Internet access is quickly becoming a necessity for every American household and business (if it hasn’t been already). Unfortunately, due to the U.S.'s massive size and the large number of rural communities, reliable internet isn’t always easy to come by. Rise Broadband is seeking to fix that for 16 states across the country.
Rise Broadband is known for delivering the best fixed wireless technology coverage to unserved or underserved customers. Founded in 2005 as JAB Wireless and through acquisitions of Skybeam, Digid, T6, Prairie iNet, and Rhino Communications, they rebranded all names to Rise Broadband in 2015.
Now, they are a leading provider of quality, affordable internet and phone services.
“Peisner Johnson saves us a ton of time when they take on our CITRUS filing research and paperwork. It takes a lot of man hours to put that all together correctly, I’m glad we can lean on their expertise to get it done right.”
-Jefferson Pickering | Sr. Accounting Supervisor, Rise Broadband
As Rise Broadband acquired new businesses, they faced a large-scale problem of centralizing and streamlining processes. This became increasingly difficult when they were working through audits with everything scattered like tumbleweeds in the wind.
Their team works hard to manage regular sales tax returns, but came to Peisner Johnson for one Texas-sized obstacle. CITRUS is a specialized refund program for telecommunications companies (cable, phone, and internet providers). Under this program, these companies can apply for a refund of state sales and use tax they have paid on qualifying purchases of tangible personal property used in their services.
The state sets aside $50 million for these refunds, so there’s a large incentive for all telecommunications companies to put in the work for a refund. The tricky part is that there are select eligible items, and the requests for a refund must include detailed transaction information. A task that requires expediency and a thorough understanding of the refund process, as they put a 3/31 deadline on filing claims.
“In my role, I’m always working to ensure compliance with regulations, while trying to keep as much money in the business as possible. I’m glad I can always trust the Peisner Johnson team and the work they do for us to help me in that regard.”
-Jefferson Pickering | Sr. Accounting Supervisor, Rise Broadband
Peisner Johnson jumped in to sift through invoices and extract data relevant to Rise Broadband’s sales tax refund. The PJ team is well-versed in the qualifying items (switches, routers, modems, antennas, etc.) and has set up processes to quickly review a year of invoices to extract the right data. Left on their own, Rise Broadband was overwhelmed by the tedious nature of the sales tax refund application.
For the 2023 sales tax year, Rise Broadband will receive over $240,000 as part of the CITRUS program. Additionally, there is potential for additional funds to be distributed in later years after appeals and disputed claims are resolved for the CITRUS program for that year. All $50 million will be distributed, and thanks to Peisner Johnson, Rise Broadband will receive a portion of that to continue delivering high-quality internet and phone services to communities across the country.
