How Coburn's Turned a $1M Tax Bill Into $100K
See how Coburn's Supply Company, a Gulf Coast building supplier, partnered with The Sales Tax People to reduce their $1M+ tax liability to just over $100K during a state audit.
Coburn's Supply Company has been a Gulf Coast institution for 90 years. Sixty-plus locations. Kitchens, bathrooms, HVAC. If you're building or remodeling on the Gulf Coast, there's a good chance Coburn's had a hand in it. They know their industry cold and they have the internal team to prove it.
But when Louisiana came with a $1,000,000 sales tax liability claim, even a finance team that good needed backup.
The state's position: Coburn's had underreported sales tax and collected the wrong rates. For a company with 60+ locations and decades of transaction history, that's not a simple thing to dispute. It takes time, documentation, and deep knowledge of how Louisiana actually calculates taxable revenue.
Coburn's had already started working through it. They just didn't have the bandwidth to finish -- and the stakes were too high to leave anything on the table. They came to us.
The state was using gross sales to determine taxable revenue. What they weren't accounting for: a significant chunk of those sales weren't Louisiana sales at all. They'd been incorrectly pulled into the state total.
We went line by line. We identified the misclassified transactions, tracked down exemption certificates, and substantiated every eligible sale. By the time we were done, Coburn's liability had dropped from over $1,000,000 to just over $100,000.
"[The Sales Tax People] were able to streamline our sales tax process and handle the information with confidence. This, in turn, provided additional time for us to focus on other projects."
Paul Lee | Coburn's Supply Company
During the audit, one of Louisiana's auditors mentioned to Paul Lee that the state actually takes courses from our team to stay current on sales tax law.
That's not a brag. That's just context for what it means to have us in your corner when the state comes knocking. We know what they're looking for. We know where the opportunities are. And we do the work most finance teams don't have capacity for -- so your team stays focused on running the business.
