You’ve determined nexus to exist for your business and understand that your products or services are taxable, but you’ve yet to comply to sales & use tax rules. What’s next?

Sales and use taxes collected on behalf of the government are considered government funds upon collection. Failure to remit taxes collected to the appropriate jurisdiction is considered a criminal offense – the parties thereto connected (including corporate officers) or contributing to the offense could face fines in excess of 50% of the tax amount…and prison.

There are many misconceptions when it comes to telecommunication and VoIP taxes. However, if we had to narrow it down to the two most fundamental misconceptions that impact everything else, it would be: 

Three months in and it’s already been a hectic year on many fronts; sales and use taxes have been no exception. Developments in 2020 so far include: 

Maybe you’ve just figured out that you have nexus and were non-compliant without realizing it, or maybe you’ve been rolling the dice and crossing your fingers you won’t get audited – no matter your situation, if you have established nexus, are selling a taxable product or service into multiple states and aren’t complying with sales and use tax laws -  you have the potential to owe quite a bit in penalties and interest if caught. 

If your business has been struggling to comply with new sales and use tax laws, Congress is listening.

As part of the financial terms of any potential transaction, you’re likely looking at the ratio of current assets to current liabilities, revenue and net income growth, operating cash flow, market opportunity, etc.  But what about sales tax? 

Technology has radically changed the way consumers buy goods and services.  And while we can easily identify how digital disrupters, like Amazon, Netflix and Facebook have changed our purchasing behavior, a lessor known change is the way they’ve impacted sales tax.  In fact, it’s spurred the largest development in sales tax in over 50 years with the Wayfair case. While the physical presence tests still apply, the Wayfair case dramatically expands the number of businesses subject to sales and use tax obligations.

In light of recent legislation changes, 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.

Drop shipments are more prevalent in today’s marketplace than most realize –many purchases made online today are commonly drop-shipped to consumers, transactions that typically involve multiple states and parties. Navigating the application of sales and use taxes and related exemptions in a drop shipment scenario is tricky for both the retailer and the drop-shipper. 

Technology companies frequently engage in sales tax nexus creating activities without realizing it.  Many different activities can create “nexus”, the link that establishes the need for a seller to adhere to the jurisdiction’s sales tax rules.  And with the introduction of economic nexus in 2018, it has become even more confusing.

Once you’ve determined your requirement to collect and remit sales tax, you’ve set-up a process to charge sales tax, and you have registered with each required state, you need to consider how you will manage the return filing process.  Some key areas to consider are the following:

Sales and use tax nexus is a connection between a person or entity and a taxing jurisdiction.  Sales tax nexus is the basis for all your sales tax decisions because without sales tax nexus you have no further obligation to a state.  If you do have sales tax nexus, then you need to dig a bit deeper.  But what exactly defines when you have sales tax nexus?

Sales tax is confusing, but this season of thankfulness (and recent developments in the world of nexus) have created things to look forward to and be thankful for heading into the holiday season and new tax year.