tax filing aids
Five steps, and you are only in two of them
The assessment costs nothing. Nothing is filed on your behalf until you have seen what we found and said yes.
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1
NDA and agreement
You provide a mutual NDA and a signed agreement so the assessment can start.
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2
We pull the data
We work with your back office software provider to download the files we need - with no customer names, addresses or phone numbers in them.
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3
A CPA reviews it
Our CPA reviews product codes, tax rates, exemptions and your current process.
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4
The assessment
We tell you what we found and what amendments are worth filing, and complete them.
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5
Your team is trained
Your people are trained on the TaxTraks software, and you decide how to carry on.
Note step two: we ask your software provider for transaction data with no customer names, addresses or phone numbers in it. We do not need your customer list to find your overpaid tax, so we do not take it.
Fuel jobbers, distributors and dealers
If you file excise or sales tax on fuel every month, the work is the same shape whether you run three trucks or thirty.
- Jobbers and distributors filing across one state or many.
- Cardlock and fleet fueling operators with exempt customers and remote sales detail.
- Bulk plants and dealers carrying dyed, exempt and resale product.
- Family operations where the back office is one person wearing four hats.
Buying, selling or merging?
Uncollected tax follows the deal — the buyer can inherit the seller’s tax, penalty and interest up to the whole purchase price. And a cardlock that starts billing from a new city raises a local tax question worth money either way.
For Principals — what owners need to know before signing. Open to TaxTraks clients.
The law itself
Four separate parts of the Revenue and Taxation Code reach a jobber, and which one applies depends on what came out of the hose. Gasoline, diesel and propane off the same yard are three different excise regimes, on top of the sales tax return that covers all of them.
California Fuel Tax Code — the sections, what each one does, and a link to CDTFA’s text. Open to anyone.
What it costs to find out
Nothing.
The initial assessment is free. We look at what you file, tell you whether there is a recovery worth pursuing, and you decide from there.
If there is nothing to recover, we will say so. That is a useful answer too — it means your filings are clean.
- Phone (530) 592-5046
- Email info@taxtraks.net
Start with the assessment.
One conversation, no cost, no obligation. The worst outcome is you find out your filings are clean.