Chapter Three
Compliance
Okay, Okay…If I Have To
Compliance is the third step in our six-step tax compliance program pyramid designed to bring you into effective tax compliance, as shown in Exhibit 3.1. It's important to note that no step is more important than any other. In this process, however, I feel that awareness of the types and kinds of taxes and identification on your campus must precede compliance. In other words until you know about them—are aware of them and have identified them—then and only then can you begin to address compliance with the requirements.
Exhibit 3.1 Six Steps of Tax Compliance: Compliance
Compliance is an ongoing effort, every day. Tax is not an annual event, but rather a daily occurrence at your school. Every day in which there is a transaction upon which sales tax is charged, every day you pay employees, each time there is an activity subject to the unrelated business income tax, or every time you make a decision to pay somebody as an independent contractor and not an employee, there are tax decisions being made. Every time you pay a foreign student, researcher, or scholar there is a tax consequence for your university.
It takes a village to run an effective tax compliance program. The core village is your tax team that meets quarterly and discusses tax issues for your university. It's up to you to see that this is done.
If you believe that your ...
