Tax Rules Blog Posts
How to Fix a Sales Tax Error
Businesses are run by humans and are therefore prone to mistakes. When those mistake involves the miscalculation of sales tax, the company in error risks the loss of money or business and can incur the wrath of the state affected. By law, a vendor is not allowed to keep any income that comes from such an error, no matter how small. How can vendors be sure they haven’t made an error? What can they do to fix these mistakes and how do they prevent any in the future? The following guidelines will benefit any ecommerce shop: 1. Double check for… Read More
Understanding Sales Tax Nexus
All this talk about nexus can be confusing for an online vendor. What exactly does it mean and who determines it? “Nexus” is a term used to designate that a company legally has a presence in that state – that is, they are determined to be doing business in the state. When nexus is created for a company, they are subject to that state’s sales tax requirements. While there are constitutional guidelines on how states can define it, states ultimately determine when nexus is established by a company. The standards vary greatly. Some of the ways nexus can be created… Read More
Destination and Origin Based Sales Tax
The term “sales tax sourcing” is used to describe which tax rates are applied to a given purchase, and to which jurisdictions the tax money collected is owed. When you ship a product to another address, the knowledge of your tax rules becomes very important in both the sales tax calculation and when completing your tax returns.
Sales Tax and Use Tax – What’s the Difference?
Most people are familiar with the term “sales tax”, because we’re required to pay it almost every time we make a purchase at a local store. (Unless you’re lucky enough to live in a state with no sales tax.) A sales tax is typically a required percentage of the sale price of a good or service, that is paid by the purchaser at the time of the sale, and collected and remitted by the retailer. Sales taxes only apply to retail transactions – not wholesale ones – because they are a type of “consumption” tax. A “use tax” is not… Read More