MultiTax Commission

An intergovernmental state tax agency whose mission is to promote uniform and consistent tax policy and administration among the states, assist taxpayers in achieving compliance with existing tax laws, and advocate for state and local sovereignty in the development of tax policy.

Statistical Sampling for Sales and Use Tax Audits

—This course is open to Private Sector Tax Personnel—

This course is the first step to understanding and applying statistical sampling techniques. Appropriate use of sampling techniques contributes to reduced audit cost, reduced travel cost, improved audit results, and makes audits more defensible if challenged by taxpayers.   course

OBJECTIVE: 
To provide participants with 1) the skills necessary to conduct a statistical sample; and, more importantly 2) an understanding of basic statistical sampling theory as it relates to sales and use tax audits. When the course is completed the auditor should be able to apply the basic principles and conduct a statistical sample. However, this course should be viewed as the first step, and not the final step, in obtaining a thorough understanding of statistical sampling.

AUDIENCE:
The course is designed as an intermediate/advanced course for state and local revenue department personnel (sales & use tax auditors, supervisors and review section personnel) and private sector practitioners who are auditing sales and use tax records or representing taxpayers in sales and use tax audits.

PREREQUISITES:
Familiarity with basic Excel functions, such as copy, paste and sort; and familiarity with sampling concepts, including mean, standard deviation, stratification of populations, and random sampling of populations. It is also helpful if the participant has some exposure to the concepts of normal distribution and regression analysis, which are usually included in a basic college-level statistics class. Students should be interested in learning statistical theory in addition to the mechanics of sampling.

STUDENT COMPUTER REQUIREMENTS:
 

Each participant is required to have a laptop computer with Excel 2010, and a CD-Drive or a free USB port to enable the sharing of files. Some of the material is based on Excel VBA which requires the VBA functionality enabled. Students should also be able to adjust the security level to a low setting or it should be preset to a level that will accept macros.
 

WARNING: Failure to comply with the student requirements may prevent the student from being able to participate in many of the class examples and exercises. Students should check with their IT Departments to insure that their computers are in compliance.

PROGRAM LEVEL:
Intermediate/Advanced

COURSE MATERIALS:
Participants will receive a comprehensive course binder which includes the course material, questions, exercises and case studies. Participants will also receive a copy of the MTC statistical sampling software.

ADVANCE PREPARATION:
Install and test MTC Sampling Software; and read Lesson 5 from the course materials.

INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY METHOD:
Group-Live with problem sets.

RECOMMENDED CPE CREDIT: 
32 hours

FIELD OF STUDY: 
Statistics  View the Fields of Study 

REGISTRATION INFORMATION:
Contact  Sherry Tiggett at (202) 650-0296
 

 PROGRAM DAY ONE: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Introduction  
General Overview of Statistical Sampling  
Random Sampling Using MTC Software  
Defining and Refining the Population

PROGRAM DAY TWO: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Defining and Refining the Population – continued  
Statistical Evaluation Software  
Go over Comprehensive Problem

PROGRAM DAY THREE: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
Comprehensive Problem  
Constructing & Using a Confidence Interval  
The Estimators  

PROGRAM DAY FOUR: 8:00 am – 5:00 pm
The Estimators – continued  
Stratified Random Sampling  
Avoiding Bias                        
Bonus Problem
Wrap-up

 
For more information on MTC's training programs, please visit the Training Program page.