As a CPA, helping your clients achieve their financial goals through strategic application of the tax code is an integral part of your mission. However, with frequent changes to state and federal tax law—as well as numerous tax code provisions that are often overlooked or misunderstood—it can be difficult to cut through the confusion and capture all of the savings opportunities available to your clients. Missing out on available tax savings is a particularly common pitfall for small, medium-sized, and family-owned businesses, which often assume that significant incentives are only for large companies. 

As you strive to unlock hidden tax incentives and deliver maximum financial benefit for your clients, a partnership with a tax advisory firm like Capital Review Group (CRG) may be the key that you need. 

What is Capital Review Group (CRG)?

Founded in 2004 in Phoenix, Arizona, CRG is a leading national incentive/tax advisory firm that specializes in helping businesses and their CPAs or other financial advisors find and capture various tax incentives. Offering a unique combination of tax and engineering expertise, our team of tax professionals has worked with small and mid-sized businesses in several different industries, ranging from architecture to manufacturing to commercial real estate. When collaborating with CPAs, our goal is to amplify your expertise with our in-depth knowledge of tax law and strategy—to serve as a true partner in helping you maximize value for your clients. Here are a few benefits that we offer our CPA partners: 

    • Comprehensive incentive review services to ensure that your clients are claiming all opportunities for tax savings available to them, including those that are commonly overlooked.
    • Up-to-date, thorough knowledge of all relevant state and federal tax law, including the latest IRS regulations and other changes.
    • Wide-ranging business and tax expertise, including an in-depth understanding of engineering and accounting principles. This makes CRG a particularly effective resource for those involved in commercial real estate and any businesses that own their buildings. 
    • Access to underutilized, long-term tax diversification/financial planning strategies designed to maximize dollars gained through tax savings.

What are some examples of overlooked tax savings opportunities for businesses?

At CRG, we often help business taxpayers take advantage of the following incentives that they may have overlooked: 

  • Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit. Have your clients developed a new or improved product, process, or software, such as a more efficient manufacturing process or a more eco-friendly design? If so, they may be eligible to save hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes through state and federal R&D Credits. Smaller and mid-sized businesses often overlook the R&D Credit due to the erroneous belief that it is only for large corporations or those involved in scientific or high-tech research. In reality, the Credit is available to businesses of all sizes in a wide variety of industries, including manufacturing, architecture, and engineering. CRG can help you review your clients’ project records to determine eligibility and maximize tax savings through the R&D Credit. 

Benefit illustration: One of CRG’s clients was a manufacturing company that had invested heavily in efforts to reduce waste and make its manufacturing processes more efficient, and had also developed several new or improved products, such as eco-friendly versions of existing products. CRG discovered that the company’s activities qualified for over $2 million in state and federal R&D Credits, enabling our client to offset its costs and reinvest in future innovation. 

  • Cost Segregation. Do your clients own a commercial building? If so, they may qualify for Cost Segregation, an IRS-approved federal tax deferral strategy that accelerates building depreciation by identifying and reclassifying certain assets from “real property” to “tangible personal property.” Typically, real property is depreciated over 39 years, while personal property is depreciated over five, seven, or fifteen years—meaning that personal property assets yield more substantial and immediate depreciation deductions for the building owner. With our in-depth knowledge of tax and engineering principles, the CRG team is qualified to perform Cost Segregation studies, enabling you to help your clients unlock substantial tax deductions and boost cash flow. 

Benefit illustration: CRG performed a Cost Segregation study for the owners of a small hotel. Based on the cost of the hotel and improvements that had been made, we were able to reclassify 29 percent of the hotel’s real property assets to personal property—saving the owners approximately $700,000 in taxes over a five-year period. 

  • Section 179D Deduction. Enacted under the Energy Policy Act of 2005 (EPAct), the §179D Deduction—which was recently extended through the end of 2020—offers another powerful tax savings opportunity for commercial building owners, as well as the architects, engineers, or other designers of qualifying improvements in government-owned buildings. Designed to incentivize energy efficiency in commercial buildings, this lucrative provision offers a deduction of up to $1.80 per square foot for improvements to a building’s envelope, lighting, or HVAC systems. CRG is a leading third-party certifier for §179D projects. 

Benefit illustration: One of CRG’s clients was an architecture firm that had designed energy efficiency measures for several large, government-owned buildings. Based on these projects, we were able to help the firm claim nearly $7 million in tax savings over a five-year period. 

Are you capturing all of the opportunities for tax savings available to your clients? Visit https://capitalreviewgroup.com/about-capital-review-group/ to learn how the tax experts at CRG may be able to help you harness the power of the tax code and yield maximum financial benefit for your business clients.