Who it impacts
Companies trigger a legal obligation to collect and remit sales tax in various ways in various states – and triggering that obligation can be easy.
States generally set economic nexus triggers based on in-state sales, revenue or both. Alabama’s threshold, for instance, is $250,000 per year in sales in the state. Colorado’s threshold is greater than $100,000 in sales or 200 or more separate transactions. Georgia’s is more than $250,000 in sales annually in the previous or current calendar year or more than 200 transactions in the state. Some states’ sales/use tax laws do not impose a filing requirement if a seller is not making “retail sales of tangible personal property.” Other states take exactly the opposite approach.
(A Wall Street Journal editorial points out that similar sales thresholds nationwide make little sense considering the disparity in states’ populations. “A $100,000 sales exemption in South Dakota with a population of 880,000 would be equivalent to more than $1 million in larger states like Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania,” the editorial reads.)
The key for sellers: Evaluating sales/use tax responsibilities under both economic nexus thresholds and physical presence standards. Sales tax nexus long represented a physical connection between an out-of-state business and a taxing jurisdiction; a physical office or an employee based in a particular state, for instance, was once a clear indicator of sales tax nexus.
Many additional activities might now constitute nexus that could represent risk to your company:
- Sales reps or technicians traveling on business into another state
- Employees exhibiting at trade shows
- An affiliate or agent relationship
- Maintaining inventory in a warehouse located in another state
Click-through nexus or cookies to track customer activity have all become potential sources for sales-tax collection. New laws require third-party marketplace facilitators to collect and remit sales and use taxes – which, due to such facilitators often being at least partially unfamiliar with the goods or services being sold, could result in under-collected tax.
More states will likely start to require manufacturers and distributors to register and file because of a sales tax nexus; companies that only make exempt sales will also still be required to register and file sales tax returns in most states. An exemption certificate is the form presented by an exempt organization or individual to the seller when making a tax-exempt purchase. Companies are also required to collect and maintain resale and exemption certificates from all customers – obviously requiring an extraordinary records system of such certificates.
Technology is another example of an at risk industry when it comes to taxable products and services – especially the descendant of CDs and downloaded software, Software as a Service (SaaS). Sold by annual subscription, SaaS would need relatively few customers accumulated during a monthly sales cycle in a given state to top the annual threshold.
Some states are reaching both wide and deep. As reported in the WSJ editorial, the Kansas Department of Revenue will now require all out-of-state retailers to collect sales tax no matter how much business they do in the state. “This includes,” the editorial reads, “college students selling used textbooks on eBay and retirees hawking a few hand-made greeting cards on Etsy.”
Though some states are slow to ramp up penalties for non-compliance, some seem serious about enforcement. Steps can range from assessments, penalties and liens to referrals to collection agencies or criminal action. Among recent examples:
- The California Department of Tax and Fee Administration (CDTFA) has sent lettersto Amazon FBA (Fulfillment By Amazon) sellers saying that they may owe years of uncollected sales taxes and may be facing audits.
- It’s expected that New York will soon auditout-of-state businesses to determine if they should be forced to remit back sales tax.
- Many other states, such as Washington, are well along in considering effective enforcement methods before contacting retailers.
“The sweetest couple came into my office for a consultation, and they were absolutely panicked by a letter they received from the CDTFA,” writes California attorney David Klasing in in his recent blog entry, “Use Sales Tax Enforcement.”
“The couple is retired and living on Social Security … they had absolutely no idea that they were responsible for use tax on goods purchased outside California without the vendor collecting and remitting California sales tax.”
How to comply
A state can adjust the risks of non-compliance by expanding what is taxable; a proactive approach is best.
Understanding sales tax nexus can be challenging and confusing. One of the most common mistakes is applying income tax nexus rules to sales tax nexus. Generally speaking, sales tax has a much lower threshold for nexus creation than income tax. Download this questionnaire to identify those specific activities that create physical nexus and view this map to understand the thresholds for economic nexus!
After determining which states involve your firm’s sales and ascertaining the current nexus thresholds and other requirements of those states, companies should perform (or have performed) a review of systems and processes to identify gaps or risk factors. Also, maintaining exemption certificates is critical; under audit, an otherwise exempt sale will be deemed taxable without a current, valid exemption certificate.
A voluntary disclosure agreement or amnesty programs with taxation agencies may help reduce tax and other costs. Software can streamline compliance and reporting and reduce audit risk.
For further information, download our white paper “Five Steps to Sales Tax Compliance.”
