1. How do we benefit from a review?
- Increase your bottom line by recovering your overpaid and underclaimed tax
- Improve operations by learning from our assessment of where you are leaking money
- Increase your peace of mind that nothing material is being overlooked.
2. My finance team is excellent – what do you know that they don’t?
LWA goes far beyond standard accounting - we work in a highly specialized area. We interpret the ever-changing commodity tax legislation, in relation to an organization's particular operations. Each case is unique, and much of what we capture is the "exception to the rule". If your finance team is reading and analyzing all the tax legislation bulletins that we are, we'd be very surprised. We invest significant amounts of time into researching rulings.
3. We are very busy and don't have time to spare. How long will a review take?
Less time than you would think - minimizing your time is part of our approach. The overall length of a review depends on the size and complexity of your company. The time spent at your company is the shortest part of the review process, usually from 2 to 5 days. By using our own data file software we are able to maximize our on-site work by performing a crucial part of a review at our office, thus making our review more efficient.
4. We just had another company doing a review for us and they already recovered us money. How would you help us?
LWA is a pioneer in the tax recovery market. While it is best to have just one firm do all the recoveries in terms of your staff time, we regularly do an LWA review after other companies have done theirs, and have found additional monies. Usually they have found the easy stuff - we dig deeper and find the rest. Over the past 4 decades we have continued to develop tax law concepts and approaches that enable us to identify areas that are obscure to other professionals in this business.
5. Will a review trigger an audit?
The vast majority of claims offer little or no risk of triggering an audit. In our 35+ years in business, however, we have learned that certain types of claims are more vulnerable to being audited than others. For those clients we will have to discuss this possibility and let them decide what they want to do. It is our goal to never have this happen to you.
6. What about liabilities?
We are well aware of the implications of liabilities. Before filing your claim, the consultant will discuss with you the possible outcomes of our review. We have creative ways to work around many of these issues, including a 'customized audit' to your benefit. It's your call.
7. We only want some taxes reviewed – will you do that?
Of course. Our agreements can include limiting the review to specific taxes - you are the client so it is your choice. We'd like to mention here that generally, once a client trusts us, they realize that a full review takes advantage of the maximum benefit of our services.
8. We only want a certain time frame reviewed – will you do that?
Yes. This usually only occurs due to legal limitations (company changed hands) but if you have reasons to limit the time frame, we are open to reviewing a shorter period.
9. How much does a review cost?
Our fee is based on a percentage, meaning we generate the cash from which we are paid. There is no risk nor hidden charges. All of our expenses are paid by us, out of our percentage. In the rare case we find nothing, you simply owe us nothing - but you gain peace of mind that you aren't missing any of your money.
10. When do we pay you?
LWA will only get paid when you have received your refund or the benefit of it from the government.
11. Is there any urgency regarding when we should get a review done?
Absolutely. You could be losing out on hundreds to thousands of dollars TODAY. A company is only allowed to recover money from the last 4 years or less (depending on the tax). Our staff work hard when deadlines loom on time-barred items, but once the time has passed, there's nothing more anyone can do to get that money back - it's in the government's pocket now.
12. Will LWA take any records off site?
We do not take original records off site. We copy portions of invoices as it is required by the CRA as 'back-up' to the claim we file.
13. We are on top of everything in our organization, what could LWA possibly find?
All it takes is an incorrect interpretation of a tax ruling or an inadvertent clerical error, compounded daily or weekly over 4 years and it adds up to a sizable unnecessary expenditure for your organization. We consider ourselves experts in finding these areas, however obscure.
14. We were just audited by the federal and provincial governments and we came out clean.
We have different objectives to the government - we are working for YOU. Typically the government is auditing your firm to make sure you pay your fair share. Our objective is to ensure you do not overpay taxes. To do this, we provide you with experienced consultants who know all the angles.
15. I do not want to have any outsiders looking at my books.
Privacy is important, we agree. We do not need access to your books or financial statements; the only thing we need is access to your accounts payable invoices and a few government reports. We are quite happy to sign off on a confidentiality agreement. Never in our 35+ years have we breached this. Trust is supremely important to us.