Customer Success Story: Allegheny Energy Turns to BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer to Solve Many Corporate Tax Challenges
Challenge:
Streamline the IRS audit process and gain visibility needed to optimize outcomes.
Solution:
BNA Corporate Tax™ Analyzer
Results:
Reduced IRS audit efforts by weeks and gained real-time visibility into the impact of proposed IRS changes. Relied upon for strategic and tax planning and analysis. BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer is used for IRS audit support, management of multiyear tax attributes, strategic and tax planning, and FIN 48 analysis.
"BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer is a one-stop solution for multi-year Federal income tax calculations, IRS audits, strategic and tax planning modeling, FIN 48 analysis, as well as cross checking what our corporate compliance software estimates our taxable income outcomes to be."
-- Bill Rowe, General Manager of Tax Planning, Allegheny Energy
By Streamlining IRS Audits, Allegheny Gains Time for Strategic Planning & Optimizing Tax Performance
Allegheny Energy owns and operates 20 power plants, providing electricity to almost 1.5 million customers in Maryland, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia. The company is considered a large case taxpayer with the IRS and as a domestic taxpayer, has a number of complex tax issues that it regularly complies with and plans for.
It All Started with the IRS
Allegheny's tax department deals with the many complexities of IRS audit exams, including multi-year calculations of attributes such as net operating losses (NOLs), carryback claims, amended returns, taxable income adjustments, Change in Accounting Method elections, Joint Committee issues, IRS Technical Advice memorandums, as well as IRS Appeals. Relying on manual efforts and Excel spreadsheets to support the audit process was getting the job done, however, it prevented Allegheny from gaining the visibility needed to quickly optimize complex outcomes.
The company decided to look for additional software it could use to plan and streamline its IRS audit management process. Allegheny chose BNA Corporate Tax™ Analyzer to help improve communication and interaction with the IRS, which also uses the same software. However, the company soon discovered that this all-around "power tool" was also ideal for solving many of Allegheny's corporate income tax challenges.
Gaining Visibility and Control of the IRS Audit Process
With a little help from BNA Software Technical Support, Allegheny became quickly familiar with how to use BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer to manage corporate income tax and IRS audits. "We gained immediate confidence in the BNA Software team thanks to their expertise in federal income tax issues," explained Bill Rowe, General Manager of Tax Planning for Allegheny Energy.
Using BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer, Allegheny now brings a high degree of confidence to the table in working with the IRS for audits. The software handles the complexities of calculating multi-year tax attributes such as NOL carrybacks and carryforwards, and keeps pace with frequent federal tax law changes automatically. Allegheny can validate results and assess proposed adjustments in real time, even taking the software on a laptop to Appeals for instant analysis.
"We've literally saved weeks of effort around the audit process using BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer," said Rowe. It gives us the power we need to easily administer a very burdensome large case exam with a small staff." Before BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer, Allegheny spent at least a week crunching numbers in Excel in support of large exams. Now, the calculations are done accurately in less than an hour.
Conquering the Paper Chase
The tax department at Allegheny previously spent large amounts of time managing the paper-based stream of IDRs, 5701s, and other pieces of audit documentation. With BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer, Allegheny has significantly reduced the paper-based workflow of the past. Allegheny scans IDRs and 5701s into a permanent, easy-to-retrieve electronic format and stores them within the BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer database. Beyond creating an electronic workflow for IRS audits, Allegheny now shares data in an electronic format between BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer, other software tools such as tax compliance software, and external consultants.
Power and Flexibility Solve Many Corporate Tax Challenges
What began as simply an audit tool, turned into a one-stop solution for the tax department. As Allegheny gained experience using BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer, it discovered how effective and powerful the software can be in many areas of corporate income tax management. Allegheny now depends upon the tool for complex, multi-year tax calculations, strategic and tax planning, modeling, and FIN 48 analysis.
With real-time tax calculations for NOL and AMT, Allegheny can better manage and optimize use of these tax attributes. The software helps the tax department immediately determine the company's effective tax rate and any impact of changes to federal tax law. Allegheny also uses it to conduct analysis for FIN 48 requirements. And BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer simplifies handling of Section 199 and setting up initial interest-netting calculations and state taxes.
The combination of powerful capabilities and built-in tax expertise within BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer keeps Allegheny well positioned to optimize tax performance in a fluid tax environment. "It is a powerful tool with great flexibility," commented Rowe, "It's nice to discover a product that actually does far more than you expect it to."
Fully Optimizing Tax Performance
With BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer, Allegheny reduced the effort and time required for IRS audits, and can now use that time more effectively for modeling various tax planning outcomes. "The significant advantages we gain more than pays for the software," said Rowe, "We can now make decisions that we know with certainty are the most tax advantageous."
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About BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer
Top corporations such as Alcatel-Lucent, Honeywell, Northrop Grumman, Sun Microsystems, and Western Refining, as well as the IRS, trust BNA Corporate Tax™ Analyzer. It’s the only software that automates the calculation and tracking of carryforwards and carrybacks of NOLs, FTCs, AMT, GBCs, charitable contributions, and more over multiple years. With its comprehensive set of calculations, compliance, reporting and analysis, planning, and audit capabilities, BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer can enhance or replace risky, time-consuming spreadsheets, saving tax departments hundreds of hours of time and effort every year.
Learn more about BNA Corporate Tax Analyzer »
About BNA Software
Founded in 1983, BNA Software develops professional software solutions for tax, accounting, and financial planning professionals. With category-standard software including BNA Corporate Tax™ Analyzer, BNA Income Tax™ Planner, and BNA Fixed Assets™ Software, BNA Software is the solution of choice for accounting, law, and financial planning firms, as well as corporations of every size. More than 60,000 customers including the IRS, depend upon BNA Software for the highest degree of tax, regulatory, and compliance expertise available in the market.
