C.G. Bretting Manufacturing Company: Minimizing Sales and Use Tax Expenses
Reevaluating sales and use tax procedures provides beneficial opportunities.
Established in 1890, C.G. Bretting Manufacturing Company, Inc. is a leading international manufacturer of paper-converting equipment, including napkin folders, tissue rewinders, and specialty machinery.
Situation
The company experienced a period of tremendous growth, evidenced by Tad Bretting’s honor as the Small Business Person of the Year in 1989. As the consumption of production material increased, use tax became a significant cost to the company.
Strategy
Wipfli identified an opportunity for the manufacturer to reevaluate its sales and use tax procedures. Working with Bretting’s internal financial team, Wipfli combined its knowledge of Bretting’s business and industry with its expertise in sales and use taxation to provide a thorough evaluation of current expenditures and reporting systems, including:
- Reviewing manufacturing expenditures and identifying unclaimed exemptions
- Analyzing internal processes and reporting systems
- Examining multistate sales tax issues
Benefits
With Wipfli’s recommendations, Bretting was able to enhance existing reporting systems to more accurately report and minimize sales and use tax expense. Specifically, Bretting:
- Realized $25,000 annual savings
- Received a $100,000 refund claim for prior years
- Established policies for reporting multistate taxes in the company’s future
