Due to the explosion we’ve seen in ecommerce in the last ten years, sales tax laws are changing rapidly. Sales tax is handled differently by each state, which is increasing the amount of expertise and state law familiarity required for small businesses, especially those with online sales.
If you’re doing out-of-state sales, you’ll be required to know the state laws for out-of-state sellers. Below is a snippet from a great resource tabling all the different state thresholds for out-of-state sellers’ sales tax requirements. The link below will take you to the full table.
This is just one small piece of sales tax legislation. Other pivotal questions include
- On which of my products and/or services should I be collecting sales tax?
- What do I do if I should’ve been collecting and remitting sales tax but I didn’t know?
- What do I do if I have been collecting and remitting sales tax and I didn’t need to be doing so?
- What do I need to monitor on my online sales to remain in compliance with all the states’ sales tax regulations?
For these and more questions, we’re happy to refer you to our favorite sales tax consultant. Sales tax is a tricky niche of tax law and it requires a specialized professional to correctly help navigate you towards compliance.
Please don’t ask your bookkeeper if you need to collect sales tax. That’s a question that should go directly to the state entity responsible for sales tax (Texas State Comptroller for you locals) or to a sales tax specialist.