Re:What startups need to know about the “internet sales tax ...
by dragonwriter on Wednesday April 24, 2013 @02:41PM
(#5603188)
> The bill appears to address the collection/audit concerns, but not the burden of correctly calculating the tax due on any particular sale.
The bill addresses that by requiring each state to provide software free of charge to retailers that does that for the entire state, and by providing explicit uniform rules for sourcing (well, technically, there are two sets of sourcing rules -- one in the bill for states that are not part of the "Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement", and one in that agreement that the bill adopts by reference for states that are a member of the agreement.)
You provide the sourcing information (applying the rules in the bill for sourcing), the state software provides the tax rate. The state software is the only part that has to care about identifying substate jurisdictions and applying their rules.
The bill addresses that by requiring each state to provide software free of charge to retailers that does that for the entire state, and by providing explicit uniform rules for sourcing (well, technically, there are two sets of sourcing rules -- one in the bill for states that are not part of the "Streamlined Sales and Use Tax Agreement", and one in that agreement that the bill adopts by reference for states that are a member of the agreement.)
You provide the sourcing information (applying the rules in the bill for sourcing), the state software provides the tax rate. The state software is the only part that has to care about identifying substate jurisdictions and applying their rules.