Cost Segregation – Questions to Ask a Cost Segregation Provider
What is your experience and level of staffing?
A cost segregation expert should have prepared thousands of reports and have at least five to eight appraisers or engineers on staff.
Does your staff prepare the cost segregation study? Do you charge a fee for being the intermediary?
Professionals can generate the best results when working directly with the client. There is no benefit to an intermediary who charges a sharp mark-up.
Have any of your reports been reviewed by the IRS during an audit? What was the result?
An experienced service provider will have reports that have been reviewed by IRS staff during an audit. There should have been minimal or no changes during the audit.
How do you train your staff? Are the committed to cost segregation studies?
A credible cost segregation specialist will have a meaningful training manual and program, with periodic updates. The appraisers (or engineers at some firms) who prepare cost segregation studies will spend all or at least most of their time preparing cost segregation reports. Cost segregation is a specialized practice with frequent changes. A properly trained appraiser will be able to identify components not apparent to an appraiser who intermittently prepares a cost segregation report.
What are your fees?
Fee structure varies from flat fee to flat fee based on value added to contingency fee. We believe a straight flat fee is appropriate. Some firms base fees on the greater of a flat fee or 10 to 20 percent of the tax savings.
Do you support a client if there is an audit? Is there an additional fee?
Audits of clients who have obtained a cost segregation study are rare. O’Connor & Associates supports clients in the event of an audit with no additional fee.
Cost segregation produces tax deductions and reduces federal income taxes across the country and in every size market. Below are just a few examples of where cost segregation generates meaningful tax deductions.
City
- Bridgeport, CT
- Philadelphia, PA
- Miami, FL
- Orlando, FL
- Tampa, FL
- Phoenix, AZ
- Atlanta, GA
- New York, NY
- Hartford, CT
- New Orleans, LA
- Syracuse, NY
- San Jose, CA
- Nashville, TN
- Oxnard, CA
- El Paso, TX
- Oklahoma City, OK
- Providence, RI
- New Haven, CT
- Milwaukee, WI
- Detroit, MI
- Jackson, MS
- Buffalo, NY
- San Diego, CA
- Akron, OH
- Durham, NC
- Richmond, VA
- Louisville, KY
- Ft. Lauderdale, FL
- Cincinnati, OH
- Des Moines, IA
Cost segregation produces tax deductions for virtually all property types.
Property Type:
- School
- Discount store
- Mobile home park
- Mini-warehouse
- Retirement home
- Vacant land
- Neighborhood shopping center
- Apartments
- Shopping mall
- Bowling alley
Almost every industry, including the following, can generate cost-efficient tax deductions by using cost segregation.
Industry:
- Automotive repair facilities
- Amusement parks
- Textile product mills
- Furniture manufacturing
- Publishers
- Chemical manufacturing
- Fabricated metal products
- Textile mills
- Real estate lesser
- Golf courses and country clubs