Chapter Five

Monitoring

Keep Looking…You'll Find It

The fifth step in building your tax compliance program is monitoring. To this point, we have put in place the mechanisms for you to:

  • Become aware of the tax obligations of your university.
  • Identify the various people, obligations, and areas at your university that are potential tax issues.
  • Take your first few steps toward compliance by putting procedures and policies in place toward a recurring effort to achieve all of your tax reporting obligations in a timely manner.
  • Report your tax obligations to the IRS and other taxing authorities more than once a year and know who at your university is assisting in the effort and when.

The subject of this chapter is monitoring.

Monitoring is another continual activity and an obligation of the Business and Finance departments on behalf of the university.

Exhibit 5.1 Six Steps of Tax Compliance: Monitoring

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Monitoring is reviewing and managing a control system that begins at the top and filters downward throughout your organization. It is enterprise risk management with a tax focus. It is the methods and processes used by universities to manage tax risk to achieve objectives (see Tax Compliance Pyramid, Exhibit 5.1).

If you are a university that has a tax department, the tax department should have its own mission statement including definitions of goals which may be strategic, operational, ...

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