Sage MAS 90 & MAS 200 ERP Software News & Tips
Streamlined Sales Tax is here!
The Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement (SSUTA) is a cooperative effort of 44 states, the District of Columbia, local governments and the business community designed to simplify the sales and use tax collection process by retailers and individual states. It is intended to reduce the costs and administrative burdens for retailers who collect sales tax, particularly retailers operating in multiple states. The initiative requires "remote sellers" selling over the Internet and via mail orders to collect tax on sales to participating states’ customers. It seeks to make local "brick-and-mortar" stores and remote sellers operate by the same rules and in the same competitive environment. The Streamlined Sales Tax (SST) multi-state initiative is now in effect offering businesses significant incentives to participate - and some for a limited time only - including:
- Sales tax automation technology - for free, in many cases
- Audit protection and liability relief
- Amnesty - for a limited time
- No returns, and single-point remittance
What does this mean to you? If you are a business located in an SST member state, the way you account for sales tax will become destination-based. (In the state of Washington, this change takes effect on July 1, 2008.) This means if you currently charge tax based upon where your business operates (one tax rate for all transactions), you will now be required to apply a sales tax rate based on the actual location of your customer (for all shipped or delivered goods and services). Also, if you have signed up to be an SST business member, you will be required to collect and remit taxes in all SST member states, even if you have never done so in the past. E-commerce and catalog sales must follow the same protocols.
Although the Streamlined Sales Tax initiative is paving the way to an easier, more manageable system, it will cause a shift in the business processes of many organizations. Maintaining compliance is already burdensome and will become more complicated and time-consuming, especially for small businesses. In general, if you sell very few products or services to customers in very limited locations or taxing jurisdictions, the impact to you might be minimal. However if you sell a variety of products and services, or if your customers utilize your products or services in other taxing jurisdictions, then your reporting requirements will likely become more complex.
You can ask yourself the following questions in an effort to assess the impact SST will have on you:
- How do you manage your sales tax now? If Excel is the answer, you may want to reconsider.
- Are you able to stay on top of all the changes impacting Washington state tax?
- Do you sell a limited number of products or services or a large variety?
- Do your products or services have simple tax rules that are taxed with the same method and rate in all locations?
- Does your customer utilize your products at your facility or at theirs?
- Do you sell to customers in only a few tax jurisdictions or many?
- Do you have nexus in multiple locations or tax jurisdictions?
The easiest, best and most economical way to stay updated within the world of sales tax, streamlined or not, is through automation. The Streamlined Sales Tax Governing Board has endorsed three vendors as approved certified service providers (CSPs). Of these, Avalara is the only SST Certified Service Provider directly focused on small and medium businesses that is now processing SST-certified transactions for countless participating businesses.
Fortunately Sage has a readymade answer for your MAS 90 and MAS 200 tax reporting systems. Sage has partnered with Avalara and their AvaTax product to create the Sage Sales Tax solution. Sage Sales Tax is designed to work directly with your system to produce hands free sales tax compliance and reporting.
Free Webinar on Streamlined Sales Tax, May 20, 11 a.m. - noon
To help you along, ICS Support is hosting a webinar on May 20 from 11 a.m. to noon on Washington State Sales Tax Changes & Sales Tax Automation. Learn more about how Sage MAS Sales Tax integrates with the AvaTax and how Sage MAS Sales Tax can save you time and effort around this compulsary, required activity of collecting sales tax on behalf of the states. Register now for this webinar.
Give Integrated Computer Systems Support a call to find out you can take advantage of this timely solution from Sage. You can also learn more about the benefits of SST participation for your business by visiting: http://www.StreamlinedSalesTax.org.
