The United States has possibly the world’s most complex sales tax regime. This is due to each state setting its own sales tax rules, and states often take widely varying approaches. As a result, each state has a different tax framework, with varying rules around everything from tax liability and tax rates to exemption categories and reporting requirements. On top of this, some local area tax jurisdictions also have powers over some aspects of taxation and can set different rules for their city or county.

Some aspects of sales tax never seem to change, or they change infrequently. Be assured: Sales tax on digital advertising and marketing is not among those.

The common definition of dietary supplements and vitamins is a non-food item that includes a vitamin, mineral, herb, botanical, amino acid or dietary substance. For purposes of incurring sales tax in any state, that essentially translates into “sometimes.”

Economic nexus thresholds in many states depend on two numbers. Now, almost six years after the landmark Wayfair case ignited sales tax obligations for more remote sellers, one of those numbers might be falling out of favor.

Companies outside the United States that sell into America most likely know sales tax obligations from experience with Europe’s value-added tax (VAT) or Canada’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) and Provincial Sales Tax (PST).

We are at the end of Q1 of 2024 and continue to discuss how to ensure your business is set up to get your sales tax compliance right in 2024. If you’re like the over 49% of businesses who participated in our annual sales tax trends survey and are unsatisfied with the way you are managing sales tax, then you’re in the right place.

There’s always something changing in the world of tax, especially sales tax. Here’s a review of some of the recent changes and sales tax updates.

Wouldn’t it be amazing if your online business had to deal with just a single sales tax rate?

The fear of a sales tax audit from one of the country’s thousands of tax jurisdictions is legitimate. Audits can disrupt your business and potentially cost you thousands of dollars.

Since the first adding machine showed up on counters to help shopkeepers tack on the correct sales tax, automation has been part of compliance. Now the buttons and the lever have given way to behind-the-scenes software and automatic functionality.

Today’s economy has allowed rental and leasing companies to flourish. Companies rent and lease everything from camera lenses to designer clothes to heavy machinery. Many jurisdictions charge sales tax for the rental or lease of tangible personal property. One key sales tax nexus-creating activity is owning property in a particular jurisdiction. Because the rental or leasing company maintains ownership of the item, they establish a physical presence when renting or leasing an item.

The non-fungible token (NFT) remains a sizzling commodity. These digitized assets denote ownership of such collectibles as sports cards and artwork, even designer digital footwear.

Happy Leap Day! While not at all related to sales tax, we thought that as we spend a day aligning our seasons and the Earth’s orbit of the sun, we should also discuss how to ensure your processes align with maintaining sales tax compliance in 2024!

Your sales tax obligations depend on knowledge and that knowledge often resides in a professional tax specialist (usually an accountant) who helps your company meet its sales tax obligations.

Not long ago, clicking a computer mouse to buy something was an idea of science fiction. Today, of course, e-commerce is how a significant amount of shopping takes place in general. Capital One reports that global e-commerce retail sales will hit some $6.91 trillion this year, up 9.5% from total e-commerce retail sales in 2023.

At the beginning of January we announced the release of our annual sales tax survey. This year’s results provided insights into how businesses are managing the complexities of sales tax and how they are being impacted by economic and regulatory structures. The nationwide survey, conducted by In90Group in November of 2023, is composed of responses from 100 top finance professionals in a variety of industries regarding their thoughts and experiences in managing sales tax. 5 of our key findings relating to the impact of sales tax are below: