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Slow & Steady Recovers $12M in California’s SUTA Race

Janis Varney

Avenu’s Misallocation SUTA Auditing Team ensures that all expected sales & use tax revenue that has been misallocated by the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) is accounted for and allocated to the correct jurisdiction. Under the leadership of Janis Varney, VP of Sales & Use Tax Audit (SUTA), our SUTA team has long been known for its expertise in identifying and recovering revenue for municipalities, but recently had some major milestone wins to celebrate.

Sandra Heuer

One of the many exciting wins for the team has been in the works for years. In 2018, Sandra Heuer was working on audit for the Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority (LAMTA) and identified the initial error. Sandra engaged Linda Latta, Avenu Corrections Specialist to begin correction efforts with coordinating with the California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) and the taxpayer.

Linda Latta

Initially the team was told that everything was okay as it was submitted but extra work and diligence took over to gather the additional data needed to confirm the correction. Flash forward to present day, and Avenu recovered $1.1 million for LAMTA. When Sandra was asked what made her so tenacious in having the error corrected, she shared “Part of what I enjoy most about my job is to find the needle in the haystack and recover revenues for our clients.” Congratulations to Sandra Heuer and Linda Latta for your diligence.

Other important wins by the SUTA team in 2021 include:

  • Auto leasing misallocation for more than 50 California SUTA clients in 2016 will result in over $7M in local tax reallocation
  • Misallocation by computer hardware software company submitted in 2014 corrected for more than 10 California SUTA clients for approximately $3M
  • Multiple quarter misallocation for the City of San Diego finally corrected for approximately $1M
  • Misallocation by major ecommerce business

This is just to name a few of the significant cases that the SUTA team has been diligently working to bring the misallocated revenue to our clients. Congratulations to the entire SUTA Team for doing an extraordinary job!