[USCG SimTech]

It shouldn’t matter what state or city the customer resides in or makes the purchase from online. If out of your business address you make a sale, you collect state and/or city taxes on that transaction. Why is this so hard? Every business license requires a business address.

[robroys woman]

If out of your business address you make a sale, you collect state and/or city taxes on that transaction. Why is this so hard?

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If you only sell to one guy in one community ourside your state, it wouldn’t be. Otherwise it is crushing. But it gets worse: It is not practical for a state to tell a company that exists outside their borders that they can’t mail stuff to people within their state unless they create a tax payment relationship with the state. And what about local sales taxes?

The responsibility for paying sales tax on such transactions rests with the side of the transaction that exists within the state - the purchaser of the item.

[fruser1]

"Why is this so hard?"

Even if you use software to come up with the right amount to tax based on address and what items are actually taxed (e.g. some tax food, some don't) , the business still has to file, at a minimum, annual tax paperwork with the governing body for that tax.

Accountants tend to charge by form. Based on the sheer number of municipalities out there that can also charge sales tax, you're talking thousands of dollars to get that done. Plan on seeing small guys go out of business.

Try it yourself instead of accountant? Ok, Wiki sums up what you'd be getting into fairly nicely. Good f'n luck figuring this out:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States