Sales and use tax generally applies to the sale or use of tangible personal property and certain services. Since software, and especially Software-as-a-Service, may not be delivered in a tangible form, many technology and software companies have considered themselves exempt from sales and use tax. But this is not always the case. In fact, many states impose sales and use tax on services provided by the technology industry.

Do you sell software-as-a-service (SaaS)? Then you already have one of the most complicated situations in sales tax.

The 2018 Supreme Court Wayfair decision gave us a bright line standard for determining sales tax nexus: Generate a set amount of revenue in a state in a set amount of time and your company has to collect and remit the applicable sales tax. Seems clear. However, companies still must deal with the ambiguous physical presence standards as well as the varying taxability rules from state to state.

Tangible personal property has historically been subject to the collection and remittance of sales tax while many services have been non-taxable (or exempt). More and more services are becoming taxable and represent a potential big wave of tax changes and updates in the years ahead.

If your business sells software or software-as-a-service (SaaS), you deal with one of the most complex sales tax situations, potentially without even realizing it.