Once a supporter of Streamline, now an opponent of Marketplace Fairness Act. We may be operating on different reasons for opposition but we are on the same side. I am trying to blast the following commentary out to the various media sites that are running short on the facts making like this only affects e-tailers. Its smoke and mirrors to minimize the extent of devistation to all small and midsize businesses. I could only hope mine would be troubled with the $1 million in annual revenue, but such could happen as demand for my knowledge spikes. Not interested, just interested in real fairness and the truth. My commentary follows:
I don’t know when the media will ever get the facts correct on this legislation but this is not just about internet sales. It’s about ALL businesses that have more than $1 million anticipated annual revenues and have customers in states where they are not currently collecting sales tax. It is also about sellers with exempt sales collecting the correct exemption certificates from the customers in these other states.
So your state doesn’t tax services, Connecticut, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas are among the list of states that have expanded their sales tax to several services. Information services, consulting services and data processing services are likely business that will be most vulnerable to huge and unexpected liabilities. So your business fails and you didn’t collect. Most all states have personal liability for officers and responsible persons that fail to collect. Yes the states can and on many occasions have pierced the liability veil to reach out to collect the taxes from individuals when a company is no longer solvent.
If this legislation passes and you have more than $1 million in gross revenue across all entities of common ownership, you’ll now have to know the sales tax law in all states, not just your home state. The free sales tax software will only do the rate lookup and math, your business will have to apply the law and proper taxability coding to your products. WAKE UP people and see this as more than just paying sales tax on your internet purchases. This is about interstate business being regulated in all states where they have customers. The Marketplace Fairness Act is a water downed version of last year’s Mainstreet Fairness Act because the latter demanded too much regulation and compliance on the states. Supporters of Marketplace Fairness have sold out the marketplace to gain the support needed from states that want sales tax collection but don’t want to compromise on state sovereignty and simplifications to make the system easy enough for small and mid-size business to comply. Once this federal legislation goes into effect it will be a few years and many victimized businesses and individuals punished by the complexity will have little chance to unravel the mess.
I could say I have the sixth sense to see into the future on this, but the truth is I have a very elevated understanding of the sales/use tax laws in all 45 states and hundreds of locally administered cities, counties, parishes and boroughs. The straight up fact, it’s much more complicated than a tax rate and cutting 45 checks or mandatory electronic funds transfers. It’s about knowing the fine print in the tax law, due diligence – good faith acceptance of properly completed AND valid exemptions, knowing when customers are inside or outside the taxing limits ball park finance districts and metro transit districts, knowing delivery charges are taxable because you listed them on your invoice as ‘shipping and handling’, knowing what you think is a document or software communicating your research as a consultant actually meets the definition of taxable information services in your customer’s state . In short, it’s about knowing the sales tax laws of all 45 or more states and refreshing that understanding every time you start a new business line, change the terms of your contracts or have the benefit of your services received by customers doing business in multiple states. And remember, you’re personally liability for unpaid taxes (collected or not) in the event the company is insolvent to pay the liability discovered in audit. WAKE UP media and give the public the truth and full story.
April 24, 2013 at 3:50 pm
Once a supporter of Streamline, now an opponent of Marketplace Fairness Act. We may be operating on different reasons for opposition but we are on the same side. I am trying to blast the following commentary out to the various media sites that are running short on the facts making like this only affects e-tailers. Its smoke and mirrors to minimize the extent of devistation to all small and midsize businesses. I could only hope mine would be troubled with the $1 million in annual revenue, but such could happen as demand for my knowledge spikes. Not interested, just interested in real fairness and the truth. My commentary follows:
I don’t know when the media will ever get the facts correct on this legislation but this is not just about internet sales. It’s about ALL businesses that have more than $1 million anticipated annual revenues and have customers in states where they are not currently collecting sales tax. It is also about sellers with exempt sales collecting the correct exemption certificates from the customers in these other states.
So your state doesn’t tax services, Connecticut, Ohio, South Dakota and Texas are among the list of states that have expanded their sales tax to several services. Information services, consulting services and data processing services are likely business that will be most vulnerable to huge and unexpected liabilities. So your business fails and you didn’t collect. Most all states have personal liability for officers and responsible persons that fail to collect. Yes the states can and on many occasions have pierced the liability veil to reach out to collect the taxes from individuals when a company is no longer solvent.
If this legislation passes and you have more than $1 million in gross revenue across all entities of common ownership, you’ll now have to know the sales tax law in all states, not just your home state. The free sales tax software will only do the rate lookup and math, your business will have to apply the law and proper taxability coding to your products. WAKE UP people and see this as more than just paying sales tax on your internet purchases. This is about interstate business being regulated in all states where they have customers. The Marketplace Fairness Act is a water downed version of last year’s Mainstreet Fairness Act because the latter demanded too much regulation and compliance on the states. Supporters of Marketplace Fairness have sold out the marketplace to gain the support needed from states that want sales tax collection but don’t want to compromise on state sovereignty and simplifications to make the system easy enough for small and mid-size business to comply. Once this federal legislation goes into effect it will be a few years and many victimized businesses and individuals punished by the complexity will have little chance to unravel the mess.
I could say I have the sixth sense to see into the future on this, but the truth is I have a very elevated understanding of the sales/use tax laws in all 45 states and hundreds of locally administered cities, counties, parishes and boroughs. The straight up fact, it’s much more complicated than a tax rate and cutting 45 checks or mandatory electronic funds transfers. It’s about knowing the fine print in the tax law, due diligence – good faith acceptance of properly completed AND valid exemptions, knowing when customers are inside or outside the taxing limits ball park finance districts and metro transit districts, knowing delivery charges are taxable because you listed them on your invoice as ‘shipping and handling’, knowing what you think is a document or software communicating your research as a consultant actually meets the definition of taxable information services in your customer’s state . In short, it’s about knowing the sales tax laws of all 45 or more states and refreshing that understanding every time you start a new business line, change the terms of your contracts or have the benefit of your services received by customers doing business in multiple states. And remember, you’re personally liability for unpaid taxes (collected or not) in the event the company is insolvent to pay the liability discovered in audit. WAKE UP media and give the public the truth and full story.