03 Jan 2019
2 min read

Is Your New Year's Resolution to Collect Sales Taxes in 2019?

Want to start collecting sales tax at the first of the year? you can do it! Here are the 5 steps you need to take now.
Blog
Table of contents

Sales taxes can seem like an overwhelming and confusing task to take on yourself. At Peisner Johnson we've been doing this for the last 25 years and have seen first hand just how complicated it has become.  Now with the recent decision by the Supreme Court (Wayfair) it, it appears that many companies are deciding to just bite the bullet and start collecting taxes. And it seems like they all want to make it effective January 1, 2019. In our podcast this week, we discussed what businesses should do right away if you want to start collecting taxes on January 1. You can check out the podcast here.

Here's an executive summary of the 5 Steps along with a list of some of the questions we answered during the podcast:

Step #1 - Start with Nexus & Taxability

Figure out where you have nexus first and consider if what you sell is even taxable.

  • How do I determine my nexus footprint?
  • Do I need to get registered everywhere?
  • At what point can states force you to register?
  • Can I register for sales tax myself?
  • What can give me nexus?
  • What if I have been doing business in a state for a long time without having a sales tax license?
  • How do I know if my product is taxable?
  • What should I do if I have significant sales tax exposure in a state?

Step #2 - Evaluate your taxing system

(POS, Website, Amazon, Walmart.com, etc.)

  • What do I do to make sure my shopping cart software is set up for sales tax?
  • How to make sure my Amazon seller’s account is set up correctly for sales tax?
  • Do I need to get some developers involved at this stage?

Step #3 - Get Registered

States require you to register and/or obtain a license from them before you can collect tax on their behalf.

Step #4 - Turn on the tax

You need to go into your settings in all of your sales channels and turn the tax collection function on to automatically start assessing tax on your sales invoices.

  • How do I start collecting the sales tax?
  • How do I avoid getting in trouble with sales tax in all the states?
  • Can I start collecting the sales tax even if I haven’t gotten my sales tax registration yet?

Step #5 - File the Returns

Once you figured out where to collect the tax and you've collected the money, then the time will come when you actually fill out the returns and remit the funds. It may be annually, quarterly, or monthly.

  • How often do I need to file sales tax returns?
  • Can I file my own sales tax returns?
Share this post
Copy link
Contact us
Stop worrying about sales tax
Let The Sales Tax People take care of it for you.
Blog Article Form
Latest posts
The Sales Tax Blog
Updates, tips, guides, industry best practices, and news.
View all posts
Join our newsletter
Be in the know: promotions, industry news & insights.
Newsletter Sign Up - "Subscribe"

We care about your data — privacy policy.