Confusion, Limitations, And Compliance
In your quest for effective sales tax management practices, it is important to keep these four principles in mind. You Won’t Be An Expert Over Night: You won’t be an expert tomorrow, next week, or even the week after that. It is impossible for one person to know all the sales tax rules in all 50 states let alone keep up with how often they change. All you can do is do your due diligence, seek help when you need it, keep your books in order, and file on time.
You Won’t Know What Is Exempt Until You Know What Is Exempt:
This principle focuses on the fact that product taxability and exemptions are always changing. Sometimes it is due to changes in regulations or jurisdictions. Regardless, it is your responsibility to make sure the exemption certificates you provide and receive are correct. Sales Tax Holidays Change: Sales tax holidays tend to be around major events (back to school and storm seasons) but they can also come along to stimulate more shopping or for supporting local merchants. Know what tax holidays are scheduled to happen in your area and prepare your POS systems to handle the sales tax change before high traffic times.
Content Is King:
No matter what your role is in the selling chain, managing taxability as your business grows can be difficult. When it comes to sales tax compliance, access to product taxability content is crucial. Understand your limitations and obligations and work within their parameters. If you find yourself filing late or reporting serious errors seek sales tax assistance to lessen the risk of an audit and the fines and penalties that accompany them. When it comes down to it sales tax compliance should be your number one goal for your business and you have several choices when it comes to meeting that goal.
You can do it yourself, outsource the job, or utilize automated software to make compliance easier. Sales Tax DataLink has options to assist you in whatever route you choose. Our trained staff can walk you through a free evaluation of your sales tax data and highlight areas where our services could meet your needs. We also offer outsourcing services that keep your business running and allow you to have a more hands-off approach. The only sales tax management approach we don’t recommend is doing nothing and ignoring your sales tax responsibilities.
