Sales tax is a constantly moving target and the most recent changes come from Kansas, Mississippi, and South Carolina. Kansas is looking at an overall rate change across the state. Mississippi is eyeing a change for a single major metropolis. And one county in South Carolina is keeping things the same. How does South Carolina fit? Sometimes in sales tax keeping things the same is still a change. Kansas, for example, has a number of rate changes in various different areas. Arkansas City will increase their combined rate to 7.9% and a few new special tax districts will go into effect on April 1st.
The Department of Revenue outlines the changes in a recent update released on its website. If you’re not using automated sales tax software that implements these changes for you, you’ll need to add these into your sales tax calculations manually. Mississippi has one change coming up for Jackson with a new local option tax of 1% that will go into effect in March. Previously the highest rate in Mississippi was 7.25% so this is a big .75% change from previous sales tax rates. For businesses doing a significant portion of sales in Jackson city limits, not complying with the new change could prove very problematic. You can read more about the change in a notice from the Mississippi Department of Revenue.
These first two changes seem like normal changes in sales tax rates—the rates are going up. But in South Carolina, things are staying the same. It is still a change, however. Why? South Carolina’s Florence County is opting to continue a Capital Projects tax that expires on April 30, 2014, and begin a new Capital Projects tax the next day on May 1, 2014. While this doesn’t seem to be a change if you’ve been using a sales tax engine with pre-programmed rates, you’ll want to check to make sure you extend the special sales tax rate further, just as you might with any other change.
Of course, automated sales tax systems that have changes integrated into them make it easy to just breeze through sales tax without having to worry about changes and new rates to apply. Instead, you can do business as normal and let the automation experts worry about keeping up to date with changes. If you’re still struggling through sales tax notices, sign up for a free evaluation today to find out how we can make your life easier.
