Zero Sales Still Need Filing
It’s time for quarterly sales and use tax filings, and you have had no sales in one jurisdiction. It could be that you sell something like hospital bio-waste management systems, for which sales in one city or even one state may be few and far between. It might be that you make most of your sales in just a few jurisdictions, with only occasional sales in other states. Whatever the reason, there you are with no sales made and no sales tax collected. If you’re a sales tax manager, you might assume that you don’t need to file a sales tax return because you didn’t make any sales—but you would be wrong.
Sales tax laws require you to remit sales tax filings even if you didn’t sell anything. Why? States want to know exactly how much you’ve collected and how much sales tax you owe. When you don’t file a sales tax return, they can’t just assume that you’ve had no sales. They need evidence. For this reason, it is a legal requirement that you file regardless of the sales you’ve made during the time period in question — or the lack of sales. States issue sales tax permits for the privilege of making sales inside their borders with the understanding that your business will give the state its money. If you’re not giving up sales tax, you’re in violation.
When you don’t report back, your business throws up red flags. Filing sales tax returns is a must-do task for every deadline, even if nothing changed in the books. Don’t skip over sales tax to save time. If you do, you’re leaving your business wide open for an audit. Instead, save time by automating. Sales Tax FileLINK helps you make sure that you never miss a deadline.
