Ownership disclosure
Cost Seg Smart LLC operates this site. Cost Seg Smart is also one of the 27 providers reviewed. We score it under the same rubric as every other provider and disclose this conflict at the top of the homepage, on every provider review page, and here. There are no affiliate links and no pay-for-placement on this site.
The Editorial Board
Reviews on this site are produced by an editorial board of four. We don't publish individual names because we audit competitors who could respond commercially — pseudonymous bylines protect the reviewers from retaliation in a small industry. Credentials are real and verifiable on request.
- 1 licensed CPA Active state license. Reviews methodology compliance, audit defense scope, and tax-treatment claims. License jurisdiction disclosed on written request from a journalist or regulator.
- 1 licensed P.E. (mechanical/structural) Active professional engineering license. Reviews engineering basis, MACRS classification claims, and physical-inspection requirements per IRS Pub 5653.
- 2 research analysts Cover pricing transparency (verified against public provider sites + paid quote data), turnaround time claims, customer-reported outcomes, and methodology consistency across the 27 providers.
Credential verification: Email research@costsegsmart.com with your affiliation. We respond within 2 business days with verifiable credentials under NDA for journalists, regulators, or providers exercising their right to respond.
How content is reviewed
Every provider review goes through a five-stage process before publishing:
- Source verification — provider claims are cross-checked against the provider's own public site, third-party industry reports, and primary federal sources: IRS Pub 946, Treasury Reg §1.168, Rev. Proc. 87-56, and the IRS Cost Segregation Audit Techniques Guide (Pub 5653).
- Methodology check — engineering claims are reviewed against established engineering-based cost-segregation methodology (component identification, §1245/§1250 classification, and documentation standards).
- Scoring — six dimensions weighted per the published scoring rubric: methodology compliance, pricing transparency, turnaround time, audit defense scope, property-type fit, and reported outcomes.
- QC validation — internal QC validator runs reasonableness checks, ratio bounds, and consistency against the 260-property benchmark dataset.
- Compliance review — every published claim is checked for distinction between educational content and individualized tax advice. We don't provide individualized tax advice.
What we don't claim
We don't claim every page is written by a CPA or that every provider review involved on-site inspection of the provider's operations. We do claim the rubric is consistent, that primary sources are cited, and that scoring is reproducible from the published methodology. Anyone can audit our reasoning — see how we rank.
Editorial corrections
If you find a factual error or want to challenge a citation, email research@costsegsmart.com. Provider corrections are welcome — submit via the same email with documentation, and we respond within 5 business days. Substantive corrections are dated and noted at the top of the affected page.
Cost Seg Smart's score on this site
Cost Seg Smart appears as one of the 27 providers reviewed. It does not occupy the #1 overall position — that's currently held by traditional engineering firms and R.E. Cost Seg (both 8.5/10) on the published rubric. Cost Seg Smart wins specific categories where it factually wins (Best Value, Best for sub-$1M STR/Residential, Best Turnaround). It loses categories where competitors are factually better (Best for $5M+ Commercial → traditional engineering firms; Best for Audit Defense → CSA Authority; Best Big-Firm Reassurance → ETS). The losses are part of the rubric, not a courtesy.
Mailing address & contact
Cost Seg Smart LLC
5665 W. Wilshire Blvd #1244
Los Angeles, CA 90036
United States
Phone: (213) 444-2776
Email: support@costsegsmart.com
Editorial: research@costsegsmart.com