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Real Estate Tax

Feed and Grain Manufacturer Case Study

By October 17, 2024October 28th, 2024No Comments

One of the nation’s largest feed and grain manufacturers hired TBG in 2001. Their Director of Tax met with us as a favor for another employee of the company. Once we identified that Sales and Use Tax was on her short list of projects, we described our detailed analysis and reviewed a sample of our project report that quantifies and qualifies not only the refund opportunities but the exposures as well. The Director was so impressed with the detail we provided and the justification for refunds, her comment was “All these accounting firms and consultants wanted our business, but none of them have shown me anything like this before.”

As a result, we began with a review of 5 states. We had such tremendous success they quickly requested that we review the remaining 35 states. By showing them 10’s of thousands of dollars in savings for a number of these states, we gained their trust and soon received a call requesting assistance with their real estate and personal property tax issues as well.

For years this client’s property taxes had been managed by a big three accounting firm who had assured them that their property taxes were fair and rarely appealed any values unless they increased by more than 10%. TBG reviewed 39 locations across the country and successfully reduced the real estate and personal property taxes on each and every case. Our average reduction on personal property was 12%, and our average reduction on real estate was over 14%. These savings totaled well over $200,000. The Director of Tax had to admit, “now I owe my friend a favor for introducing me to The Brennan Group!”

What impressed our client the most wasn’t just that we got reductions on every single case, but that we got reductions on the $5,000 tax bills in the middle of Iowa as well as on the $300,000 tax bills in Texas. They felt confident that they were only paying their fair share of taxes on all of their properties, not just the big ones.

TBG focuses on all locations because we realize that assessors make mistakes on all size properties and not just the big ones. TBG’s philosophy is to cast a finer net to offer a complete analysis of every property in a client’s portfolio. We don’t just focus on the larger tax bills and the lowhanging fruit.

After TBG’s first year performance the client released the second half of the portfolio, and the savings continued. The Director of Tax, armed with over a half-million dollars in savings, changed the Tax Department from a cost center to a profit center. With the new-found savings she was able to justify expanding her staff to accomplish even more.

The client was then bought by a $5 billion agricultural/dairy conglomerate. The purchasing company was so impressed by TBG that they asked us to review all their property taxes on locations throughout the country, including the locations of their subsidiaries. Six years later, TBG continues to work with them to protect their bottom line.