Private Equity

TaxMatrix partners with private equity firms to help improve portfolio company performance through targeted sales and use tax recovery reviews. In many middle-market and enterprise businesses, sales and use tax is treated as a routine compliance function, yet significant cash recovery opportunities are often hidden in purchasing data, vendor invoices, expense systems, and tax accrual processes. By reviewing purchases across portfolio companies, TaxMatrix can identify overpaid tax, missed exemptions, over-accruals, and opportunities to improve prospective tax treatment.

For private equity sponsors, this work supports both near-term value creation and long-term operational improvement. A sales tax overpayment review can generate refunds that improve cash flow, while also strengthening purchasing controls, exemption certificate management, vendor tax coding, and use tax procedures. TaxMatrix works efficiently with finance, tax, procurement, and A/P teams to minimize disruption while producing measurable results.

This approach is especially valuable across diverse portfolios where companies operate in multiple states, maintain decentralized purchasing functions, or have grown through acquisition. Each state applies different rules to software, equipment, repair services, packaging, freight, utilities, manufacturing inputs, and other common business purchases.

Where a portfolio includes manufacturers, TaxMatrix can also perform a full utility spend review. Most states avail sales tax exemptions based on the percentage of utilities (namely electricity and gas) used in production, manufacturing, processing and/or R&D. In an apportionment state, such as Michigan and Kansas, only the percentage of utilities used in the production process is exempt. In a predominant use state, such as Missouri (over 75%) and Indiana (over 50%), once the production site exceeds its qualifying percentage, the entire bill is exempt from sales tax.

By combining utility analysis, sales and use tax recovery, and process improvement, TaxMatrix gives private equity firms a practical way to uncover trapped cash, reduce recurring tax leakage, and enhance portfolio company EBITDA, all on a success basis.