From time to time, sales tax outsourcing relationships fail to work properly, and a change is necessary.

As the sales tax outsourcing relationship progresses over time, sales and marketing messages give way to the realities of the operational relationship.  Changes in ownership, staff or operations can affect provider performance or client needs.  Let’s take a look at some of the major beefs that respondents had with their sales tax providers based on a survey TaxConnex conducted of financial professionals at the end of 2021. 

Not paying attention to your sales tax obligations is never wise. 

True, it’s a relatively new requirement to collect sales and use tax from remote customers, but it’s one the taxman has always taken seriously from businesses – and that seriousness is only intensifying. 

It’s also mostly up to you to determine your sales tax obligation, and the rules for complying change frequently. A recent TaxConnex survey found that four out of five respondents were not confident about how their company handled its sales tax obligations.

Sales tax has a universe of changing conditions. Now we can add more: cryptocurrency (such as bitcoin) and what seems to be its cousin, non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Sales tax is more complicated than ever, especially in a post-Wayfair world. And what’s worse is that everyone who says they’re simplifying sales tax is still leaving the hardest parts – and the liability – up to you.  This is especially true when it comes to state registrations. For some reason, many of the software and service providers who claim to manage sales tax for you, don’t help with registrations, and if they do it comes at extra cost.

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

Federal Income Tax Day, April 18th, looms large in everybody’s mind right now. Too bad sales tax doesn’t come with a deadline that simple. 

Collecting and remitting sales tax to states and other tax jurisdictions is time consuming and can be expensive. If only somebody could help you with the costs of managing it...

Understanding the taxability of your company’s products or services is one of the key steps to complying with sales and use tax laws. In many situations, your “products” can be easy to classify: They’re usually tangible (in fact, a key sales tax definition is “tangible personal property”) and you charge sales tax on property unless it falls into an exemption category. 

It’s that time of year again when everyone suddenly thinks about preparing their income taxes. But does tax preparation incur sales taxes – and if it does, where and how?

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) capture a lot of headlines. The right merger or acquisition can spell fortunes for execs and shareholders and offer great chances to cut costs or snap up a valuable but distressed prize company. But sometimes, the deal is held up for various reasons – including sales tax exposure within the company being acquired.

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.

When is it worth getting a business problem off your plate? Businesses outsource tasks every day, from marketing to operations to finance. But is there more you should be outsourcing? Does it make sense to keep things in-house if you don’t have an expert on staff? According to TaxConnex’s recent market survey of 100 top finance professionals, this could be the year to outsource sales tax.

The explosion of the e-commerce market alone would’ve made handling sales tax obligations in-house tough. Add a tight job market and the task for many companies has become nearly impossible.

Notices are a way for taxing jurisdictions to get in touch with you. Monitoring and responding to notices as well as making the corresponding adjustments or taking the prescribed actions is one of the many pieces of your sales tax compliance process. A very important piece in fact, as ignoring a notice can put you and your business in hot water, opening the door to additional penalties and fees. So who is managing your sales tax notices?

There’s a lot of talk in sales tax about nexus, thresholds, forms, filing and many other details of compliance. One often overlooked aspect of compliance, but extremely important, is the sales tax exemption certificate.

Staying on top of the ever-evolving sales tax landscape takes constant time and attention. Many companies believe this is something they can manage in-house, though the current job market might make that difficult, if not impossible.

Teams are leaner than ever as existing employees quit, and new ones are harder to find. What should you know, what should you look for, and what are your options?