We are hearing many stories about the Georgia DOR delaying, denying or “still processing” tax credits after a long period of time. We understand this can be frustrating to both you and your clients.

Several things have occurred over the last year or so which may be contributing to this:

• Department of revenue tax return forms have changed, leading to confusion and errors.
• The GA DOR is being more particular about the details of credits submitted.
• Tax credits may no longer be submitted via snail mail – everything is now electronic with e-file.

Taken together, and while it’s true that the GA DOR does occasionally drop the ball and make an error on its own part, these changes are resulting in:

• Procedural errors or required document omissions by tax return filers (CPA firms).
• Tax software (such as Thompson Reuters or CCH) that may not correctly match data fields with GA DOR’s interface, resulting in missing or improperly assigned data fields.
• Tax Incentive Providers (including in-house CPA resources and those provided by client) submitting forms with errors, omissions or missing pre-approvals.

In addition, tax structures may be complex, especially if they have multiple pass-through entities. As the tax credit passes through to the entities, the tax credit may fall through the cracks and not end up with the ultimate tax filer as intended.

For example, when a partnership has multiple partners. One of the partner’s tax credit passes through to a single member LLC (disregarded for tax purposes) and then passes through to an individual tax filer.

Fortunately, these issues may be resolved in most situations. But there is no one-size-fits-all solution; each individual filing must be reviewed to determine precisely what happened and the appropriate steps needed.

If you are in this situation DO NOT call the GA DOR! Rather, you want to create a “paper trail” that can be tracked and redirected to other areas of GA DOR if needed.

Send an email to: taxcredits.inquiries@dor.ga.gov. This is a general mailbox that several GA DOR employees check regularly. You should get an immediate reply acknowledging receipt of the email. Within a week or so, you will receive an email regarding next steps.

You can use the simple “inquiry template” that we have created. Download a copy, here.