If your online company looks to expand its interstate sales in 2021, know one thing: Your plan involves risks and new responsibilities. The key is learning how to manage both, as sales tax non-compliance or errors can bring stiff penalties.

Picking the right provider to handle your business’s sales and use tax compliance is a big decision.

TaxConnex works with a lot of telecommunications service providers that are new to the business. Many are existing MSP’s (Managed Service Providers) or IT management companies that would like to expand their service offering and become “stickier” with their clients.  They may have infrastructure in place to support the sales tax requirements of their existing business, but the telecommunications service presents a different set of issues.

Sales tax compliance is complex, there’s no doubting it. While many hoped that the Supreme Court decision in South Dakota vs. Wayfair would make things more clear, it did quite the opposite.

If you were to read our 5 Steps to Sales Tax Compliance, or any guide on maintaining sales tax compliance, understanding the taxability of your products and/or services would be one of the first steps.

As if sales tax nexus and taxability rules weren’t confusing enough, throw in marketplace facilitators and drop shipments and it’s easy for a business of any size to want to give up on sales tax compliance.

Your employees (like all of us) have more than enough headaches on all fronts headed into the new year. Back in April employees surveyed said that the pandemic is the most stressful time of their entire career. Now more than ever you owe it to your people – and to your business – to ease their problems when you can.

If you handle sales tax compliance in house, you’ve got your employees handling an unbelievably complex business function – and with 65% of businesses planning to grow across state lines* in the coming year, it may be more than they can manage.

An exemption is an exception that eliminates the need to pay sales tax. The presumption is that all sales of tangible personal property are taxable unless specifically enumerated. The purchaser has the responsibility for determining whether a sale is exempt from tax. If the purchaser does not submit a valid exemption certificate to the business, the business must assess and collect the sales tax from the purchaser. The responsibility to determine the validity of the exemption certificate resides with the business. Without this exemption certificate, the state or jurisdiction in which you are registered will expect you to have collected sales tax. 

Someday people will probably use a lot of words to describe 2020. “Un-eventful” won’t be one of them.

The year’s ongoing pandemic affected almost every aspect of life – including, and in no small way, sales tax, which was already an area that has seen unprecedented change since the Supreme Court’s Wayfair decision in 2018.

Add to that, jurisdictions that are worried about how lockdowns have affected their tax revenue and you have a tumultuous year.

Here’s a look back at some of the year’s developments. 

With nearly 50 million Americans losing their jobs earlier this year and 11 million still unemployed nearly 10 months after the pandemic began, the reality of being forced to do more with less is being felt in every corner of almost every company, including the finance department. Hiring freezes and budget restrictions have left many finance teams struggling to keep up.

We understand that sales and use tax may not be your biggest priority, but if not managed correctly, it can cause major headaches. Understanding the various aspects of your sales tax process is critical to minimize your risk and to keep your business on solid ground as it relates to sales tax.

States may be getting tougher on sales tax delinquents as the pandemic drags on and tax revenues, in many places, take hits. Just ask Fiorella’s Landscaping in western New York.

Voluntary disclosure agreements (VDAs) can be an effective way to mitigate prior period sales tax exposure. They can also come with a lot of misconceptions.

Alpharetta, GA -  TaxConnex, Inc today released the results of a new survey finding that the increasing sales tax complexities, growing nexus, limited resources and additional audits are among the top worries of financial professionals in 2021.

In light of the Wayfair decision, and due to recent new hires in a new state or increased online sales, you’ve determined you meet sales tax nexus thresholds outside of just your home state and now you have to collect, file, and remit sales tax in multiple states. What a headache. To make matters worse, this is a compliance issue, so you must act. What do you do?

One state’s efforts to join the Sales and Use Tax System (SUTS) and another state’s lawsuit against a world-famous auction house highlight recent challenges in the sales tax world.