Need help with my final persuasice essay, attached the guidelines and rubrics, also my first draft.

Accounting Department

In various companies in the United States, the accounting department faces various common challenges to them in nature. The most common challenges that often face the department include proper handling of state sales tax and the importance of maintaining hard copy backup second to digital data. The accounting department performs the role of maintaining all the transactional records. Creating and implementing contemporary ideas to maintain effective record keeping is important to the functions of the accounting department. A company with a preservation system of hard copies can ensure acceptable responsibility in the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) audits or discrepancies. It is thus essential for a company to properly maintain hard copy documents for authenticity.

Digital documentation is critical for a company maintain since it is the future of documentation. However, the digitized documents must have a paper backup. The reason behind this argument is the fact that digital information is common with cyber-attacks. Most often, the unscrupulous people in society can hack into the systems of companies, acquire their critical data, and hold it for ransom. Secondly, digital documents can get easily manipulated, and it is thus of significant importance to keep the original hard copy of the documents for validation matters (Higher Information Group, 2019). Finally, it is vital for a company to properly mark the different states' sales taxes and adequately document them, especially in the hard copy format besides the digital platform.

Properly documented data in the long-term preservation can work well to outlive technology. Additionally, paper documents are easy to access when needed. Companies need to comply with the different states' sales taxes and documentation as failure can lead to severe penalties, including jail time. Sales tax brackets are fundamentals to a company's understanding, making it vital to pay taxes (Hongbing et al., 2015). In the case of an IRS audit, companies should provide properly documented sales taxes different from local to state and federal branches based on their volatility and economic impact. If the sales taxes are not properly documented, the companies face penalties and potential monetary losses as per the Local Sales Taxes and Spending Patterns in the U.S (Shon & Hou, 2020).

Cost is a significant factor in a company's operation. It is quite costly for a company to change technology for information storage. Moreover, the technology has to work in harmony with each other for the change to come out effective; otherwise, a company will lose all its data. A company should thus choose a proper way to keep its data as improper planning of tax record keeping and storage can derail growth. Therefore, the accounting department should maintain the hard copies as an important secondary data source for digital storage.

In conclusion, local sales taxes are an important determinant of a company's success, according to the IRS. Failure to follow the proper documentation guidelines can lead to severe penalties. It is thus important for a company to store its documents in hard copy since it is a safe method that is not prone to cybercrime. In addition, it is quite cheap, and the documents are easy to retrieve. The ready availability and rare chances of hacking the paper documents are critical in limiting the risks associated with losing sales taxes data.

References

5 Benefits of Storing Document Hard Copies. Higher Information Group. (2019, October 1). https://www.higherinfogroup.com/five-benefits-of-storing-document-hard-copies/#:~:text=%20Five%20benefits%20of%20keeping%20storing%20document%20hard,While%20storing%20documents%20digitally%20is%20more...%20More%20.

Cheng Hongbing, Rong Chunming, Hwang Kai, Wang Weihong, & Li Yanyan. (2015). Secure big data storage and sharing scheme for cloud tenants. China Communications, Communications, China, China Commun, 12(6), 106–115. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1109/CC.2015.7122469

Hellerstein, W. (n.d.). Tax Reform What It Means for State and Local Tax and Fiscal Policy. https://www.finance.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Testimony%20of%20Hellerstein.pdf?n=11101.

Izraeli, O., & Kellman, M. (2003). The Sales Tax Puzzle – Has the law of demand been repealed? Annals of Regional Science, 37(4), 681–694. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1007/s00168-003-0132-2

Jongmin SHON, & Yilin HOU. (2020). Local Sales Taxes and Spending Patterns in U.S. County Governments. Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, 60E, 104–123. https://doi-org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.24193/tras.60E.7

Sanders, R., & Lee, S. (2009). Determinants of Public Support for Education Sales Tax Initiatives in Georgia. Journal of Education Finance, 34(3), 267-288. Retrieved July 11, 2021, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/40704359