Sage MAS 90 & MAS 200 ERP Software News & Tips
Sage Sales Tax Module for MAS 90 and MAS 200

You may not be aware of it, but states are getting more and more aggressive regarding the collection of sales tax. And when you look at their huge deficit budgets, and the fact that sales tax is one of, if not their largest source of revenue, it’s no wonder.

What are some of the ways that states are going about collecting more sales tax revenue?

• California hired 12,000 additional auditors to accelerate the revenue collection process.
• New York passed new legislation to allow up to 8 years of back auditing (and all its incumbent potential penalties).
• Tax rates used to be based upon zip codes. Now they are based upon valid postal street addresses (easier for you to be out of compliance).
• Multiple states are redefining what constitutes nexus. It used to be based primarily on physical presence, but not anymore.

One of the tactics being deployed involves new ways of declaring that a company has nexus. For example, if a company in Ohio sells a product via the Internet to a resident in Florida, then Florida would declare that the Ohio-based company clearly had nexus in Florida because they were able to effectively deliver their goods and/or services in the state of Florida and they were able to exchange money with the consumer for those goods and/or services. Therefore the company in Ohio is now responsible for collecting and reporting taxable transactions out of state. This enforcement practice isn’t widespread yet but the states are desperate for revenue and so they are pushing the limits into new frontiers wherever possible. The result of which is that states are working hard to eliminate the tax-free transaction to an end consumer in their respective states.

What do all these changes mean to you? In short - more work and more risk. More work to simply research all the various taxing authorities and maintain the appropriate tax tables in MAS 90 and MAS 200. And more risk when you miss one. What’s the answer?

Completely automated, end-to-end compliance, including filing of returns and remittance!

Sage has teamed up with Avalara to bring you the AvaTax solution for all North American tax jurisdictions. Avalara and their AvaTax solution were the first of only 4 Certified Solution Providers approved by the Streamline Sales Tax Governing Board.

The Sage Sales Tax module is a great solution if you want your headaches associated with sales tax collection and remittance to simply go away. Here are a couple of snapshots of how easy it is to use.

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Note the tax schedule being used is AVATAX. It simply replaces all your other schedules. And it applies to as many Ship-To Locations and street addresses as you may have.

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An added bonus is that is validates your street addresses against the United States Postal Service database.

Please give ICS Support a call at 425-820-6120 if you would like more information on this major pain reliever and how you can quickly put it to work for you.