During Tough Times, The Taxman Cometh: How Microsoft Dynamics GP Helps Ease the Pain

We’ve got a full blown recession on our hands and everyone is trying to find ways to cope. Unfortunately, one of government’s coping mechanisms is to increase tax collection enforcement, especially local tax collection, and it certainly looks like enforcement is up. At this year’s Convergence convention in New Orleans for Microsoft’s Dynamics product line, sales and use tax reporting were definitely hot topics with customers who reported seeing increased government collection efforts.

Dynamics GP provides a solid foundation for sales and use tax calculations, what with its ability to create individual tax details and then roll those details up into a complete tax schedule. In addition, there are a number of very good third-party solutions to assist companies with complex sales and use tax requirements. For example, CCH’s CorpSystem tax product provides specific use tax calculation, tracking and reporting functionality in addition to complete sales tax options. CCH’s offering is just one of a number of options for full sales and use tax functionality. The beauty of the Dynamics GP ecosystem is that third-party options exist from simple rate updates to full blown return filing, allowing managers to feel confidence instead of dread at a tax auditor’s appearance.

Sales and use taxes are not the only point of concern however. It is also expected that companies will see increased collection efforts involving tangible personal property taxes. Microsoft Dynamics GP provides specific functionality in the Fixed Assets module to track an asset’s location for tangible personal property tax reporting. Location tracking includes the asset’s state, county and city. These are the typical levels at which tangible personal property taxes ...