Achieving sales tax compliance in today’s complex environment is no easy feat. There are changing rates to calculate, evolving requirements to monitor and a wide array of exemption certificates to manage. Companies must handle every step correctly, and each one is riddled with potential pitfalls. This guide will help your business navigate all those challenges.
Pay or Don’t Pay?
If you are in the business of transacting business, you know there are a multitude of laws and regulations you must follow to remain in business or, at the very least, to not pay penalties for non-compliance. Making sure you pay the right amount of sales tax to the government is an obvious example of when you want to ensure compliance.
And knowing when you don’t have to collect and pay sales tax is equally important because you have to able to prove retroactively why you didn’t.
Generally speaking, the scenarios where a sale can occur without sales tax being collected are:
- The buyer, such as a school or non-profit, is deemed tax-exempt by law
- The buyer is going to re-sell the product to their customer
- The product being purchased, such as some foods, is tax-exempt by law.
As a seller of products, and also many services, such as landscaping in Texas or accounting in New Mexico, there is a simple way for you to stay on top of sales tax compliance – automate it and avoid:
- Overpayment
- Credit rebilling
- Product delivery delays
Learn more about tax-exempt sales with Avalara’s ultimate guide
