Taxability is not intuitive
The same SaaS subscription is taxable in one state, exempt in the next, and taxable only if downloaded in a third. Shipping charges follow their own rules again.
Tax service
Sales & use tax compliance
Sales tax is money you collect on a state's behalf and hold in trust. Getting it wrong is treated far more seriously than an income tax error, and personal liability is on the table.
The problem
Why sales tax catches good businesses out
It is transactional, it is state-by-state, and the rules change without anyone telling you.
Trust-fund liability is personal
Tax collected and not remitted is not an ordinary business debt. Officers and responsible persons can be assessed personally, and it generally survives bankruptcy.
Exemption certificates go stale
An expired or missing resale certificate turns an exempt sale into a taxable one at audit, with the tax assessed against you, not your customer.
What we do
What we handle
From first registration through to cleaning up several years of missed filings.
- Economic nexus determinationRevenue and transaction thresholds tested state by state, including marketplace facilitator rules that may already cover part of your sales.
- Taxability and product mappingEvery product and service line mapped to a taxability position per state, documented so the same answer is given twice.
- Registration and account setupRegistering at the correct effective date, which is a decision, not an administrative detail, where prior periods are exposed.
- Florida DR-15 filingMonthly, quarterly or annual Florida sales and use tax returns, including discretionary surtax by county and the collection allowance.
- Multi-state return preparationOngoing filings in every registered state on their own schedules, with a calendar that does not depend on anyone remembering.
- Exemption certificate managementCollecting, validating and renewing resale and exemption certificates before an auditor asks for them.
- Voluntary disclosure and cleanupWhere prior periods are exposed, negotiating a limited look-back with penalties abated instead of waiting for assessment.
How it works
A process you can follow
Four stages, with a defined deliverable at each one. You always know where the work stands.
1
Assess
Sales data by state and product line reviewed against current thresholds and taxability rules.
2
Quantify
Exposure calculated per state and period, so remediation decisions are made on numbers rather than nerves.
3
Register & remediate
Registrations filed at considered effective dates; voluntary disclosure pursued where the exposure justifies it.
4
Run
Ongoing preparation and filing on each state's calendar, with a threshold monitor for the states you are approaching.
Who it's for
Businesses that need this most
If you sell across state lines in any volume, sales tax is almost certainly already an obligation somewhere.
E-commerce and DTC brands SaaS and digital goods Marketplace sellers Wholesalers and distributors Contractors buying materials Equipment and rental businesses Restaurants and retail
Deliverables
What you get
- A taxability matrix by product and state you can give to your billing team
- Registrations completed with effective dates chosen deliberately
- Returns prepared and filed on every state calendar you are registered in
- An exemption certificate file that will survive an audit
- Quantified exposure and a remediation plan for any prior periods
$100k
Common economic nexus threshold, though states vary
DR-15
Florida return prepared with county surtax applied
20th
Florida filing due date each period
Questions
Frequently asked
For sales made through the marketplace, generally yes: marketplace facilitator laws shift collection to the platform in every state that has them. But those sales may still count toward your economic nexus threshold, and any direct sales through your own website are entirely your responsibility. Mixed-channel sellers are where this most often goes wrong.
Florida does not currently impose sales tax on most cloud-based software delivered without any tangible medium, which is favorable relative to many states. But the analysis turns on the specifics of what you deliver and how, several states take the opposite position, and this is an area where rules have shifted repeatedly. It is worth a documented determination rather than an assumption.
First quantify: the number is often smaller than feared, particularly if much of your volume ran through marketplaces. Then choose deliberately between registering prospectively, pursuing a voluntary disclosure with a capped look-back, or documenting a defensible no-nexus position. What you should not do is register without addressing the prior periods, since registration can prompt a state to ask about them.
Yes, and this is the most important thing to understand about sales tax. Tax collected from customers is held in trust for the state. Where it is not remitted, states can and do assess responsible persons (officers, directors and sometimes controllers) personally. Unlike most business debts, trust-fund liability generally survives both the dissolution of the company and personal bankruptcy.
Related
Often paired with
Multi-State & Nexus Planning
Know where you owe before a state tells you.
Learn moreOutsourced Accounting & CFO
Books, close and reporting your advisors can rely on.
Learn moreNotices, Penalties & Resolution
Decode the notice, abate the penalty, close the file.
Learn more