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Alpha-Mail 
The Tax Professional's Guide to Georgia Tax Credits, Courtesy of Alpharesults
Vol. I No. 2 December 2007
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Hello!
Welcome to Alpha-Mail, the monthly newsletter about Georgia tax credits for Georgia tax
professionals.
Why should you read Alpha-Mail? You will learn to recognize Georgia tax credit opportunities for your clients. You will have another reason to be proactive in your clients' tax planning. You will be able to answer more of your clients' questions about Georgia tax credits. And you will learn another way to add real value $$ to your client relationships.
In this month's issue, find out what Jim learned at DOR's annual One-Day Tax Seminar. Also, we have the latest information you need to know about the soon-to-be-approved new Job Tax Credit regulation. So thank you for reading Alpha-Mail -- please click reply to tell us what you think.
All the best, 
Dale Stapler Jim Tinsley
Alpharesults, LLC
P.S. You've received this email because you have a prior relationship with Jim, Dale, or Alpharesults (or all three!). Please accept our apologies if we've sent this to you in error. Click the "Safe Unsubscribe" link at the bottom of this email to be permanently removed from the list.
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DOR Dog & Pony Show!
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I attended the Department of Revenue's annual One-Day Tax Seminar in Atlanta, sponsored by the Institute for Professionals in Taxation (link to their website here). This was my fourth year - it was the same Powerpoint presentation with a few new slides. Most attendees were Big 4 CPA firms, large corporations, and tax consultants like us. The session focused on policy, new initiatives and court cases for corporate income, sales and property taxes.
The highlights of the session included:
Bart Graham, DOR Commissioner, discussed his intent to improve customer service and communications and to tighten "non-compliance."
Ed Many, Deputy Commissioner, discussed plans for a major overhaul of their software systems that will hopefully "help taxpayers get consistent answers to questions." I'm sure that a software system will do that, right?
Mary Benton, of Alston & Bird and Chairperson of the DOR Advisory Committee, discussed practitioner input to DOR. She mentioned the quarterly meetings with the commissioner and his staff to seek input regarding DOR. Note: GSCPA is very active on the committee.
My eyelids were getting a little heavy when they presented the court cases. There is a large tax credit case pending with Georgia Power, which was denied a $120 million port activity tax credit. DOR feels that the port credit should only be applied to exports (and not imports) due to the law's caption wording which only mentions "exports." Most attendees I talked with think that DOR will lose the case.
Another recent case involved Oxford Construction's claiming the sales tax manufacturing exemption (which could impact the investment tax credit). Oxford won the case - they can claim equipment that is mobile as well as fixed.
Lora Butler, director of Tax Law and Policy, discussed her area's new website (link to here), where they post official code, rules, regulations, information bulletins, and policy statements. One new item regarding private letter rulings, officially called "declaratory rulings," is a new policy (and related forms) for submission to DOR. Yes, more paperwork and hoops to jump through for our clients.
Overall, it was helpful to listen to the Department of Revenue's plans and initiatives. Interesting that there was no discussion about the upcoming legislative session or proposed tax law changes (nothing GREAT was mentioned!).
My favorite part of the day was lunch with the DOR staff. One DOR staffer told me that this session is the only way they can find out what is really going on in their department! Funny, didn't someone earlier mention improved communications???
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New Job Tax Credit Regulation Expected To Be Adopted
------------------------------------------------------------------------- After even more proposed rules, public hearings, secret meetings, public meetings, board meetings, comment period extensions, and who-knows-what-else, we now almost officially have a new job tax credit regulation, according to Brian Williamson, Assistant Commissioner of the Department of Community Affairs (DCA).
The new regulation clarifies the types of business operations eligible for job credits (i.e., Business Enterprise), provides a "grandfather clause" for businesses already taking the JTC to continue doing so, and standardizes the definition of Business Enterprise for DOR and DCA, which has been an issue in the past.
Recently, many business types have been added back into the regulation after initially being excluded, and many people who had been upset with the process are now satisfied with the results. Also, the new Job Tax Credit regulation will now be primarily
administered by DCA, instead of the previously vague joint DOR/DCA
administration arrangement. You can view the proposed rule here.
Brian told me that he expected the regulation to be adopted at the 1/9/08 meeting of the DCA Board of Directors. I plan to attend and will report on what happens in next month's Alpha-Mail.
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Quick Updates
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Telework Tax Credit -- Over 130 companies submitted applications to DOR by the October 31, 2007 deadline. The companies should be notified of their approved tax credit amounts by December 31, 2007.
New Retraining Tax Credit Policy Statement -- Some of you may have seen a new policy statement reported by your tax research service, and some of you have asked if it will cause any changes to the way to calculate the credits. The answer is: No changes. This new policy statement IT-2007-12-06 simply restates the content of a policy statement from 2001.
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Upcoming Alpharesults Events
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January 15,2008 - GSCPA Southside Chapter presentation
January 22, 2008 - GSCPA Valdosta Chapter presentation February 27, 2008 - GSCPA DeKalb Chapter presentation
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About Us
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Alpharesults has assembled a team with the specialized knowledge and approach required to obtain Georgia income tax credits. We are not a public accounting firm. Rather, our services complement those of public accounting firms and do not create conflicted loyalties, because our professionals do not perform attestation work or other external audit functions.
We focus on small to medium-sized businesses and work exclusively in Georgia with a wide variety of in-state and out-of-state accounting firms. For more information on our services, follow this link.
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