Do You Still Use Paper in Sales Tax?

In some businesses, you can easily go paperless. Digital calendars, digital workplaces, and digital filing and documents make it very easy for some offices to do everything on computers without touching a single piece of paper all year long. There may be businesses that still have to do everything on paper and create documents that go into archives of paper trails.

Sales tax — regardless of your industry — is halfway between the two. As more tax jurisdictions make the transitions to online-only filing, though, it’s important that your business keeps up. In 2012, only 9 states had laws that encouraged or required online sales tax filing. As we approach the end of 2013, that number has increased. The last states to use paper-only options for sales tax filing are starting up online sales tax portals, like Alabama’s ONE SPOT. States that required filing in multiple jurisdictions before are streamlining processes to allow for one online filing location.

While it might be a move to make it easier for online businesses to comply (with an eye toward new legislation), the fact of the matter is that it’s getting easier for all businesses. Take a quick look at your sales tax routines. How much do you work on paper? Do you spend a lot of time at the computer, copying information from forms to digital systems? What about copying information from digital over to paper to complete a filing? This is the most inefficient way of managing your business is keeping your sales tax practices. Instead, look for a sales tax management system that answers both paper and digital needs that will grow and adapt to new sales tax changes.

Our digital filing systems allow you to take information and directly transfer it over to tax jurisdictions, both via paper and online filing systems. With a just few clicks of the mouse, most of our customers are done with sales tax filing in an hour or less. You heard that right—an hour or less. One solution is to go from paper to digital and back again without extra work. If you’re interested in finding out how it works, sign up for a free demo.