Issuing Payments in a COVID environment
October 4, 2020Happy New Year from Indurante
January 4, 2024Happy Holidays from Indurante
As the year closes, we are reflecting on our growth in the four years since Don Swartz bought our business from the Indurantes. Next year will be our fifth anniversary and we cannot wait to celebrate!
It is our second year operating in Railmarx, our exclusive web-based application designed by the Indurante team and Engaged Innovation. If you’ve worked in application design or with a developer, you know this is a weighted and lengthy endeavor, but the product is well worth it. Our new application is helping to streamline other processes and will in time bring more information directly to our clients’ screens. We are so excited to work on this project and eventually share it with you.
Arkansas, Montana, and New Hampshire’s taxpayer websites went online this year for the rail car property tax type. More states are expanding their state tax websites. Oregon has announced it will begin online tax filing for 2023. Tennessee is still working on bringing this tax type online. With more of the states utilizing their own web-based applications, Indurante is now able to flex with these changes at ease.
There are both benefits and detriments to the state websites. The state websites put more information in the taxpayer’s hands and make it easier to make payments online. The downside is the states rely more on automation and remove the human eyes from the work creating more opportunity for errors. Indurante believes in accuracy, reasonableness, and fairness; automation can provide this. But bad data entering the system can create errors in data validation and potentially cause over-assessment. Indurante continues its procedure of reviewing each assessment for accuracy and reasonableness while looking for every opportunity to reduce our clients’ tax liability.
In July, Don, Noelle, and Mark attended the Wichita Property Tax conference. It was the first time gathering since 2019, and Don’s first opportunity to attend as the owner of Indurante. Everyone in attendance was happy to be together again and have time to confer and socialize. As members of the RSI Tax Committee, the Indurante team helped host the hospitality suite and sat in on the committee meeting. Don was pleased with the whole experience and has made quick work of becoming versed in the rail car tax world.
Kristen and Don also attended the RSI Expo and Technical Conference in Fort Worth in October. While the expo leans to technical aspects of rail, the educational break outs and the keynote speeches were excellent sources of information regarding the changes coming to rail in the next few years. Both first time attendees, Don and Kristen felt the atmosphere to be as welcoming and energized as the Wichita conference. The rail industry is a tight and well-connected community, and this community missed being able to gather during the pandemic.
The air of the conference was charged with innovation and progress; the keynotes centering around “in shoring” and worker retention. Tightening the supply chain to North America and expanding manufacturing trade to Mexico will have a significant impact on our clients, hopefully, in the most beneficial ways. Our clients who are beginning to or have operations in Mexico should keep in mind that mileage run in Mexico (and Canada) counts toward the system mileage totals reported to the states. Something to remember when filing season begins and you’re filling out the data request package.
Don, Mark, Noelle, and Lou will be attending the end of the year RSI Tax Committee meeting in Chicago and are looking forward to meeting with a few of our partners and clients as well. As the rail strike still looms on the horizon, it will be interesting to see what the new year will bring.
Kristen, Noelle, and Micah will be wrapping the year end work in the Las Vegas office. Mark and Emma are off to visit family in Louisiana and England respectively. Our Kansas City crew of Don, Katy and Deb will also be around to handle any end of the year items.
From all of us at Indurante to our clients and their families, we wish you a happy holiday season and successful year’s end.