Fun with US sales tax

Discussion:

Richard Kaye

2018-06-21 19:02:13 UTC

Our wondrous Supreme Court has opened the Pandora’s Sales Tax box with today’s decision to allow states to require retailers with no physical presence in a particular state to collect sales tax for that state. Leaving aside any thoughts on the wisdom of this decision, which I have not looked at, I’d like to call on the collective wisdom of those who deal with invoicing to find out if any of you are using some sort of service provider/API to retrieve tax rates, presumably by submitting the address of the buyer to some kind of web API.

For our non-US ProFox friends, you can just sit back and laugh. 😊

TIA
--
rk

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Mike

2018-06-21 19:46:02 UTC

Permalink

There are several, and the common scheme is to charge you a rate for
each access via the API. Usually something in the tenths of a cent range.

So if you need a rate for a quote, you pay.
If you need a rate for a sale, you pay.
If you just need to check a rate for confirmation, you pay.

Or, you can wade into the swamp of 50 different tax schemes full of
incredible complexity. For fun, read up on California's sales tax. Oye.

Sorry, but I don't have any recommendation for which company to use for
tax compliance as I've avoided the problem so far.

Mike C

Post by Richard Kaye
Our wondrous Supreme Court has opened the Pandora’s Sales Tax box with today’s decision to allow states to require retailers with no physical presence in a particular state to collect sales tax for that state. Leaving aside any thoughts on the wisdom of this decision, which I have not looked at, I’d like to call on the collective wisdom of those who deal with invoicing to find out if any of you are using some sort of service provider/API to retrieve tax rates, presumably by submitting the address of the buyer to some kind of web API.
For our non-US ProFox friends, you can just sit back and laugh. 😊
TIA
--
rk

Richard Kaye

2018-06-21 19:55:55 UTC

Permalink

Thanks, Mike. That was my assumption, as well. As you say, trying to keep up with tax regulations in 50 states (well, 45) is what makes a service like this worth paying for. And I have no problems paying for something where value is received. After all, I charge my clients for my services. Having said that, nobody wants to be gouged...
--
rk

-----Original Message-----
From: ProfoxTech <profoxtech-***@leafe.com> On Behalf Of Mike
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 3:46 PM
To: ***@leafe.com
Subject: Re: Fun with US sales tax

There are several, and the common scheme is to charge you a rate for
each access via the API. Usually something in the tenths of a cent range.

So if you need a rate for a quote, you pay.
If you need a rate for a sale, you pay.
If you just need to check a rate for confirmation, you pay.

Or, you can wade into the swamp of 50 different tax schemes full of
incredible complexity. For fun, read up on California's sales tax. Oye.

Sorry, but I don't have any recommendation for which company to use for
tax compliance as I've avoided the problem so far.

Mike C

[excessive quoting removed by server]

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Mike

2018-06-21 22:36:07 UTC

Permalink

Interesting...

I just got an email from one of the companies I had spoken with a year
or so ago.

FWIW, TaxCloud.com <https://taxcloud.com/> is the company's website.

As you can imagine, they are swamped with contacts looking for solutions
today. Their website is pretty sluggish.

Mike Copeland

Post by Richard Kaye
Thanks, Mike. That was my assumption, as well. As you say, trying to keep up with tax regulations in 50 states (well, 45) is what makes a service like this worth paying for. And I have no problems paying for something where value is received. After all, I charge my clients for my services. Having said that, nobody wants to be gouged...
--
rk
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: Fun with US sales tax
There are several, and the common scheme is to charge you a rate for
each access via the API. Usually something in the tenths of a cent range.
So if you need a rate for a quote, you pay.
If you need a rate for a sale, you pay.
If you just need to check a rate for confirmation, you pay.
Or, you can wade into the swamp of 50 different tax schemes full of
incredible complexity. For fun, read up on California's sales tax. Oye.
Sorry, but I don't have any recommendation for which company to use for
tax compliance as I've avoided the problem so far.
Mike C

Stephen Russell

2018-06-22 15:47:25 UTC

Permalink

Taxes get DEEP as I remember. State, County, City/Parish, etc.

Now do you pay a trifle to check them for every transaction or do you build
a log to keep all these value pairs with a date? Yeah a .001 cent fee per
sale I'd get the rate for each sale. Now if it was 1.00 USD I'd think
twice about the log.

Post by Mike
Interesting...
I just got an email from one of the companies I had spoken with a year
or so ago.
FWIW, TaxCloud.com <https://taxcloud.com/> is the company's website.
As you can imagine, they are swamped with contacts looking for solutions
today. Their website is pretty sluggish.
Mike Copeland

Post by Richard Kaye
Thanks, Mike. That was my assumption, as well. As you say, trying to

keep up with tax regulations in 50 states (well, 45) is what makes a
service like this worth paying for. And I have no problems paying for
something where value is received. After all, I charge my clients for my
services. Having said that, nobody wants to be gouged...

Post by Richard Kaye
--
rk
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2018 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: Fun with US sales tax
There are several, and the common scheme is to charge you a rate for
each access via the API. Usually something in the tenths of a cent range.
So if you need a rate for a quote, you pay.
If you need a rate for a sale, you pay.
If you just need to check a rate for confirmation, you pay.
Or, you can wade into the swamp of 50 different tax schemes full of
incredible complexity. For fun, read up on California's sales tax. Oye.
Sorry, but I don't have any recommendation for which company to use for
tax compliance as I've avoided the problem so far.
Mike C

Post by Richard Kaye
Our wondrous Supreme Court has opened the Pandora’s Sales Tax box with

today’s decision to allow states to require retailers with no physical
presence in a particular state to collect sales tax for that state. Leaving
aside any thoughts on the wisdom of this decision, which I have not looked
at, I’d like to call on the collective wisdom of those who deal with
invoicing to find out if any of you are using some sort of service
provider/API to retrieve tax rates, presumably by submitting the address of
the buyer to some kind of web API.

Post by Richard Kaye

Post by Richard Kaye
For our non-US ProFox friends, you can just sit back and laugh. 😊
TIA
--
rk

Richard Kaye

2018-06-22 15:52:41 UTC

Permalink

Yes. Many states have different tax rates and keeping on top of that stuff is a bear. This is what makes it attractive and worth the cost to use a service that takes care of all the fine details.

If we had a functional government I would expect Congress to figure out how to fix the upcoming mess.
--
rk

-----Original Message-----
From: ProfoxTech <profoxtech-***@leafe.com> On Behalf Of Stephen Russell
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2018 11:47 AM
To: ***@leafe.com
Subject: Re: Fun with US sales tax

Taxes get DEEP as I remember. State, County, City/Parish, etc.

Now do you pay a trifle to check them for every transaction or do you build
a log to keep all these value pairs with a date? Yeah a .001 cent fee per
sale I'd get the rate for each sale. Now if it was 1.00 USD I'd think
twice about the log.

Post by Richard Kaye
Thanks, Mike. That was my assumption, as well. As you say, trying to

Post by Richard Kaye
Our wondrous Supreme Court has opened the Pandora’s Sales Tax box with

Post by Richard Kaye

Post by Richard Kaye
For our non-US ProFox friends, you can just sit back and laugh. 😊
TIA
--
rk

[excessive quoting removed by server]

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Stephen Russell

2018-06-22 15:58:21 UTC

Permalink

Functional Government? hahahahaha

Just a heads up on the stupidity of taxes. My county has a State rate + a
VARIABLE county rate that is a function of the $$$ amount of the sale. If
the sale price is over 6500 the rate is no longer charged to that 6500.
value. 7.00 sate + 2.5 county for under 6500, otherwise it is 7.0 *
price + 162.50
Of course, that is by line item and not the total on the bill total, just
for giggles.

Post by Richard Kaye
Yes. Many states have different tax rates and keeping on top of that stuff
is a bear. This is what makes it attractive and worth the cost to use a
service that takes care of all the fine details.
If we had a functional government I would expect Congress to figure out
how to fix the upcoming mess.
--
rk
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2018 11:47 AM
Subject: Re: Fun with US sales tax
Taxes get DEEP as I remember. State, County, City/Parish, etc.
Now do you pay a trifle to check them for every transaction or do you build
a log to keep all these value pairs with a date? Yeah a .001 cent fee per
sale I'd get the rate for each sale. Now if it was 1.00 USD I'd think
twice about the log.

Post by Richard Kaye
Thanks, Mike. That was my assumption, as well. As you say, trying to

range.

Post by Mike

Post by Richard Kaye
So if you need a rate for a quote, you pay.
If you need a rate for a sale, you pay.
If you just need to check a rate for confirmation, you pay.
Or, you can wade into the swamp of 50 different tax schemes full of
incredible complexity. For fun, read up on California's sales tax. Oye.
Sorry, but I don't have any recommendation for which company to use for
tax compliance as I've avoided the problem so far.
Mike C

Post by Richard Kaye
Our wondrous Supreme Court has opened the Pandora’s Sales Tax box with

today’s decision to allow states to require retailers with no physical
presence in a particular state to collect sales tax for that state.

Leaving

Post by Mike
aside any thoughts on the wisdom of this decision, which I have not

looked

Post by Mike
at, I’d like to call on the collective wisdom of those who deal with
invoicing to find out if any of you are using some sort of service
provider/API to retrieve tax rates, presumably by submitting the address

Post by Mike
the buyer to some kind of web API.

Post by Richard Kaye

Post by Richard Kaye
For our non-US ProFox friends, you can just sit back and laugh. 😊
TIA
--
rk

Richard Kaye

2018-06-22 17:42:08 UTC

Permalink

You need it by line item so that you can more easily reverse that part of the transaction. IAC this is why having a service you can call that keeps track of each state's regs so you don't have to build and maintain them all in code is worthwhile.
--
rk

-----Original Message-----
From: ProfoxTech <profoxtech-***@leafe.com> On Behalf Of Stephen Russell
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2018 11:58 AM
To: ***@leafe.com
Subject: Re: Fun with US sales tax

Functional Government? hahahahaha

Just a heads up on the stupidity of taxes. My county has a State rate + a
VARIABLE county rate that is a function of the $$$ amount of the sale. If
the sale price is over 6500 the rate is no longer charged to that 6500.
value. 7.00 sate + 2.5 county for under 6500, otherwise it is 7.0 *
price + 162.50
Of course, that is by line item and not the total on the bill total, just
for giggles.

Post by Richard Kaye
Thanks, Mike. That was my assumption, as well. As you say, trying to

range.

Post by Mike

Post by Richard Kaye
Our wondrous Supreme Court has opened the Pandora’s Sales Tax box with

today’s decision to allow states to require retailers with no physical
presence in a particular state to collect sales tax for that state.

Leaving

Post by Mike
aside any thoughts on the wisdom of this decision, which I have not

looked

Post by Mike
the buyer to some kind of web API.

Post by Richard Kaye

Post by Richard Kaye
For our non-US ProFox friends, you can just sit back and laugh. 😊
TIA
--
rk

[excessive quoting removed by server]

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Mike

2018-06-22 17:08:14 UTC

Permalink

Illinois, I think, charges sales tax on food, unless it has wheat as an
ingredient. So a TWIX bar, which has wheat in it, is tax-free, but a
MARS BAR is taxed.

Some states charge sales tax on certain types of clothing depending on
their price...tennis-shoes are tax-free unless it's an expensive pair,
for example.

Some states consider goods (items) taxable, but services (labor) is not,
while other states tax services and goods.

Most states have a state rate, county rate, and city rate, but in
California there are also tax districts that can overlay city and county
boundaries, charging an additional tax.

Its a crazy quilt patchwork of laws and processes. The folks who provide
the tax rate service earn their income!

Post by Stephen Russell
Taxes get DEEP as I remember. State, County, City/Parish, etc.
Now do you pay a trifle to check them for every transaction or do you build
a log to keep all these value pairs with a date? Yeah a .001 cent fee per
sale I'd get the rate for each sale. Now if it was 1.00 USD I'd think
twice about the log.

Post by Richard Kaye
Thanks, Mike. That was my assumption, as well. As you say, trying to

Post by Richard Kaye
Our wondrous Supreme Court has opened the Pandora’s Sales Tax box with

Post by Richard Kaye

Post by Richard Kaye
For our non-US ProFox friends, you can just sit back and laugh. 😊
TIA
--
rk

Ted Roche

2018-06-22 17:21:03 UTC

Permalink

There are several, and the common scheme is to charge you a rate for each
access via the API. Usually something in the tenths of a cent range.
So if you need a rate for a quote, you pay.
If you need a rate for a sale, you pay.
If you just need to check a rate for confirmation, you pay.
Or, you can wade into the swamp of 50 different tax schemes full of
incredible complexity. For fun, read up on California's sales tax. Oye.

On, no, not 50. Far more. State, County and Municipal taxes and surtaxes. A
news story today claimed 9400.

There are counties in Wisconsin that have a sales tax surtax for sports
stadiums.

NYC has taxes, their counties have taxes, the state has taxes.

And it's not a flat tax on everything. Some states don't tax groceries.
Some water. Some on clothing.

Some only on "luxury" items over a specific value.

You definitely want to outsource this, unless you want your own tax
department.

Ted Roche & Associates, LLC
http://www.tedroche.com

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