If you conduct any type of internet e-commerce business, the state and local governments are becoming very diligent (i.e., they need money, and they’d like you to help them to collect it or suffer the consequences), and you must heighten your level of compliance by employing one or more automated sales tax calculation and administration devices for your protection, and for the protection of your clients. Avalara offers some powerful yet scalable solutions for those of us who are engaged in e-commerce, whether selling a specialty item or a shopping cart catalog of products. You may download this fabulous informational and educational white paper for free by clicking on the link below:
E-Commerce Internet-Based Business And The 2013 Sales Tax Compliance Solution
In the event that you feel that the above link sounds intimidating (anything about regulations, taxes, penalties and inconvenience to my business -- our yours -- usually does), you can simply
click, alternately on the link which follows to receive your free view and download of this fabulous report:
Douglas E. Castle’s Informational And Educational Resource For E-Commerce In 2013
Some additional points of interest follow -- just for you! --
1) Be certain that the fields in your subscription and purchase forms have a section to include the address of your customer or subscriber -- even if this is part of a two-step process by autoresponder... services such as MailChimp do this job rather well;
2) You may very well be likely liable for collecting, reporting and remitting sales tax to a number of different states and municipalities. Be certain that you have an automated service that permits you to compute, collect, categorize and remit, and make sure (it’s your responsibility) to inform your accountants in advance of your compliance steps;
3) If your ISP, host or server is located out of the USA, but you are selling to clients within the United States Of America, you are still obligated to comply with all applicable federal and state tax laws regarding income and sales tax;
4) If you are involved in e-commerce where you represent that a certain amount of your proceeds from your sales of a product or the rendering of a service are going to be donated to a charity, you are likely subject to special reporting requirements for fundraising organizations (at the state level), despite your good intentions. Seek legal, tax and accounting advice if you are planning on doing this;
5) If you are an IRC Section 501(c)3 (tax-exempt organization), a PAC (political Action Committee) or a dues collecting Membership Organization, you can be almost certain that you’ll be scrutinized more than in years before. Be certain to get good advice from your tax, accounting and legal professionals regarding what is expected of you regarding compliance. If you have been either non-compliant or careless in the past, find out what you can do to avoid the threat of losing your special tax status and providing the documentation to the government which you might have failed to provide in the past.
As surely as a starved man will grab your tuna sandwich (even if it’s got chopped up lettuce and stuff in it), the U.S. Government will be turning up the heat and turning out in numbers to collect every cent from every business and person from which or whom it can.
Thank you for reading me, retweeting me and spreading the word across your social media platforms, groups and posting forums.
Douglas E. Castle for The InfoSphere Business Alerts And Intelligence Blog
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