Are you looking for an attorney in the Fort Lauderdale area that specializes in Florida sales tax? You found the right website! At the law firm Moffa, Sutton, & Donnini, PA, we are a purely Florida based law firm that has an extremely focused practice on representing companies against the Florida Department of Revenue for sales tax issues. We don’t do IRS controversy. We don’t handle estate planning or international tax. We focus primarily on sales tax with 13 attorneys and 3 former Department of Revenue auditors on staff doing almost nothing but sales and use tax controversy all day, every day. Whether you are under audit, have a collections issue, are under criminal investigation, or simply have questions so you don’t end up a target by the Florida Department of Revenue, then don’t you want a law firm that specializes in sales tax? Don’t make the mistake so many have made by hiring an IRS specialist who dabbles in sales tax. Hire an expert in sales tax to protect your company. So, if you are in the Fort Lauderdale area and are looking for a specialist to represent your company against the Florida Department of Revenue for Florida sales tax, then have found your team.
UNDER FLORIDA SALES TAX AUDIT?
If your Fort Lauderdale based company received a DR-840 Notice of Intent to Audit Books and Records from the Florida Department of Revenue, then it is something to take very seriously. The average sales tax audit assessment against a business is $100,000! Some initial assessments come in at over $1,000,000, dramatically higher than what the business should owe. But sales tax audits are not fair. The auditors are not there to help you get to the right tax amount. The tax audit will focus not only on your sales, but also on all your purchases – often more than doubling the potential assessment.
The auditors are trained to assess tax on as many things as possible and leave the burden on the taxpayer to prove the auditor wrong. The laws for Florida sales tax audits make it so almost any allegation of sales tax due will become enforceable unless the taxpayer can TIMELY prove them wrong – aka “guilty until proven innocent” statutes. This catches so many business owners off guard who believe they are doing everything right. Do you have all your purchase records or did your company just presume since you paid tax on everything that you were safe? The business owner will innocently give the auditor everything they ask for – bank statements, federal tax returns, point of sale system, all invoices, all purchase records, etc etc – with the belief the auditor is there to help. Then the business owner gets the first estimated sales tax liability based on whatever records hint that more tax is due. Does this sound familiar? I get phone calls every day from business owners that received outrageously high sales tax audit assessments. The business owner thought (1) it was safe to trust the auditor, (2) that their accountant would take care of it, or (3) (heaven forbid) they hired one of the national IRS controversy firms to help. Good intentions without real Florida sales tax experience can result in crippling sales tax assessments.
If your company gets the audit notice, chances are the Department of Revenue already thinks you are doing something wrong. Many audits these days are triggered by “third party data,” such as your wholesale purchase information or your credit card sales by month. Perhaps your company is reporting more exempt sales than the industry average. Perhaps a recently fired employee or a competitor turned you into the Department accusing you of sales tax fraud. I’ve even seen soon to be ex-spouses turn in the person they promised to love and cherish until death, turn in their spouse for sales tax problems just out of spite. After doing sales tax controversy over 15 years myself, I’ve pretty much seen it all. Regardless of how the audit started our job is always the same – get the tax amount as close as possible to the realm numbers, try to get the interest and penalties eliminated, and help the business owner get into a payment plan (if they need it) so they can get on with their lives. Oh, and a big part of our job is to help the business owner stop losing sleep worrying about everything because they know they have hired someone that really knows what they are doing. There are links to articles below that focus on sales tax audit issues, if you would like to learn more.
Behind in Paying Florida Sales Tax?
Did your company get behind in paying sales tax? Are you getting threatening calls and intimidating letters from the Florida Department of Revenue for not remitting sales tax? Every company is susceptible to hard times. If your company collects sales tax at the beginning of a month and you are not running a profit, then that sales tax sitting in your bank account is going to be spent on basic company expenses such that the tax simply is not there when the sales tax return is due the following month. If it happens for a few months, then your company can easily get behind tens of thousands of dollars in sales tax with no intention of taking the tax. No matter how you got here, sales tax is one of the few liabilities a company has that can really get the business and the business owner in a lot of trouble. The Florida Department of Revenue collector reaching out to you has an enormous amount of power to go after a company and business owner personally. They can freeze bank accounts, seize wages, revoke a business’s ability to do any business subject to sales tax, and even go after each business owner for 200% of the tax the business owes. Sales tax is not even dischargeable in bankruptcy. In other words, they can legally cripple the business for sale tax liabilities and make it almost impossible for the business owner to walk away from the sales tax debt. So, you really want to get someone on your side that truly knows Florida laws and can help you get back on track without having a Florida Department of Revenue collector shut down your business. If you are being harassed by a Florida DOR collector, then call me today for a free initial consultation to discuss your options to get back on track.
UNDER CRIMINAL INVESTIGATION?
Did you have a Florida Department of Revenue investigator show up at your Fort Lauderdale based business asking about records and sales tax? If so, then talking to the investigator is the last thing you want to do. That investigator is NOT there to help you figure out what you owe and give you a chance to pay. The investigator’s only job is to gather evidence that you committed sales tax fraud to turn it over to the state attorney’s office to have you prosecuted. It only takes $301 of collected but not remitted sales tax to become a 3rd degree felony punishable by up to 5 years in jail. If the amount is over $20,000, then a 2nd degree sales tax fraud charge is punishable by up to 15 years in jail. I have gotten more phone calls than a can count from business owners (or their spouses) who mistakenly took the “nice guy” approach from a Florida Department of Revenue investigator to mean that the issue is not very serious, and the business owner gave the investigator everything they asked for and answered all their questions. The investigator would tell the business owner that they have everything they needed and they would “be in touch.” The next thing that happens is a sheriff showing up to arrest one or more of the business owners for felony sales tax fraud. I strongly suggest that if you are contacted by a Florida Department of Revenue tax investigator that you tell the investigator that you would like your attorney present for any conversation, then reach out to an attorney that specializes in Florida sales tax. Our law firm handles at least 50 criminal sales tax investigations every year. Call now for your free initial consultation.
About the author: James Sutton is a Florida licensed CPA and attorney as well as a shareholder in Moffa, Sutton, & Donnini, PA. Mr. Sutton is charge of the Tampa office of the firm and practices almost exclusively in the area of Florida Sales & Use Tax Controversy. Mr. Sutton handles audits, protest, litigation, criminal cases, revocations, collections, and consulting engagements all in the area of sales tax. Mr. Sutton is a regular speaker on sales tax topics around Florida and is an active member in the FICPA, serving as the Chairman of the State Tax Committee for 2023 and 2024. He was also the State and Local Tax Chairman for the AAA-CPA for over a decade, spearheading multiple Amicus Curiae briefs before the Florida Supreme Court and US Supreme Court for state tax issues. Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Sutton was also CFO an in-house counsel for two construction companies from 2003 to 2011 and before that was part of the State and Local Tax group of Andersen based in Tampa. If you are interested in learning more about Florida sales tax from Mr. Sutton, you can learn more about Mr. Sutton in his firm bio HERE. Lastly – if you have a quick question about Florida sales tax, then take advantage of our free initial consultation policy by calling Mr. Sutton at 813-775-2131 or email at JamesSutton@FloridaSalesTax.com
About the firm: At the Law Office of Moffa, Sutton, & Donnini, PA, with three offices around the state, our primary practice area is Florida taxes, with a very heavy emphasis in Florida sales and use tax. If you are having Florida sales tax problems, then you don’t necessarily need a lawyer with an office in your backyard to help you. What you need is a Florida based lawyer that specializes in Florida sales tax. We have been defending Florida businesses against the Florida Department of Revenue since 1991 and have over 200 years of cumulative sales tax experience within our firm. Our shareholders are both CPAs/Accountants and Attorneys, so we understand both the accounting side of the situation as well as the legal side. We represent taxpayers and business owners throughout the entire state of Florida. Call our offices today for a FREE INITIAL CONSULTATION to confidentially discuss how we can help put this nightmare behind you.
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
FLORIDA SALES TAX AUDIT DEFENSE, published June 30, 2025, by James Sutton, CPA, Esq.
FLORIDA SALES TAX AUDIT: CONSTRUCTION CONSTRACTORS, published November 8, 2025, by James Sutton, CPA, Esq.
FLORIDA SALES TAX: INTERIOR DESIGN SERVICES, published August 17, 2025, by James Sutton, CPA, Esq.
WHAT SERVICES AE SUBJECT TO SALES TAX IN FLORIDA, published May 1, 2012, by James Sutton, CPA, Esq.
FL COUNTER TOP COMPANIES: SALES TAX PROBLEMS, published October 13, 2013, by James Sutton, CPA, Esq.
FL CABINET COMPANIES WITH SALES TAX PROBLEMS, published October 5, 2013, by James Sutton, CPA, Esq. and Gerald Donnini, Esq.
PROTEST A FL SALES AND USE TAX AUDIT, published August 8, 2019, by Matthew Parker, Esq.
FLORIDA SALES TAX ON PUBLIC WORKS CONTRACTS – A TRAP FOR CONTRACTORS, published January 25, 2016.
FLORIDA CONSTRUCTION ON TAX EXEMPT PROJECTS – MINIMIZING/ELIMINATING SALES AND USE TAXES, published December 4, 2011, by James Sutton, CPA, Esq.
©2025 James H Sutton, Jr, All Rights Reserved