You’ve known someone who went through it. You’ve heard their awful tales. And you’ve never heard a kind word about the experience. It’s the dreaded audit.
I went to New York City earlier this week because the great State of New York was auditing the company I work for. Since I’m the finance go-to person, I was the one to answer all questions and present all required documents. It was quite an experience.
We’d received a letter in February that the State Department of Labor wanted to review our financial records for the past three years. The letter said we were chosen at random, but I don’t believe anything is random where a government agency is concerned. And I didn’t believe this was random either. This is not to imply that we were guilty of anything; just that our government is always looking for extra monies from those they think are cheating them.
The thing is, I’ve learned that if you want to cheat you need to find a different venue than any requiring payment to a government agency. That includes payroll taxes, unemployment, sales taxes, and year-end profit taxes. Uncle Sam and his underlings don’t take hostages.
I spent four hours behind closed doors with the auditor. But that time doesn’t compare to the hours I spent preparing for the meeting. I dotted all the i’s and t’s in our company records from 2005 forward, looked for inconsistencies, lost invoices, etc. I gathered the annual corporate minutes and the corporate seal. I checked with our accountant more than once.
The outcome was most favorable. Mr. Auditor didn’t find anything amiss and said we would receive a letter noting that New York State was satisfied that we were paying our fair share of the tax burden. It wasn’t as bad an experience as I’d been led to believe, but I still rank it up there with visiting the dentist or having a colonoscopy. In other words, it’s nothing you look forward to with relish.
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