Over 20 years ago I was introduced to Tony Robbins and his books. This week I started reading "Awaken The Giant Within" again. I actually started with the chapter entitled, "Questions Are The Answer." The idea or thought is that questions have the power to focus our attention and direct our path. Ask the wrong questions and you will go down the wrong path. Questions cause us to think about certain things (positive or negative) depending on the question. Questions not only cause us to drill down on a person, place, thing, etc. but questions also cause us to "delete" (as Tony says in the book) or not think about certain things or think about things in a certain way.
Tony says:
"the difference between people is the difference in the questions they ask consistently."
"Questions determine everything you do in life, from your abilities to your relationships to your income."
Quotes Tony put in the book:
"Always the beautiful answer who asks a more beautiful question." - E.E. Cummings
"Some men see things as they are, and say, 'Why?' I dream of things that never were, and say, 'Why not?'" - George Bernard Shaw
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS IN STATE TAX
After reading that chapter, and I got immersed in work this week, I often thought about the questions and answers I get in my work.
State tax consultants are faced with unique fact patterns and grey tax law which causes us to have to ask the right questions to get the right answer or conclusions. If you never ask the right question you may not uncover a significant fact that could change the conclusion. If you don't know where to look (research) you may never find the regulation, statute, court case or ruling that would alter the position your client or company was going to take.
Positions that a company makes are not just words on paper, they are real dollars. This is important and not just business. It's personal.
The positions a company takes (or doesn't take) have a financial impact on a company. The positions can determine whether a company has the funds to make investments or even keep operating. So understanding and identifying the facts that matter and the legal authority to stand on is not only part of the job, it is the job.
Ask the Right Questions = Get the Right Answers
Knowing what to ask, what facts are important, where to look, how to search, filtering through the trees to find the path or the one tree to climb - that's what I call experience and judgment.
Never giving up, looking at every angle, gaining new perspectives, thinking outside the box - that's what I call advocacy.
I call all of the above "leverage."
This week I've been working on several projects with unique fact patterns and grey tax law (as I'm sure you have as well). Each one causing me to do all of the above. But what do you do when do all of the above and you still have questions?
That's when you have to reach conclusions with certain levels of assurance AND still provide your clients with recommended courses of action. Those recommended action steps should seek to reduce risk and uncertainty and/or take positions that have a level of assurance that supports taking the position.
Some potential courses of action may be:
taking the position and filing amended returns (refund claims)
requesting a Private Letter Ruling (PLR)
filing a Voluntary Disclosure Agreement (VDA)
documenting the file with a technical memorandum and taking the position
These complex positions and decisions can arise out of the basic areas of state taxation such as:
whether a company has nexus (a taxable presence) in a state.
determining whether a state imposes sales tax on what a company is selling.
how to source a company's sales by state for both income tax and sales tax purposes.
determining if a specific election to file a return in a certain way should be made.
And many more......
I've been in the tax profession for 28 years and all of the complexity and never-ending change has been part of the intrigue AND pain. It can be positive and negative. The answers you give clients can be positive and negative.
Risk management is not the fun part of the job.
Getting clients refunds = fun.
Telling a client they need to file historical tax returns and pay a lot of money = not fun.
Winning an audit protest and saving the client thousands of dollars = fun.
Telling a company to pay historical tax and interest (even if you reduce the number of tax years and eliminate penalties) = not fun.
So there are fun and not so fun parts of the job. There are easy and difficult conversations to be had. Thus, knowing what questions to ask AND then knowing how to move forward after you get the answers - that is the key. That is the "LEVERAGE."